HOW CAN I BE A PART OF THE LARK COMMUNITY? The Lark community is a fluid one, and there are many ways to get involved artistically.  Our over-riding principle is that we exist to empower the playwright and the playwright’s process.  Although directors and actors play a critical role in developing new plays, our primary focus is on serving the playwright and his/her needs.   

IF YOU ARE A PLAYWRIGHT… You can submit your work to our Literary Wing (deadline is in early November) (add link to Lit Wing), where every script is read twice and discussed in monthly meetings.  Out of the submitted scripts, eight to ten plays are selected to be presented in our Playwrights’ Week Festival (add link to that page).  The playwrights and Lark artistic staff work together to match the playwrights with directors who then cast and rehearse the readings.  We also have a Roundtable Program (add link to that page), designed to support our alumni writers’ new work.  There is also a small percentage of roundtables that we do by new writers, and those writers are recommended to us by fellow Lark artists.  If you are an artist who has been deeply involved in working with the Lark and are interested in knowing more about the Roundtable program, email Suzy Fay at suzy@larktheatre.org.   The plays/playwrights developed in our other programs (Playwrights Workshop, Barebones, Studio Retreats) have either been a part of our Playwrights Week Festival, Roundtable Program, partnerships with producing theaters, recommendations from our playwright advisors, and/or are part of our international exchange program.  

IF YOU ARE AN ACTOR OR DIRECTOR… The best way to get involved is by osmosis.  Start attending Lark events.  Meet the Lark playwrights.  Attend a roundtable or two.  Offer to read stage directions.  Join the LitWing and read scripts.  Get to know who we are and the way we approach working on plays.  See if it is a fit for you and for us.  Like dating.  Yes, you can send in a resume.  Actors should send their resume to Kristin Horton at the Lark (no electronic ones please), and directors can send their resume to Daniella Topol, but we highly recommend the osmosis approach.  We don’t have a group of “Lark core artists” because we are not interested in creating barriers to participation. We are interested in having you spend time with us if you are as passionate in generously supporting the playwright’s process as we are.

HOW DO YOU CHOOSE THE MATERIAL YOU WORK ON?   The Lark is keenly interested in plays that reveal unheard, diverse, and vital perspectives.  We are committed to nurturing plays that are ambitious, fresh, playful, engaging, energizing, provocative, powerful, and theatrical.   The playwrights we work with have clear goals about their writing and are open to the Lark’s development process.  The basic principles of the Lark’s development process are that we believe writers should have a diverse artistic community present to provide informed response to the material, without dictating how the work should be written.   We serve a spectrum of writers, from the very established to the newly emerging, from overseas to Queens, as long as the work/writers are creating work that meets our artistic criteria (noted earlier in this paragraph) and are (artistically) generous participants in the Lark community.   The projects that we dedicate significant time/resources to (i.e. Studio Retreats / BareBones) are plays that have been a part of the pipeline for a significant period of time (having been developed in the Playwrights Week Festival, Roundtable process or in Playwrights Workshop) and/or are plays that are a part of partnerships we have with other theatre companies and/or are plays that are part of our international exchange/residency programs.  Read below to better understand how to submit your work to the Lark and to join the Lark community.