James Ijames

Ijames grew up in Bessemer City, North Carolina. He received his BA in Drama from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and his MFA in Acting from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.^[1]

After graduating from Temple, Ijames performed in plays in Philadelphia, including at the Arden Theatre Company, Philadelphia Theatre Company, People's Light, and The Wilma Theater.

He began writing The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington in 2012 while performing in a production of Angels in America at The Wilma.^[3]

Ijames is a founding member of Orbiter 3, Philadelphia's first playwright producing collective.^[4]

Ijames' work has been produced by Flashpoint Theater Company, Orbiter 3, Theatre Horizon, The National Black Theatre, Ally Theatre Company (Washington, DC), and others.

Kill Move Paradise had its premiere at the National Black Theatre in 2017. Ben Brantley of The New York Times noted that "Mr. Ijames's play has no sense of an ending, or of resolution. It takes place in a nightmare of history, in which events are repeated, fugue-like, into eternity." He compared Ijames' work to the early works of Suzan-Lori Parks.^[5]

White was produced at the Theatre Horizon. In his review, Jim Rutter of the Philadelphia Inquirer remarked on the play's ending and how it "adds a surreal twist by driving home Ijames' exploration of black women's exploitation by feminism, by contemporary culture and white women."^[6]

Moon Man Walk was produced by Orbiter 3 in Philadelphia. Bryan Buttler writing for Philadelphia Magazine praised the quality of the new work, stating "there's a lot of talk about "new work" in theater and opera in this town, but Moon Man Walk provides the kind of artistic quality that the Philadelphia arts community needs to not only achieve with new works but invest in."^[7]

From 2020 to 2023, Ijames was co-artistic director of The Wilma.^[8][9]

His adaptation of Hamlet, titled Fat Ham, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2022 after premiering as a "digital production" at the Wilma in 2021.^[10] A second production ran at The Public Theater during the summer of 2022,^[11] before opening on Broadway in April 2023.

Ijames directed King Hedley II by August Wilson at the Arden in 2025.^[3]

In 2025, Ijames left Villanova University, where he began teaching in the 2010s, to teach playwriting at Columbia University.^[12][3]

Ijames is gay.^[13] He is married to Joel Witter.^[3]

• Abandon (NEA supported, Theatre Exile, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)^[14]
• Good Bones (Commissioned by Studio Theatre, Washington, D.C., 2023)^[15]
• Reverie (Azuka Theatre, 2022)^[16]
• Youth
• History of Walking (Theatre Exile, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
• Matter Out of Place (InterAct Theater Company and Available Light Theater, Columbus, Ohio)
• Kill Move Paradise (National Black Theatre, 2017)
• White (PlayPenn New Play Conference, Theatre Horizon, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
• Moon Man Walk (Orbiter 3 Playwrights Collective, 2015)
• The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (Flashpoint Theater Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
• The Threshing Floor
• Fat Ham (Wilma Theater, 2021)^[17]
• TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever (Ally Theatre Company, 2020)
• Wilderness Generation (2026)^[3]