This article first appeard on the Buckeye Flame

At the Contemporary Theatre of Ohio in downtown Columbus, a busy cast and crew are preparing to open the 2022 Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Fat Ham.”

Early this year, the theater was awarded a $10,000 grant by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to produce James Ijames’ overtly Black and queer adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”

Now, the theater’s executive director, Christy Farnbauch, said the show’s funding has been frozen by the federal agency as a direct result of its themes and characters – which violate President Trump’s new federal guidelines to defund and dismantle government Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Regardless, Farnbauch said, the show will open March 6.

“We’re doing this show, with or without the money,” she told The Buckeye Flame. “We are going to stay true to our mission, our vision and our purpose.”

In “Fat Ham,” the audience follows Juicy, a Black, queer man who is confronted by the ghost of his father during a backyard family barbeque and is forced to grapple with “identity, family, responsibility, and honesty.”

Farnbauch said she and her team wrote the NEA grant for “Fat Ham” specifically with community engagement in mind, partnering with Columbus-based LGBTQ+ organizations like Kaleidoscope Youth Center (KYC), Stonewall Columbus and Black, Out, & Proud to help drum up interest in the show.

“We were notified right after the first of the year in January that we would be awarded the $10,000 grant for ‘Fat Ham.’ That was a happy day,” Farnbauch added. “That’s a happy email.”

Winning an NEA grant for the theater had been a personal goal of Farnbauch’s for years.

“It’s just such a wonderful stamp of approval of your work,” she said. “It’s a big deal to receive a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and it certainly makes other grants easier to get.”

Established by congress in 1965, the NEA is the largest funder of the arts and arts education in the country. 

The federal agency, established by Congress in 1965 to have autonomy in grantmaking, is known widely for producing Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning projects, and has a long history of funding creative work by Black and LGBTQ+ artists.

Trump’s executive orders could change that – despite protests from creatives across the country.

Just weeks after signing a contract to accept the grant, Farnbauch said, the funds were frozen.

“We were told that our money is being processed and that once it’s processed, our payment portal will open and will be able to request the funds,” Farnbauch said. “I heard yesterday that the staff are reviewing the grants that are in process.”

The NEA has also announced that the Challenge America Grant – the type of NEA grant that the theater received – has been eliminated, and will not be available in 2026. 

“I’m concerned that when they’re reviewing everything and they look at this play and the subject matter of the play under the executive orders, I don’t think they would fund it given what’s happened in the last two weeks,” Farnbauch added.

Additionally, Farnbauch said language was added to the grant agreement that matches language in Trump’s executive orders, but said she isn’t sure if the NEA will retroactively change language in the contract the company has already signed.

“Honestly, we are having conversations about if they called us today, do we even want the money, or do we walk away and try to raise $10,000 another way?” Farnbauch said. “We would love to have it, but I don’t know if we want it with the strings that might be attached.”

During the first table read of “Fat Ham,” Farnbauch said the cast experienced a particularly joyful moment meeting face-to-face.

“They were just so happy to be in the room together,” she said. “Even through the challenging time, this community can be together and support each other.”

The show runs from Thursday, March 6 through Saturday March 8. Tickets can be purchased via the Contemporary Theatre of Ohio’s website. Visitors can also make a donation specially earmarked to support the show.

“It’s hilarious and it’s important,” Farnbauch said about the show – which runs for 90 minutes with no intermission and features an all-Black cast of Columbus-based actors.

“The show is in rehearsals right now. The set is being loaded in. We are doing the show with or without this money,” Farnbauch said.

“For six weeks, this amazing, lovely community has had a chance to come together and make beautiful work and support each other,” she added. “Now it’s time for the audience to be part of that, too.” 

• To learn more about the Contemporary Theatre of Ohio, click here.
• To purchase tickets to the Contemporary Theatre of Ohio’s production of “Fat Ham,” click here

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H.L. Comeriato is the senior staff writer for The Buckeye Flame. A queer and non-binary writer and reporter from Akron, Ohio, they received the 2024 Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for the LGBTQ Journalist of the Year from the NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists. They previously covered public health for The Devil Strip via Report for America. Their work has been recognized by multiple journalism organizations, including first place honors from both the Society of Professional Journalists and the Associated Press Media Editors Association for a story they co-created on the relationship between redlining and asthma rates in children.