WELCOME TABLE | The Public Theater

Welcome Table

By James Ijames
Directed by Rachel Chavkin

In the spring of 1963, acclaimed writer James Baldwin sent a searing telegram to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, blaming his brother’s administration for violence across the country amidst the battle for civil and human rights. To his credit, the Attorney General called Baldwin back and said, “We need to talk.” What followed was the infamous Baldwin-Kennedy meeting, which brought together a group of artists, thinkers, and activists, including Lorraine Hansberry, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, and Freedom Rider Jerome Smith, to engage in tough conversations about how to imagine a better country. Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist James Ijames returns to The Public with a bold reimagining of that pivotal meeting, set in an afterlife where these iconic figures wrestle with their legacy. Directed by Tony Award winner Rachel Chavkin, WELCOME TABLE channels the fire of Baldwin’s call to action and reminds us that the struggle for justice continues to echo with striking urgency today.

Creative

James Ijames

Playwright

James Ijames

Playwright

JAMES IJAMES is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, director, and educator. Ijames’ plays have been produced on Broadway, off-Broadway, and across the country by theatres including Orbiter 3, The National Black Theatre, The Public Theater, and Steppenwolf Theatre. His awards and honors include the 2011 F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Artist, the 2015 Pew Fellowship for Playwriting, the 2015 Terrence McNally New Play Award, the 2017 Whiting Award, the 2019 Kesselring Prize, the 2020 Steinberg Prize, and the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Drama for the Tony-nominated Fat Ham. Ijames is an associate professor at Columbia University, where he serves as head of the playwriting concentration.

Rachel Chavkin

Director

Rachel Chavkin

Director

RACHEL CHAVKIN is a director, sometime writer, and founding artistic director of Brooklyn-based experimental collective, the TEAM (www.theteamplays.org) whose work has been seen all over NY, the U.S., and internationally, and whose consensus-driven writing process was the subject of a feature length documentary. She won the 2019 Tony Award for her work on Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown (Broadway, NYTW, National Theatre, London). She is a three-time Obie winner, and received Tony and Lortel nominations, and a Drama Desk Award for Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (Broadway, Ars Nova, A.R.T.). Select projects: The Bengson’s My Joy is Heavy (NYTW), a musical adaptation of Ritesh Batra’s glorious film, The Lunchbox with composers Daniel and Patrick Lazour (Upcoming: Berkeley Rep), Sarah Gancher’s Eugene Onegin: A Bluegrass Musical (Upcoming: T2 in Arkansas), Carson Kreitzer’s and Matt Gould’s Lempicka (Broadway 2024), the TEAM’s Mission Drift (National Theatre), Arthur Miller’s American Clock (Old Vic), the TEAM’s RoosevElvis (Royal Court), Larissa Fasthorse’s The Thanksgiving Play (2ST, 1st play by a known Native American woman on Broadway), Lilianna Padilla’s How to Defend Yourself — co-directed with Padilla and Steph Paul (NYTW), Marco Ramirez’s The Royale (LCT; Obie Award, Drama Desk and Lortel noms.), Bess Wohl’s Small Mouth Sounds (Ars Nova and national tour), and multiple collaborations with Taylor Mac, Heather Christian, the Bengsons, and Manchester-based writer/performer Chris Thorpe. Her first short film, Remind Me, was an official selection of the Venice and Beverly Hills Film Festivals. 2017 Smithsonian Award for Ingenuity. @rachel.chavkin