WHITE

"Why it always got to be white doe?"

No, but seriously. When I first read WHITE I was really drawn to the idea of this Black woman's experience: "trying to fit in. The times when I felt alone. In a sea of white. Miles and miles of white that I was expected to be a part of. To live inside of," was my experience.

I have felt that.

I feel that.

I try really hard to be liberated from that.

There is still much to be done to broaden the lens around what we consider valuable in our culture; that has seeped in whiteness. White dominance permeates the real lives of Black folks in this country perpetually.

This play should provoke dialogue around how inherent privilege comes at the disadvantage of Black folks' intrinsic rights. We all gotta stay woke to that.

We gotta #stayinit—and we gotta talk about it.

So let's begin.

"If it's not entertaining, why the hell are we doing it? Make'm laugh. Make'm cry. Make'm call their senator. But by any means necessary. Make'm do something. Can't change anybody's mind if they're asleep."

- James Ijames

A self-described “messy writer” who strives for “excellence…not perfection” and writing that is “wild and precise,” playwright James Ijames has always been interested in creating stories which push audiences to work together towards examining our collective histories, reflecting on what we inherit from those who came before us and considering what we will leave behind for future generations.

An ensemble member with Definition since 2019, Ijames received his B.A. in Drama from Morehouse College and an M.F.A. in Acting from Temple University. Ijames is the recipient of the 2011 F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Artist, is a 2011 Independence Foundation Fellow and 2015 Pew Fellow for Playwriting, and was a winner of the 2020 Steinberg Playwright Award. He is a founding member of Orbiter 3, Philadelphia’s first playwright producing collective, and currently resides in South Philadelphia where, where, in addition to writing, he serves as Co-Artistic Director of the Wilma Theater, an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Villanova University, and maintains an active career as a performer.

Ijames’ plays include WHITE (winner of the Terrance McNally New Play Award), Moon Man Walk (Produced by Definition in 2018), Kill Move Paradise (winner of a 2017 Whiting Award for Drama and a 2019 Kesserling Prize), The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (Honorable mention for the 2015 Kesselring Prize) and more. His work has been produced nationally, including The National Black Theatre (NYC), Flashpoint Theater Company, Orbiter 3, Theatre Horizon, Wilma Theatre (Philadelphia), Ally Theatre (Washington DC) Shotgun Players (Berkeley). He’s received development opportunities with PlayPenn New Play Conference, The Lark, Playwright's Horizon, Clubbed Thumb, Villanova Theater, The Gulfshore Playhouse, Wilma Theater, Azuka Theatre The National Black Theatre, and Victory Gardens.

Inspired by the words of Paula Vogel, who says the job of the artist is to make the familiar strange and the strange, Ijames seeks to use theatre to expose “the American experiment and how imperfect this place is, in an effort to make…a more perfect union.” In this quest, Ijames hopes his plays serve as catalysts for collective action; moments where individuals might begin to build community and a new kind of legacy. He recognizes his plays may cause discomfort in the audience, and hopes this discomfort causes people to “talk to [other] people and see where they are implicated in the state of race relations. We all think the work has been done, but there is more to be done.”

WHITE was developed, at The PlayPenn New Play Conference in Philadelphia, PA, The Gulfshore Playhouse New Works Festival in Naples, FL and was presented as a part of the Mondays @ 3 Reading at New York Theatre Workshop during the 2015/16 season. The play received its world premiere in 2017 at Theatre Horizon in Washington D.C. where it was heralded as “bold,” “outlandish,” “a sharp examination of white privilege,” and “pure gold.” Definition Theatre’s production, originally scheduled for spring of 2020 but postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, represents the Chicago premiere of this piece.

Join us after every 3pm Sunday Matinee for a Post-Show discussion.