Director

James Ijames’ Pulitzer Prize-winning reinvention of Hamlet brings Shakespeare’s classic into the modern South with humor, heart, and barbecue. Juicy, a young black man, grapples with his father’s ghost, family expectations, and the cycle of violence that haunts them all. Will he seek revenge or carve out a new path? FAT HAM is a fresh, funny, and deeply moving look at identity, duty, and breaking free.

EPSG:4326

Fat Ham

Tennessee Performing Arts Center


OAK by Terry Guest
 
Directed by Mikael Burke

WORLD PREMIERE
May 31 to June 30, 2024

SYNOPSIS
It’s 7pm. Do you know where your children are? It’s snatching season, and town-wide curfew regulations have fostered a culture of fear in the community along Odella Creek. Too many have fallen victim to the freedoms promised by the red-eyed monster...Will cousins Suga, Big Man, and Pickle resist temptation, or become the next names in the morning news? Step into the darkness and experience the terror firsthand in the new Southern Gothic horror, OAK.

Urbanite Theatre

Short Shakespeare! returns with the tragic romance Romeo and Juliet. Verona burns under summer's heat—and the division of two prominent families. Against a backdrop of violence and an endless cycle of vengeance, Shakespeare sets his tale of young love found—and tragically lost. This 75-minute adaptation, told in Shakespeare's own words, poses a profound question—can true love survive in a divided community? The production combines Shakespeare's original verse with dynamic staging to connect young audiences with the characters’ journeys.

Romeo and Juliet

Chicago Shakespeare Theater

HAILED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES AS “A SEARING AND URGENT WORK that confronts some of the most pressing issues of our time with honesty, intelligence, and compassion,” this innovative first-person documentary piece shines a light on the stories of those caught in America’s school-to-prison pipeline. Utilizing verbatim dialogue pulled from more than 250 real accounts from students, faculty, prisoners, activists, politicians, and victims’ families, Notes From the Field takes audiences on a powerful and emotional journey through the faults and systemic injustices of the American criminal justice system. Deeply human, profoundly moving, and full of moments of humor, compassion, and resilience, it’s a masterful work that makes it impossible to look away from the urgent need for change.

Notes From the Field

TimeLine Theatre Company

Meet the Bosemans Salvage: 37-year-old Senior and 23-year-old Junior, at odds under the same roof during a snowy Chicago winter. Their icy relationship is further strained as potential romances for both father and son compel them to reckon with the past. The Salvagers is a beautifully observed and humorous play about the second, third, and fourth chances that may be possible when hard truths are delivered in love.

The Salvagers

Yale University

It’s 1930 in Harlem and jazz singer Angel has just gotten fired from The Cotton Club. Supported by her closest friends, Angel hopes for her next big break as costume designer Guy, imagines sewing dresses in Paris, and Delia works to bring family planning centers to the community. But all of their dreams are put in jeopardy when Angel meets Leland, a recent Alabama transplant. Will he be the true love Angel has been waiting for or will he forever alter the dynamic of their precious inner circle? Blues for an Alabama Sky by Pearl Cleage is a play about change, struggle, and joy set against the tumultuous backdrop of prohibition, the Jazz Age, and the dawning of The Great Depression.

Blues for an Alabama Sky

Theater Wit

Olufemi hopes to return home to his family. Bashir wants to remain in the only home he knows. Kola yearns to find home in a place that’s never felt like one. Rachel De-lahay’s shattering, urgent new play looks through the eyes of immigrants, refugees, and children in conflict with the law as they fight to get home through an impossibly complex system designed to keep them out.

Director

Mikael Burke

Events

Past events

13 - 22 Feb, 2026

Fat Ham · The Nashville Shakespeare Festival

May 30 - Jun 30, 2024

Oak · Urbanite Theatre

About

Mikael Burke hasn't added a bio