Fat Ham is currently playing at the Goodman through March 9 and what better way to go behind-the-scenes than talking with IRL best friends and castmates Victor Musoni (TIO) and Ireon Roach (OPAL) as they command the crowd in this 2022 Pulitzer Prize Award-winning play. We caught up with the two actors during the rehearsal process for the show where they reflected on their careers in Chicago, favorite artistic memories and why “being in the room together is always so special.”
Goodman Theatre: When/How did you meet? Victor Musoni: Ireon and I met TRULY in 2016 at the top of my junior year of high school, her senior year, and she was the only person I kinda knew before school began. We had met in passing in Louder Than A Bomb, the Chicago High School poetry slam competition, but when I transferred to Senn high school, she was my first friend. I reached out to her when I realized I was going to Senn and she gave me insight on my schedule and promised to meet up with me at the start of orientation. We been locked in ever since.
Ireon Roach:Victor and I met in high school! We knew of one another through the Chicago youth poetry scene – our teams would occasionally compete and I knew many of his teammates, but we had never formally met. He transferred for his junior year as I went into my senior year. We linked up the first day of school that year and the rest was history, really!
GT: Have you worked on any projects together before Fat Ham? VM: So many. We started in school doing Battle of the Bard, a Shakespeare slam for high schools in Chicago where we wrote a rap battle between Romeo and Juliet. From there we’ve done many plays, poems, movies, songs, and everything in between. We just finished doing Jitney together at Arkansas Rep. We even lived together! The greatest project of all.
IR: I’m blessed to have shared the stage with Victor many times! From The Seagull adaptation, The Nina Variations in high school to Jitney at Arkansas Rep just this past summer!
GT: What has been the most exciting part about working together on Fat Ham? VM: Being together in the room is always exciting. Ireon and I have done a lot of shows that are heavy, and full of despair and trauma. So, to be able to do a show that feels light(er) and full of fun is really special. These characters feel more true to the people we are in the world so to watch each other steep ourselves in people that resonate with who we are today is a blessing. Above all, we get [to be] together basically every day!
IR:Working together on Fat Ham has been a practice in bringing that same youthful buoyancy to the stage and one another that we always have in our earlier careers and getting to set it in bodies, skills and a siblinghood that has matured quite beautifully. It’s amazing. We were shooting in the proverbial gym together, you know? We even became Definition Ensemble members in the same year. It’s wonderful to share this story with one another.
GT: Please share your favorite memory from Fat Ham rehearsals. VM: There are so many. I think watching everybody take their characters and make them 3D is my overall favorite memory. I remember the first rehearsal so vividly, it was a beautiful meeting of everybody and it felt like everybody melded almost instantly. It is surprisingly rare to come together so easily with a cast so for us to meld with such ease was warming to the heart.
IR: Oh, this is hard. Every day in that room with that cast and crew is a gift that will no doubt keep on giving. I guess most recently, during a late hour of tech with low energy but high morale, we broke into an impromptu praise break of “Jesus is on the Mainline” with a little remix of “Call Tyrone” in there. Church clapping and adlibs included! And then we got right back to work. As a cast, we are the jolt of energy we need. Every time.
GT: What is your favorite scene in Fat Ham? VM: I get to tell this story about a gingerbread man every night and the moments before and right after are hilarious to me.
IR:I like the scenes where we play! The rivalry is very real 🙂 #teamyoungins
GT: How would you describe Fat Ham in one word and why? VM: Familiar. It’s a retelling of a story we already know but I also know it’s placed in a setting that is familiar to so many. So many of us have family gatherings, whether they be cookouts, baby showers, weddings, etc. The gathering of our loved ones is a beautiful thing and to place this tale in this setting makes it more accessible for so many in a refreshing way.
IR:Expansive. The play asks you to reach for what lies outside of what’s been given to you and encourages the notion that there is always more/other/else. And sometimes, it’s you!
GT: What does the Definition Theater and Goodman Theatre collaboration mean to you?
VM: As a definition ensemble member, it’s so lovely to see an artistic home of mine be able to create and collaborate with other companies for more visibility on Definition and its artistic vision. I always love coming home to Definition and to share it in the theatre district of Chicago with other great artists is a blessing. IR:This collaboration has the power to introduce two separate audiences to not only a wonderful piece of theater, but to one another, inspiring a more solid and singular Chicago cultural scene.
GT: how do the themes in Fat Ham inspire theater today? VM: The themes of Fat Ham, specifically how much beauty freedom can create, inspire theater today by breaking our expectations of what we *think* we need to do, and opening our view to all of what is possible when we put together our collective imagination and dream our reality.
IR: The themes of Fat Ham, to me, are of tolerance and existence and questioning beyond while holding the answer of oneself as an absolute truth. I believe the American theater is coming to a place where we must ask ourselves the same questions as creatives and companies. Where have we gone? Ok. Where can we go? Ok. What if we go beyond that? Ok!
Vicky Mejia is the Digital Marketing Associate at Goodman Theatre
