James Ijames Festival kicks off with special Citywide Pass for 3 theaters

This week, a three theater festival kicks off around actor, director and playwright James Iams, who won the 2022 Pulitzer for Fat Cam, his retelling of Hamlet. This is a celebration of a blazing talent who's always loved and repped Philadelphia. When James Iams arrived in Philadelphia for grad school at Temple in 2003, he thought, like most actors, he'd soon leave for New York or L.A., but he couldn't quit Philly. And there was something about what was happening here. For 20 years, James was a Philadelphia stage mainstay as an actor, writer and director. Last year, once three local theaters realized they were all planning productions of James' plays, the James Iams Citywide Pass, with discounts, discounted parking and swag, was born. You know, a Philly Pulitzer Prize winning playwright is a huge source of pride. First up, opening Thursday at the Arden is Good Bones about a down-on-its-luck Philly neighborhood at odds over demolition plans to bring in a new stadium. When you move into a community, what is your responsibility to that community as it exists when you move in? There are more than shades of the Sixers arena situation. I think that that's actually like foundational to the creation of the plot. In March, the woman will put on the most spectacularly lamentable trial of Ms. Martha. And it's a fever dream that Martha Washington has, where she thinks that her, the enslaved people of Mount Vernon want to kill her. This is true. Martha Washington did free her slaves before her death, convinced they were out to get her. It sounds heavy, asking, what does it do to you to own other people? But this is a comedy. It's a signature James Imes move to use humor to make you think and rethink. If I feel like something is going to be volatile, I try to present it to the audience in such a way that they laugh first and then they hear it. Finally, in April, his newest play, Wilderness Generation, a world premiere at the Philadelphia Theater Company. A grandmother deals with her estranged children by tricking her grandchildren into coming together. How do you keep a family alive? James now heads the theater program at Columbia in New York City, but Philadelphia is still home, a place he still can't quit as he writes and dreams of what's next. Every time James directs here, he says, I can cast her from Philly. And he's committed to this community. Although his plays are set all over, his star has grown. He wrote these plays in Philadelphia about Philadelphia. And so the soul of Philadelphia is always on the table. So it'll be interesting to see how we show up and what comes next. Now, this is part of the swag. He's famous for his glasses that are always on his head. And these things are selling out. So they say if you get the Citywide Pass, this comes with it. If you want to buy tickets for that Citywide Pass, there are links right now on 6 ABC. He is a Philadelphia treasure. I want the hat. I feel like we've been following him through his career, and it's just always so inspiring. And I love how they say he just puts Philadelphia's soul on the table. I love that he made it big here. He didn't have to go anywhere else. And he remembers home.