07-03-2025
How Trump order affects Columbus theater group
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio is finally debuting its version of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize-winning play 'Fat Ham.'
Cast and crew have been preparing for this day for a year. What was supposed to be a happy time has left the theater wondering if they'll be getting funding.
At the beginning of the year, The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio found out their production of 'Fat Ham' had been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Now, officials with the theater said they don't know if they'll ever see that money.
'A year ago, we decided we wanted to do it, put together the director and the creative team and we've been working on what this is going to look like for a year ending in tonight's performance,' Leda Hoffmann, the artistic director at Contemporary Theatre of Ohio, said.
'Fat Ham' describes itself as a Black and queer adaptation of William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet.'
'This play is such a beautiful, funny and heartfelt story about figuring out who you are,' Hoffmann said. 'Inside of it is this beautiful coming of age story of how the young people in this play figure out who they want to be.'
To put this play on, the theater was awarded a $10,000 'Challenge America' grant from the NEA. Winning an NEA grant has been a goal for the theater for a while. Hoffmann said the money would have been used to pay actors and designers, and cover the cost to build the scenery, and more.
'We were so excited,' Hoffmann said. 'All of us on staff, all of the artists working on this production. We're just so honored to have been chosen by this grant review panel to honor our work and let us celebrate this play in Columbus.'
Weeks before opening night, the theater learned that the grant funds from the NEA had been frozen.
'We really don't know if it's ever going to come,' Hoffmann said. 'There's just a lot of uncertainty about what's going to happen next.'
In January, President Trump signed an executive order that says, in part, 'federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology.' The Trump Administration said the order is meant to protect people from what it calls 'Gender Ideology Extremism.' Now, the Challenge America grant money has been reallocated to programs honoring the 250th anniversary of the United States. The executive order has sparked a First Amendment lawsuit from the ACLU.
'I think it's really concerning when funds for the arts and for artists are cut, especially when there's a component to it that says you can't do work about certain topics,' said Hoffmann said.
The Challenge America grant is meant for groups raising awareness of underserved and low-income communities. Hoffmann said the grant currently does not exist anymore.
'We decided to do this play no matter what; even though we don't have those $10,000 that we were counting on, we're going to figure it out,' Hoffmann said.
Even though the grant may never come, the theater is celebrating 40 years of bringing the community together for plays like 'Fat Ham.'
The play runs throughout the month; for showtimes and pricing, click here.
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