CAST

MARCUS ANTONIO*

(Juicy) is excited to join Virginia Stage Company’s production of Fat Ham! Off-Broadway: Titanique (Iceberg); Regional: Aida (Weathervane Playhouse). Born and raised in Atlanta, he gives many thanks to his family in Georgia for their endless support. Shoutout to Dave Secor and the Daniel Hoff Team. :) Insta: @marcus.antonio_

CANDICE HEIDELBERG

(Rabby) is thrilled to be making her debut at Virginia Stage Company in Fat Ham. Candice has been a performing artist and educator, in theatre, music, and media arts for over three decades. She has an MFA in Acting from Regent University, and has studied theatrical movement with Eric Harrell, and stage combat with Dr. Michael Kirkland. Theatre Credits include: The Blood Cycle (Zeiders Proteus New Plays Festival), Silent Sky (Regent University), The Servant of Two Masters (Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Film Credits: A Place Called Home (Independent Film), Tender Wounds (Regent Graduate Film), Time of Ashes (Independent Film). TV Credits: GizmoGo- Superbook (CBN Studios). She would like to thank the creative team and Jerrell for this opportunity to feed her artistic soul.

CLOTEAL L. HORNE*

(Tedra) (Her/She) Is thrilled to be making her Virginia Stage Debut! Her body of work includes. Upcoming: Blues for an Alabama Sky - Angel (Trinity Rep.) TV: Grey’s Anatomy, Recurring Guest Star, Season 19 and 20. Selected credits include, Off-Broadway/New York: The Convent of Pleasure (Red Bull Theatre); Cross that River (Marcus Garvey Amphitheater); The Steadfast (Slant Theatre Project); Dirty Blood (Billie Holiday Theatre). To name a few, her Regional Credits include:  Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare Theatre Company). Fires in the Mirror, Solo Performer (Long Wharf/ Baltimore Center Stage); The Bluest Eye, BlueShift, (Huntington); She A Gem, (NYTW). Black Odyssey (Trinity Rep.) Hang (Shakespeare & Co.); Saturday Night/Sunday Morning (LyricStage, Elliot Norton Nominee) Film: Stay Here with Me (Tuli Media), The Promotion (C1 Media), What we Owe Each Other (RISDI), Driving While Black Magic. . I am a product of my grandmother’s prayers + my ancestors’ wildest dreams. Glory be. Holds a B.F.A in Acting from BU and a M.F.A in Acting from Brown University/Trinity Rep.  www.cloteallhorne.com

ADAM E. MOSKOWITZ*

(Tio) is pleasured to join the cast of Fat Ham. Adam is a proud native of Prince George’s County, Maryland, and a graduating Drama & Theatre major at Norfolk State University. He is also a member of the Norfolk State University Theatre Company. He has previously appeared in NSU Theatre Company/Virginia Stage Company co-productions which include Dreamgirls, Henry V, and The Three Musketeers; NSU credits include, The Color Purple, Skeleton Crew, Thoughts of a Colored Man and A Soldier’s Play (co-pro with Virginia Arts Festival). He has also appeared in The Tempest with Shakespeare in the Grove. Adam would like to thank God, his mother, and family for their support. Adam plans to continue developing his craft in graduate school. To follow his journey, visit his website at www.aemoskowitz.com and Instagram @adam.moskowitzofficial. “Have a belief in yourself that is bigger than anyone’s disbelief.” ~ August Wilson

JORDAN PEARSON*

(Larry) is honored to join Virginia Stage Company’s production of Fat Ham. Acting Credits include: Gloria (Gloucester Stage Company), Seared (Gloucester Stage Company), TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever (Speakeasy Stage Company), Insulted Belarus (Arlekin Players Theatre), and Akeelah and the Bee (Virginia Repertory Theatre). Film Credits: Golden (Universal). Contemporary Theater graduate of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. He would like to thank his entire village for their unwavering love and support. Jordan dedicates this performance to those who have never truly felt seen or heard, and to those whose stories are still waiting to be told.

JANAE THOMPSON

(Opal) is ecstatic to make her Virginia Stage Company main stage debut. Janae is a former company member of VSC's GreenBeats, Live. Recent performance credits include Imagine (REACH at Kennedy Center), Rathskeller (The Z), Evita (VMT), The Little Mermaid (VMT), Refraction of Light (The Z) and the Inheritance Theatre Project’s Emmy Award-winning Exodus: Homecoming. In the theatrical community, she serves as Communications Coordinator for ROŪGE: Theater Reinvented, collaborator of UPAC, and Repertory Member for the Canady Foundation for the Arts. She also serves on the Advisory Council for Gen MOCA and WHRO’s Emerging Leaders Board. Janae is a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and Full Sail for Film and Video. Janae thanks her family and friends for their continued love and support! JanaeThompson.com

KEVIN CRAIG WEST*

(Pap/Rev) is excited to join Virginia Stage Company's production of Fat Ham. Theatrical Credits include: Hymn (Shakespeare & Company), Dracula (Actor's Theatre), Metamorphoses (Capital Rep), Judevine (Oldcastle Theatre). Film Credits include: Don't Look Up (Netflix), Spirited (Apple Studios), Summer of 69 (Hulu), Finestkind (Paramount+). TV Credits include: Law & Order Organized Crime (NBC), The Blacklist (NBC), New Amsterdam (NBC), and look for him in the new season's of Power Book III Raising Kanan (STARZ), Daredevil Born Again (Marvel Studios) and Black Rabbit (Netflix). Kevin thanks his family and friends for their incredible love and support. 

CREATIVES

JERRELL L. HENDERSON†

(Director) is a director, puppeteer and African American Theatre historian and archivist. He recently staged his original shadow play, AmericanMYTH: Crossroads at Free Street Theatre (League of Chicago Theatre's 2022 Samuel G. Roberson, Jr. Fellowship, Jim Henson Foundation Workshop Grant, Chicago DCASE grant). Other directing credits include Constellations at Penobscot Theatre, Blues for an Alabama Sky at Virginia Stage Company, and The Prodigal Daughter at Raven Theatre. Other directing credits include Ragtime at Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, Reverie by James Ijames with Azuka Theatre, and Mlima’s Tale with Griffin Theatre (Jeff Award nomination for Direction and Best Play). He co-developed and co-staged both Little Amal Drifts Off To Sleep with ChiPuppets in Maggie Daley Park, Chicago, and When the World Sounds like a Prayer (with Little Amal) with the Classical Theatre of Harlem and St. Ann's Warehouse in Bryant Park, NYC. Puppet short films include I Am The Bear with The Chicago International Puppet Theatre Festival, Hamlin: La Revue Sombre with Heather Henson’s Handmade Puppet Dreams, and Diamond’s Dream with Chicago Children’s Theatre. He received his MFA in Theatre Directing from Northwestern University (2015). Jerrell is the creator/curator of  black_theatre_vinyl_archive on IG. He is represented by the Gurman Agency (susan@gurmanagency.com).

JAMES IJAMES

(Playwright) is an American playwright, actor, and professor originally from Bessemer City, North Carolina. He received his B.A. in Drama from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and earned his MFA in Acting from Temple University in Philadelphia, where he is now based. Currently, he is an Associate Professor of Theatre at Villanova University and former co-artistic director of the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia. Ijames is a founding member of Orbiter 3, Philadelphia's first playwright producing collective. 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. A second production ran at The Public Theater during the summer of 2022, before opening on Broadway in April 2023. He is the recipient of the 2018 Whiting Award for drama and the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist.

CAITLIN MCLEOD

(Scenic Designer) is a Chicago based costume, scenic, and puppet designer. Recent design credits include: Into the Breeches (Little Theatre VA Beach); The Little Mermaid  (Drury Lane); Lavender Men (About Face); Blues for an Alabama Sky (Virginia Stage Co); What the Constitution Means to Me (Copley Theatre, Aurora); The Dream King (Teatro Vista); The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show (Chicago Children's); Trouble in Mind (Timeline); The Seagull (Steppenwolf); Exquisite Corpse (Rough House); Stick Fly (Writers Theatre). Craftwork credits include The Goodman, The Kennedy Center, Lookingglass, and Northlight. Caitlin is a co-curator of NBS: Chicago’s Puppet Slam, company member of Rough House, and project manager of the Chicago Puppet Studio. Instagram @CaitlinMcLeodDesign

NIA SAFARR BANKS §

(Costume Designer) is a Costume Designer and Educator. Her design work has been seen in various productions, including William Shakespeare’s Hamlet at American Shakespeare Center, August Wilson’s Fences at Shakespeare and Company, and Self Portrait (Deluxe) at The Bushwick Starr. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Costume Design from Boston University in 2023, and her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2019. She has been nominated for two Richmond Critic Awards for her outstanding work in Costume Design, for both An Octoroon (2019) and A Christmas Kaddish (2022).  She’s excited to be back at Virginia Stage Company.

JASON LYNCH §

(Lighting Designer)  is a Chicago-based lighting designer for theatre, dance, opera, and other live performance art, and makes his Virginia Stage Company debut with this production.Regional: Alley Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, City Theatre Company, Court Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Denver Center Theatre Company, George Street Playhouse, Geva Theatre Center, Goodman Theatre, Goodspeed Musicals, The Guthrie Theater, Huntington Theatre Company, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Northlight Theatre, The Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Seattle Repertory Company, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and Trinity Repertory Company. He was the recipient of the 2022 Equity Jeff Award for his work on Choir Boy at Steppenwolf Theatre Company and the 2019 Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award, which recognizes emerging theatrical designers within the Chicago area. Jason is also honored to have his work on the Goodman Theatre’s real-time, online ‘Live’ series (The Sound Inside, Ohio State Murders, and I Hate It Here) and an immersive 360° production of The Wild Party at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts featured in American Theatre Magazine. Lynch is represented by The Gersh Agency. jasondlynch.com | @jasonlynch.design

Sartje Pickett §

(Sound Designer) is a composer & sound designer for theater, film and interactive storytelling. Pickett is the co-founder of the sound design collective District 5 Sound, which specializes in sound design for immersive and interactive storytelling environments. Her work in this area has provided opportunities to develop skills in coding, embedded electronics, and spatialized audio through ambisonic capture, processing, and delivery. Performance has been a lifelong passion, and she continues to develop projects that incorporate live elements culminating in performance-driven responsive design. Some national theater credits include -  Virginia Stage Company: Three Musketeers; American Players Theater: Much Ado About Nothing, Dancing at Lughnasa, Proof, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Love’s Labours Lost, Cyrano, Mary’s Wedding & Les Liaisons Dangereuses; Milwaukee Rep & Kansas City Rep: Nina Simone: Four Women; The Guthrie: Twelfth Night, The Great Leap; Indiana Repertory: Shakespeare’s Will; Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream & Richard III; Trinity Rep: Ms. Homes & Ms. Watson - Apt. 2b; Yale Repertory Theater: Hamlet, Death of a Salesman & A Delicate Balance. Bricolage Production Company: DODO, Welcome to Here, Immersive Encounters: The Ascendants; City Theater: Cry it Out; Pittsburgh Public: A Christmas Story.