Recent Press Releases |
| 2010-11 |
LARK PLAY DEVELOPMENT CENTER TO
HOLD SPECIAL EVENT HONORING KATORI HALL, click here
ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE JOSE RIVERA
AMONG LARK'S 2011-12 PLAYWRIGHTS' WORKSHOP
FELLOWS, click here
LARK ANNOUNCES 2011 PLAYWRIGHTS' WEEK, click here
LARK ANNOUNCES 2011-12 PONY FELLOW, click here
LARK NAMES FOUR LOCAL PLAYWRIGHTS TO RECEIVE
'"NEW VOICES/NEW YORK" AWARDS TO DEVELOP
ORIGINAL PLAYS WITH AN EYE TOWARDS PRODUCTION,
click here
LARK LAUNCHES "VAN LIER FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM"
TO SUPPORT GIFTED, EMERGING ARTISTS, click here
BIENNIAL "MIDDLE EAST AMERICA DISTINGUISHED
PLAYWRIGHT AWARD" GOES TO YUSSEF EL GUINDI, click here
LARK APPOINTS LLOYD SUH AS NEW
DIRECTOR OF ONSITE PROGRAMS, click here
THE LARK BEGINS CONSTRUCTION
ON NEW HOME, click here
ANNOUNCING 17th Annual
PLAYWRIGHTS'
WEEK, click here
ANNOUNCING 2010-11 PLAYWRIGHTS'
WORKSHOP FELLOWS, click here
LARK’S U.S./MÉXICO PLAYS FEATURED AT
CHICAGO’S GOODMAN THEATRE, click here
OBIE WINNER KYLE JARROW’S LOVE KILLS
SHAKES, RATTLES, AND ROLLS AT THE LARK, click here
| 2009-10 |
LARK ANNOUNCES 4 th ANNUAL PONY FELLOW, click here OLIVIER AWARD WINNER KATORI HALL AND LARK BRINGS IVORY COAST PLAYWRIGHT LARK APPOINTS DIRECTOR OF
OFFSITE PROGRAMS AND PARTNERSHIPS LARK BRINGS CANNES FILM FESTIVAL PALM D’OR BARALL, GEORGE, HALL, TREEM, & WIENER SELECTED ANNOUNCING THE 2009-10 SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORA |
| 2008-09 |
LAUNCHES LLOYD SUH'S "AMERICAN HWANGAP" INTO MULTIPLE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTIONS, click here THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP AWARDS LARK TWO PRESTIGIOUS FELLOWSHIPS, LARK SELECTED TO PARTICIPATE IN NEW NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM, click here BEYOND BORDERS: MEXICAN AND U.S. WRITERS UNITE IN NYC, click here BRADSHAW, HUNTER, KOPIT, KRON, O'CONNOR SELECTED TO LARK'S 2008-09 MELLON FOUNDATION AWARDS OVER $2.5 MILLION TO NEW PLAY LABS, MIDDLE EAST AMERICA ANNOUNCES 1st DISTINGUISHED PLAYWRIGHT AWARD, LARK WELCOMES 2nd ANNUAL PONY FELLOW, click here THE LARK AND INDO-AMERICAN ARTS
COUNCIL PRESENT PLAYWRIGHTS' THERESA REBECK TAKES LARK TO DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL, click here THE LARK AND INDO-AMERICAN ARTS COUNCIL ANNOUNCE SELECTIONS FOR THE 15th ANNUAL PLAYWRIGHTS’ WEEK FESTIVAL, click here |
| 2007-08 |
THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP (TCG) ANNOUNCES RECIPIENTS OF THREE THEATERS UNITE TO FORM NATIONAL MIDLE EASTERN PLAYS INITIATIVE, click here DOCUMENTARY FEATURING LARK’S U.S./M É XICO PLAYWRIGHT EXCHANGE PROGRAM TO AIR ON CUNY TV, click here BETTY SHAMIEH’S AGAIN AND AGAINST SPENDS TWO NIGHTS AT THE LARK, click here SHE LIKE GIRLS BRINGS THE COLLISION OF HOMOPHOBIA, RACE, AND CULTURE TO THE LARK, click here LARK ANNOUNCES NEW, UNPRECEDENTED PLAYWRITING FELLOWSHIP, click here THE LARK ANNOUNCES SELECTIONS FOR THE 14TH ANNUAL PLAYWRIGHTS' WEEK FESTIVAL, click here THE LARK'S 2ND YEAR IN RESIDENCE AT NEW YORK STAGE AND FILM, click here |
| 2006-07 |
THE LARK AND ROMANIA CULTURAL INSTITUTE GO BEYOND TOURISM,click here A BENGAL TIGER WANDERS THE STREETS OF BAGHDAD AT THE LARK, click here "THE LARK PARTNERS WITH CULTURE PROJECT AND THE PUBLIC THEATER, click here THE LARK PARTNERS WITH THE PUBLIC THEATER ON NEW DAVID HENRY HWANG PLAY, SOON TO PREMIERE AT CENTER THEATRE GROUP, click here LARK PLAYWRIGHTS FIND THEIR WAY TO THE STAGE, click here |
LARK PLAY DEVELOPMENT CENTER
TO HOLD SPECIAL EVENT
HONORING KATORI HALL
Sandi Goff Farkas Also To Be Honored
With The First Ever Risktaker Award
October 11, 2011
The Lark Play Development Center will host a special event on October 11th celebrating playwright Katori Hall on her Broadway debut with The Mountaintop. (The Mountaintop was extensively developed at the Lark.) Lark board member and playwright Sandi Goff Farkas will also be honored at the October 11 th event with the first every Lark Risktaker Award for her creation of the Playwrights of New York (PONY) Fellowship. The Risktaker Award recognizes the leadership, vision and commitment of an individual who has defied convention in making a major contribution to supporting daring new voices in the American theater.
The evening will include a pre-show party and award presentation at the Lark’s new midtown Manhattan home, followed by a performance of Hall’s The Mountaintop, featuring Angela Bassett and Samuel L. Jackson. Tickets are $1,000 each and benefit Lark’s extensive program portfolio fostering bold voices in the American theater. Tickets are extremely limited. For information about the event, visit: www.larktheatre.org/supportus/donate.htm or call Lark’s Development Manager Deborah Philips at 212-246-2676 x227.
The PONY Fellowship was born out of a partnership between the Lark and Playwrights of New York, a not-for-profit organization founded by Sandi Goff Farkas. This one-of-a-kind opportunity deepens support for emerging writers by providing housing for a year in the PONY apartment, a monthly living stipend, and extensive artistic support at the Lark followed by two years of additional support and advocacy.
Katori Hall was the third recipient of the PONY Fellowship. During Hall’s time as the PONY Fellow, she developed a number of works including Children of Killers, Our Lady of Kibeho, Pussy Valley and The Mountaintop, which was presented as a Lark BareBones® before receiving a full production on London’s West End for which it won the 2010 Olivier Award for Best New Play. She said of the experience, ―When I told my Lark family this story [about The Mountaintop] they gave me space and the artistic support I needed to tell a very personal and important story that was inspired by our history. The greatest cocoon that they gave me was the PONY Fellowship—the ultimate gift for a writer who is desperate to do just that—write.
Katori Hall is an award-winning playwright hailing from Memphis, TN. She has been involved with the Lark since 2006 and was awarded the PONY Fellowship in 2009. In 2011, Hall received the Susan Smith Blackburn prize of her play Hurt Village, and was inducted into the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Katori is a member of the Ron Brown Scholar Program, a graduate of Columbia, Harvard, and the Juilliard School. Katori was recently added to the Lark’s Board of Directors.
Sandi Goff Farkas came to the Lark as a playwright in 2005 to develop her plays and has been part of the growth and development of the organization ever since. She is a Lark Board Member, a writer for stage and film, and a visionary in supporting new work for the theater. In 2007 she founded Playwrights of New York (PONY), an organization dedicated to supporting emerging playwrights. In partnership with the Lark, she created the PONY Fellowship.
Playwrights of New York (PONY). Founded by Sandi Goff Farkas, Playwrights of New York seeks to provide revolutionary support for playwrights by economically freeing them to pursue their careers. Through the Playwrights of New York Fellowship, in partnership with the Lark Play Development Center, PONY provides playwrights with a year of housing, living stipend, and artistic support as well as continued support in the two years following the Fellowship. PONY Fellows include: Carson Kreizter (2007), Samuel D. Hunter (2008), Katori Hall (2009), Tommy Smith (1010), A. Rey Pamatmat (2011) and Special Jury Prize winner Tarell Alvin McCraney (2009). www.playwrightsofnewyork.org
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ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATED JOSÉ RIVERA AMONG WRITERS IN
LARK'S 2011-12 PLAYWRIGHTS' WORKSHOP
September 13, 2011
The Lark Play Development Center announced the 2011-12 Playwriting Fellows receiving residencies in its eleven-year-old Playwrights' Workshop program. The Fellows, selected by a committee of Lark's playwright advisors, represent a broad range of styles, cultural backgrounds, and experience and includes Bathsheba Doran (Kin at Playwrights Horizons), Mona Mansour ( Urge for Going at The Public Theater), Dominique Morisseau (Follow Me to Nellie’s at Premiere Stages), A. Rey Pamatmat (Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them at the Humana Festival), and Writer-in-Residence José Rivera (School of the Americas at The Public Theater). Pamatmat is also this year's Playwrights of New York Fellowship ("PONY") recipient at the Lark.
Led by Arthur Kopit and a group of esteemed co-hosts including Tina Howe, David Henry Hwang, Theresa Rebeck, Mac Wellman, and Doug Wright, the Playwrights’ Workshop brings together skilled and visionary playwrights at various stages of their careers to explore ideas and generate new material without commercial pressures. Writers meet every other week to share freshly-drafted pages with a community of actors, directors, designers, and writers.
Lark Artistic Director John Clinton Eisner commented on the value of this working laboratory: “Putting writers who have more production experience in the room with artists new to the scene allows them to experience fresh ideas, demonstrate new approaches, and break boundaries, while the early-career writers benefit from being in the room with those who have more experience in the field.”
Carla Ching, one of last year’s Playwriting Fellows and the artistic director of Second Generation Theater in New York City, described her experience of the Workshop this way: “I really enjoyed getting to bring in sections of my play, watching really wonderful actors bust them open, and hearing really smart people share their comments. A note that I was given repeatedly by David Henry Hwang helped me to solve the play when I finally applied it correctly. Also, the rigor of bringing in work every two weeks helped me generate one play from scratch, polish another and start a third.”
Doran, Mansour, Morisseau, Pamatmat and Rivera join the ranks of more than 80 Playwrights’ Workshop alumni, including Thomas Bradshaw (The Bereaved at Partial Comfort Productions, Sheila Callaghan (Dead City at New Georges), Katori Hall (The Mountaintop, opening this fall on Broadway), Samuel D. Hunter (The Whale at the Denver Center Theatre Company), Rajiv Joseph (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo on Broadway), Tommy Smith (The Wife at Access Gallery), and Sarah Ruhl ( The Clean House at Lincoln Center).
# # #
LARK ANNOUNCES 2011 PLAYWRIGHTS' WEEK
August 31, 2011
The Lark Play Development Center announced that seven plays-in-development have been chosen for its 18th annual Playwrights' Week, which will kick off on Tuesday, September 20 at 8pm with the Meet the Writers event and reception, where writers will read excerpts from their work. Playwrights' Week public readings will be presented from September 21-24. All events are free, open to the public, and take place at the Lark's BareBones Studio, 311 West 43rd Street, 5th Floor.
2011 PLAYWRIGHTS' WEEK
WATER ON THE MOON by Emily Bohannon
FAILURE: A LOVE STORY by Philip Dawkins
SLIP/SHOT by Jacqueline Goldfinger
TIMBER LAND by Katharine Clark Gray
THE NETHER by Jennifer Haley
DETROIT '67 by Dominique Morisseau
GET THORPE by Ken Weitzman
ABOUT PLAYWRIGHTS' WEEK
Playwrights' Week playwrights participate in an intensive seven-day retreat where they focus on self-stated developmental goals - with support from their creative teams, peer writers, and Lark's staff - and present their works-in-progress to the public in a rehearsal format.
Playwrights' Week is supported this year by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the Office of New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. The Washington Jefferson Hotel is the official hotel of Playwrights' Week.
Works are selected from among writers who are generally new to the Lark, possess extraordinary and distinctive voices, offer diverse perspectives, and articulate clear developmental goals. Each submission requires a statement of goals from the writer about how the play will specifically benefit from the Lark's playwright-driven developmental process. This year, the selection process began with a review of nearly six hundred scripts that had been submitted to the Lark's Open Access Program by the November 2010 deadline. Twenty-five finalists were named by the Lark's Literary Wing, a committee of 35 volunteer theater artists and community members skilled at reading and assessing new plays. Seven of these finalists were subsequently selected for Playwrights' Week by a Final Selection Committee of theater industry professionals that this year included Joshua Allen (playwright), Beth Blickers (Abrams Artists Agency), Mark Blankenship (Theater Development Fund), Andrea Hiebler (Lark's Literary and Artistic Coordinator), Mia Katigbak (MaYi Theater Company), Miles Lott (Chairman of Lark's Literary Wing), Matthew Paul Olmos (Lark's Communications and Marketing Manager), Margarett Perry (director), and Tijuana Ricks (performer).
Plays developed at the Lark frequently go on to full productions at theaters around the globe. Katori Hall's THE MOUNTAINTOP is scheduled to open on Broadway on October 13. David Henry Hwang's CHINGLISH is bound for Broadway this fall after its run at Chicago's Goodman Theater this summer, and Rajiv Joseph's BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO ran on Broadway from March 31 - July 3, starring Robin Williams.
# # #
LARK ANNOUNCES THE 2011-12 PONY FELLOW
2011-12 Playwrights of New York “PONY” Fellowship
awarded to A. Rey Pamatmat
June 10, 2011
After four successful years of the Playwrights of New York “PONY” Fellowship, the Lark Play Development Center is proud to announce that playwright A. Rey Pamatmat will be the 2011-12 PONY Fellow. In October 2011, he will succeed Tommy Smith (THE WIFE), as well past PONY fellows Katori Hall (THE MOUNTAINTOP), Samuel D. Hunter (A BRIGHT NEW BOISE), and Carson Kreitzer (BEHIND THE EYE).
As the 2011-12 PONY Fellow, Pamatmat will receive housing in the PONY apartment in the heart of the theater district in midtown Manhattan for one year, a $27,000 living stipend and artistic support from the Lark including participation in the prestigious Playwrights' Workshop led by Arthur Kopit and advised by such playwrights as Tina Howe, David Henry Hwang, Theresa Rebeck, and Doug Wright.
With the PONY, the Lark Play Development Center has created one of the largest fellowships available to playwrights in the U.S. Founded in 2007, the fellowship is underwritten, in part, by Lark playwright and board member Sandi Goff Farkas, who conceived PONY, as a bridge between the academic and professional worlds of playwriting. Because so many playwrights leave the profession due to the challenging economics of being a writer in New York City, Farkas sought to create a way to help with this transition.
About the Lark’s new PONY fellow, Mr. Eisner remarks, “ Rey is at that critical point in his career where he knows who he is as a writer and is ready to focus deeply on the themes that interest him most. The PONY comes at just the right time for him to invest in himself and rebalance his equation for living as an artist in New York.”
Pamatmat is the 2010 Princess Grace Fellow for Playwriting. His play EDITH CAN SHOOT THINGS AND HIT THEM began its rolling world premiere at the Actors Theatre of Louisville’s 2011 Humana Festival. On being awarded this fellowship, he says, “ It’s a miracle. I don't know how else to describe the effect it will have on my life as both a writer and a human. The honor of being chosen as the 2011 PONY Fellow will give me room to actually learn what it means to be a playwright.”
Finalists for the fellowship were Peter Gil-Sheridan, Michael Lew, Mona Mansour, and Jackie Sibblies Drury.
A. Rey Pamatmat is the 2010 Princess Grace Fellow for Playwriting. His play EDITH CAN SHOOT THINGS AND HIT THEM began its rolling world premiere at the Actors Theatre of Louisville’s 2011 Humana Festival before productions at New Theater, Actors’ Express, Mu Performing Arts, and B Street. His full-length plays have been produced by Second Generation (THUNDER ABOVE, DEEPS BELOW) and the Vortex Theatre (DEVIANT) , and his shorts have been produced by Actors Theatre (THIS IS HOW IT ENDS, AIN'T MEAT, and 1,260-MINUTE LIFE) , Vampire Cowboys (RED ROVER) , and HERE (HIGH/LIMBO/HIGH) . His work has been developed at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, The Public, Victory Gardens, Playwrights’ Horizons, The Magic, Ars Nova, Ma- Yi, Rattlestick, E.S.T., The Lark, New Dramatists, NNPN, and the National Asian American Theater Conference. He has been commissioned by South Coast Repertory, Actors Theatre, E.S.T./Sloan, Mabou Mines, and Vampire Cowboys. Rey is a member of the Ma-Yi Writer’s Lab, and has been a NYFA Playwriting Fellow, an artist-delegate to the first U.S. Social Forum, and a Truman Capote Literary Fellow. Other plays include: BEAUTIFUL DAY, NEW, PICTURE 24 , and PURE . B.F.A.: NYU, Drama. M.F.A.: Yale School of Drama, Playwriting.
# # #
LARK NAMES FOUR LOCAL PLAYWRIGHTS TO RECEIVE “NEW VOICES/NEW YORK” AWARDS TO DEVELOP ORIGINAL PLAYS WITH AN EYE TOWARDS PRODUCTION
April 12, 2011
The Lark Play Development Center today announced the launching of “New Voices/New York,” a fellowship program for local playwrights to develop new work with an eye towards production. Four awards have been granted in the first round of the program to playwrights Joshua Allen, Thomas Bradshaw, Bekah Brunstetter, and Andrea Thome, thanks to major support from New York City’s Theater Subdistrict Council and additional support from Time Warner.
During an 18-month residency, New Voices/New York playwright fellows are the beneficiaries of a four-pronged effort to advance their careers: a $20,000 stipend for living expenses, artistic resources, an expanded professional network, and financial leverage for local productions.
“We want playwrights to think of writing as their job, not something they do when they get home from work if they still have the energy,” explained Lark’s Artistic Director John Clinton Eisner. “We’re helping them to recalibrate the equation that balances their needs with productivity. We often talk of giving artists a ‘home,’ but perhaps we should first provide them the economic freedom to work at their craft and to share what they create.”
Each fellow receives $20,000, paid in monthly increments throughout the fellowship period, to buy time to create new work. The program was designed in response to one of the most frequently-cited challenges facing New York City playwrights today – balancing artistic work and career development with the economic realities of day-to-day life. The stipend provides a financial bridge to writers who might otherwise need to work multiple “survival jobs” that take their focus away from playwriting. The Lark also contributes artistic resources to support the strategic goals set by playwrights for their residencies including office and meeting space, studio time, actors and directors, and staff assistance.
In addition, the New Voices/New York program enlists artistic leaders from four New York City theaters as “producer advocates” for the playwright fellows: Sherri Kronfeld, Artistic Director of SUPERWOLF (Brunstetter), Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director of Primary Stages (Allen), Louis Moreno, Artistic Director of Intar Theatre (Thome), and Jerry Patch, Director of Artistic Development at Manhattan Theatre Club (Bradshaw) have each committed their time and staff support during the fellowship to advise participating playwrights with respect to long-term career goals advancing their work to production. Bringing artists and institutional decision-makers together to build relationships is a core part of the Lark’s mission.
Finally, each playwright fellow is provided an Enhancement Fund of $5,000 with which to leverage a New York City production of a play developed during the residency. While this amount only represents a small portion of a play’s production budget, it is the Lark’s goal to help playwrights come to the table as partners in the production of their own work.
Joshua Allen , whose play Last of the Earlies was presented during Lark’s annual Playwrights’ Week Festival this past fall, will develop his intergenerational family play Boy in a Blue Tweed Suit and begin to write a second play, Chrysalis, about the trials and triumphs of being fourteen.
Thomas Bradshaw , whose play Mary recently debuted at the Goodman Theater in Chicago, will develop Hot & Sticky ,which he began during a Lark playwright retreat on the Vassar College campus last July as part of an ongoing partnership between the Lark and New York Stage & Film. He will also develop a new play about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Bekah Brunstetter, whose play Miss Lilly Gets Boned was presented during the 2009 Playwrights’ Week, will begin work on Melancholia , which follows a family traveling the Oregon Trail and explores the nature and consciousness of depression during the 19th century.
Andrea Thome , whose play Undone was presented in Lark’s BareBones ® program, will develop The Necklace of the Dove , inspired by the work of 11 th Century Arab-Spanish philosopher Ibn Hazm and the world of Mexican transgender performers in Queens.
The Theater Subdistrict Council (“TSC”) is a not-for-profit corporation established pursuant to a 1998 zoning regulation that allows owners of certain Broadway theaters to transfer air rights within the Theater Subdistrict, provided the theaters are preserved, there are commitments to use the spaces for legitimate theater use, and funds are deposited into the Theater Subdistrict Fund. The TSC administers the Theater Subdistrict Fund and allocates grants with the goal of promoting the production of new theater work, developing new audiences, and showcasing Broadway’s singular role in the history of American theater. The TSC consists of the Mayor, the Speaker of City Council, the Manhattan Borough President, and the Director of the Department of City Planning, as well as four representatives appointed by the Mayor and the City Council Speaker from the performing arts, theatrical and related industries.
This past fall, TSC awarded grants to fifteen organizations, totaling $2.15 million, for various projects that will foster the creation of new theatrical work and audience development. In addition to the Lark Play Development Center, the award recipients are The 52nd Street Project, Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts, The Apollo Theater, The Atlantic Theatre Company, The Broadway League, Fractured Atlas, The Lincoln Center Theater, The New 42nd Street, Playwrights Horizons, Rosie’s Broadway Kids, Roundabout Theatre Company, Signature Theatre Company, Theatre Development Funds and Walker International Communications Group.
Joshua Allen – A native of Chicago, he is currently in his second year at The Juilliard School’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Fellowship. His play The Last Pair of Earlies has been developed at the Lark's Playwrights' Week and at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. His other plays include Goodbye, Heathcliff, which appeared at the Actor’s Playpen in Hollywood, and God Is a Woman, which appeared at the Space Theatre in Hollywood. In 2007, he was a finalist for the inaugural Emerging Writers Fellowship at the Public Theater in New York City. He is also a member of the Ars Nova Play Group. Joshua is a proud graduate of the University of Southern California.
Thomas Bradshaw – His play Mary premiered at The Goodman Theater in February 2010; it was also presented as a staged reading at The Public Theater and Theater Smash (Toronto). His play, The Bereaved, was produced by Partial Comfort Productions (NYC) in 2009, The State Theater of Bielefeld (Germany), was named one of the Best Plays of 2009 in Time Out, and was a New York Times Critic's Pick. His premieres of Southern Promises at Performance Space 122 and Dawn at The Flea Theater were listed in the Best Performances of Stage and Screen for 2008 in The New Yorker. Purity was produced at Performance Space 122, and Strom Thurmond Is Not A Racist and Cleansed were produced on a double bill at The Brick Theatre. Strom was also produced in Los Angeles in 2008. In 2010, Job was presented at The Wilma and produced at Roehampton University in London. Dawn was presented at the National Theatre of Mannheim (Germany), as well a German translation was presented at Theater Bielefeld and published by Theater Der Zeit. Purity was published by Theaterheute (Germany). Mary and The Bereaved have been published by PAJ Publications. Prophet, Strom Thurmond Is Not A Racist, Cleansed, Purity, Dawn, and Southern Promises are all published by Samuel French, Inc.. Mr. Bradshaw is a 2009 Guggenheim Fellow, 2010 Prince Charitable Trust Prize awardee, an Assistant Professor at Medgar Evers College, featured playwright in Time Out New York’s ten playwrights to watch, Village Voice’s Best Provocative Playwright, and was a Playwright in Residence at The Soho Theatre in London, where he wrote and work shopped The Ashes.
Bekah Brunstetter – Herplays include: A Long and Happy Life (Naked Angels, Spring 2011), Be A Good Little Widow (ARS NOVA, Spring 2011), House of Home (Williamstown Theater Festival), Oohrah! (Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater, 2009), and Miss Lilly Gets Boned (Finborough Theater 2010, Lark Playwrights Week 2009, Finborough Theater, June 2010). She is a member of The Primary Stages Writer’s Group, the Naked Radio writing team, and a Playwright’s Realm fellow. She is an alumni of the Women's Project writer's Lab and the Ars Nova Play Group. She is the 2011 Playwright in Residence at the Finborough Theater, London. BA UNC Chapel Hill; MFA in Dramatic Writing from the New School for Drama. www.bekahbrunstetter.com.
Andrea Thome - A Chilean-Costa Rican, Wisconsin-born mutt who grew up navigating the multiple landscapes and languages that now inhabit her plays. Her plays, translations and video satires have been presented at theaters, galleries and universities around the U.S. and Latin America. Andrea helped develop the Lark Play Development Center’s US-México Playwright Exchange as Program Director since 2006. Her translations of Mexican plays include Richard Viqueira’s play H and Ximena Escalante’s RealAndromaca ( presented at New York’s hotINK Festival 2009 and at PEN World Voices). She is translating Chilean playwright Guillermo Calderón. Andrea’s own play Undone (originally developed by the Lark Play Development Center and INTAR Theatre’s New Works Lab) was selected for Victory Gardens Theatre’s 2010 Ignition Festival of playwrights of color. Worm Girl , her absurd physical comedy, was produced by Cherry Red Productions in Washington, DC (2004). Andrea co-directs the satirical video & performance collective FULANA ( www.fulana.org ). From 1994-99 she co-created twenty-two original plays with San Francisco’s Red Rocket Theater. She has also worked extensively as a performer; past collaborators include Culture Clash, Latina Theatre Lab, Campo Santo and Guillermo Gómez-Peña. She has taught at various universities, schools and community centers including New York University, Adelphi University, El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, and NYC public schools. Andrea received fellowships from NYFA, New York City, the City of Oakland, Lark Play Development Center, INTAR, New York University and the Women’s Project. She is a graduate of NYU’s Dramatic Writing MFA and a member of New Dramatists.
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LARK LAUNCHES “VAN LIER FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM”
TO SUPPORT GIFTED EMERGING ARTISTS
April 5, 2011
NEW YORK, NY—Playwright Susan Soon He Stanton and stage director Reginald Douglas were each appointed to a one year residency at the Lark Play Development Center as inaugural fellows in the company’s brand-new Van Lier Fellowship Program. These Fellowships will annually support two promising young artists, under the age of 30, in making the leap from training to a professional career in the theater. During their tenure, Douglas and Stanton will work with Onsite Program Director and playwright Lloyd Suh, Associate Program Director Suzy Fay to assume a variety of program assignments based on self-defined professional goals. In addition, they will develop their own artistic projects and form relationships with master, mid-career and emerging playwrights and directors from all parts of the world. The Fellowship includes a cash award of $8,000 and use of the resources of Lark’s new space in the heart of New York City’s Theater District.
Stanton, 29, a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and Yale University’s School of Drama, has had her work produced frequently by Kumu Kahua Theatre in her home town of Honolulu, Hawai'i. She was Honolulu Youth Theater’s resident playwright last year and is currently a member of the MaYi Writers Lab and the Soho Rep Writer-Director Lab. She and Lisa Rothe, Lark’s Director of Offsite Programs & Partnerships, will travel together this spring to Hedgebrook, a writers’ retreat for women in Whidbey Island, Washington.
Douglas, 24, is an alumnus of Georgetown University where he was awarded the Misty Dailey Award for Theater Excellence. He has trained and worked at several notable theaters including Second Stage Theatre, Arena Stage, the Shakespeare Theatre Company and McCarter Theatre where he recently served as a directing and producing assistant for Artistic Director Emily Mann’s 20th Anniversary season. Reginald works at Young Audiences New York, an organization that provides arts education programming for over 300,000 New York public school students, coordinating the organization’s community outreach efforts.
Suh stated, “We are impressed by Reginald’s conviction that artists are community leaders and that theater is an important instrument for social change. He speaks passionately about using his work as an urgent articulation and excavation of personal identity. Susan is a writer of great lyricism, precision and intelligence. We’re blown away by the depth of her curiosity, the range of her vision and the strength of her voice.”
Both Douglas and Stanton agreed that the Van Lier Fellowship will help build skills and networks critical to their future success. Stanton commented, “The most difficult aspect of being a writer in New York is lack of support. It will be invaluable to develop my own work with Lark’s resources and, at the same time, to observe work by writers I admire in the programs that I will be helping to run.”
Douglas added, “As an emerging director, I am eager to see how different writers and directors take on challenges while expanding my network of collaborators—especially playwrights with whom I hope to work in the future.”
Although this is the program’s first year at the Lark, The Edgar and Sally Van Lier Fund at The New York Community Trust has been underwritingsimilar fellowships since 1991 at other New York City organizations including New Dramatists , Second Stage Theatre and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop . Ms. Van Lier, the visionary behind the fund, was born into a Hungarian immigrant family at the turn of the century and struggled to launch a career in show business. She got her break in 1923 when she won a beauty contest and was subsequently cast in Florence Ziegfeld’s “Follies” and in his production of “Showboat.” In later life, the Van Liers—who had no children of their own—took great delight in introducing young people to the arts and providing assistance to those who aspired to careers in the theater but couldn’t afford training on their own. To read more about the fund’s history, please visit: http://www.nycommunitytrust.org/EdwardandSallyVanLier/tabid/341/Default.aspx.
Reginald L. Douglas - Directing credits include: NYC: The Body Washer, Sarah Opts Out, The Hedge Fun, Small World, Cinnamon; McCarter Theatre: Amari's Tomorrow; Washington, DC: Marcus Gardley’s epic …And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi (DC premiere), The House of Blue Leaves, Brill. Reginald has served as the Assistant Director to many of the leading artists in the field including Tony Award-nominees Emily Mann and Sam Buntrock, Obie Award-winner Daniel Beaty, Michael Unger, Walter Dallas and Ethan McSweeny on the acclaimed American premiere of Ion. Most recently, Reginald assisted Obie Award-winner Peter DuBois Off Broadway on the world-premiere production of Trust by Paul Weitz starring Zach Braff and Sutton Foster, and worked with Jo Bonney and Lynn Nottage on the premiere reading of Nottage’s latest play, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark. He has trained and worked at several notable theaters including Second Stage Theatre, Arena Stage, Shakespeare Theatre Company and McCarter Theatre, where he recently served as a directing and producing assistant for Artistic Director Emily Mann’s 20 th Anniversary season. A nominee for the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation’s prestigious Gielgud and Ockrent Fellowships, Reginald is a proud honors graduate of Georgetown University, where he was awarded the Misty Dailey Award for Theater Excellence and awards for Artistic & Administrative Leadership. A passionate advocate for the arts as social change, Reginald works at Young Audiences New York, an organization that provides arts education programming for over 300,000 New York public school students, coordinating the organization’s community outreach efforts.
Susan Soon He Stanton - Plays include American Pig Pen (New Century Theatre Company workshop and Astor Street Opry New Works Festival), the things are against us (Yale’s Carlotta Festival and RoAn Production workshop), Cygnus (Inkwell workshop), Furball (Second Generation Festival and She Speaks Festival). In 2009, Kumu Kahua produced two of her plays in rep, Whatever Happened to John Boy Kihano? and a remount of Art of Preservation (first produced by Kumu Kahua in 2008). She was awarded the Hawai'i prize and the Pacific Rim Prize by Kumu Kahua. The Underneath, commissioned by Kumu Kahua, was originated at the Yale Cabaret, and workshopped at the Kennedy Center and Unicorn Theater. Susan is Honolulu Theatre for Youth’s (HTY) resident playwright for their 2010-11 season. HTY commissioned her to write Navigator, performed on a state-wide tour to over 20,000 children, and she contributed to HTY’s multi-writer piece, Where Do Things Go?, on tour in 2011. Edible Restaurant , a musical with composer Greta Gertler was a commission from New Sounds Theatre and performed at Joe’s Pub. She is developing an interactive food-based project with Art Party Theater Company. Among her awards is a feature-film development grant and best screenplay award from the Sloan Foundation for Rosalind’s Helix. She is a regular contributor for Audrey Magazine. Her training in dramatic writing is from NYU Tisch (BFA) and Yale School of Drama (MFA). She is a member of SoHo Rep Writer-Director Lab 2010-2011 and MaYi Writers Lab. She is from Honolulu, Hawai'i.
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NEW YORK, NY – Seattle-based playwright Yussef El Guindi¸ author of numerous plays including Our Enemies (Osborn Award), Back of the Throat and Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes, has been selected to receive the 2010 Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award. Honorable mentions went to playwrights Nastaran Ahmadi, Denmo Ibrahim, Ken Kaissar, Mona Mansour, and Heather Raffo.
The prize, which is granted every other year to an American writer of a Middle Eastern background by a consortium composed of San Francisco’s Golden Thread Productions, New York’s Lark Play Development Center, and Chicago’s Silk Road Theatre Project, comes with a $10,000 commission to write a new play of the author’s choice, artistic development support for two years and possible productions at both Silk Road and Golden Thread. During the commissioned play’s development and production arc, representatives of each partner organization, along with El Guindi, will travel to each city—Chicago, New York, and San Francisco—to observe the play’s creative process and to engage in public conversations and panel events about Middle Eastern American voices.
The award is part of Middle East America: A National New Plays Initiative, a first-of-its-kind tri-coastal collaboration designed to encourage and support the development of Middle Eastern American playwrights and plays of the highest artistic caliber and to enrich the canon of American dramatic literature. The program aims to challenge both the lack of representation and the one-dimensional stereotypical representation of persons of Middle Eastern descent on America's stages.
In 2008, the inaugural Middle East America award went to Adriana Sevahn Nichols to develop and write her play Night Over Erzinga, about three generations of an Armenian immigrant family in America. Night Over Erzinga will be presented in Lark’s BareBones® workshop program this June before moving on to a world premiere production at Golden Thread in September, directed by nationally recognized new plays director, Daniella Topol.
Representatives of the three companies will officially present the prize to El Guindi at a celebration at the Lark this June. The winner was chosen from a competitive application process by a selection committee composed of Silk Road’s Artistic Director Jamil Khoury, Golden Thread’s Artistic Director Torange Yeghiazarian and Lark’s Director of Offsite Programs & Partnerships Lisa Rothe. The reading committee was composed of a wide range of theater artists and leaders including Neilesh Bose (Editor, “Beyond Broadway and Bollywood: Plays from the South Asian Diaspora), Christopher Chen (playwright, Into The Numbers ), Holly Hill (Co-editor, “Salam/Peace” anthology), Laura Hope (Professor of Drama, Loyola University; Artistic Associate, Golden Thread), Lucinda Kidder (Producer, 1st ever festival of plays by women from Moslem countries), Bill Kincaid (Professor, Western Illinois University), Evren Odcikin (Artistic Associate, Golden Thread), Tanya Palmer (Literary Manager, Goodman Theater), and Ben Thiem (Literary Manager, TimeLine Theatre).
El Guindi has been produced at Golden Thread, Silk Road Theatre Project, InterAct Theater, Kitchen Dog Theater, Theater Schmeater, and Wilma Theater; as well published by Dramatists Play Service, Applause Books in 2008, and “Salaam/Peace: An Anthology of Middle-Eastern American Playwrights,” published by TCG. He holds an MFA from Carnegie-Mellon University and was playwright-in-residence at Duke University. He says of this award, “This opportunity will allow me to explore a subject matter I might otherwise be hesitant to broach. At a time when the economy, among other factors, inclines one to play it safe, having these three theater companies stand behind me makes a big difference financially and artistically. I’m thrilled and nervous at the same time.”
Lark’s Artistic Director John Clinton Eisner commented about the purpose of the program, "Our nation's energy and innovation has often sprung from immigrant's stories and global perspectives, and this commission represents a new path for cultural institutions learning to collaborate on building new repertoire that more accurately mirrors and celebrates America's ever-evolving cultural landscape."
About El Guindi’s proposed new work, the Artistic Director of Silk Road Theatre Project Jamil Khoury said, “Yussef positions the Arab American experience within the tapestry of American storytelling. His voice is fresh and provocative, lyrical and unorthodox, daring to unearth the checkered landscapes of “us” and “them,” “here” and “there,” “with us” and “against us.” If there is anything predictable about Yussef’s plays it’s how utterly unpredictable they manage to be.”
Playwrights of Middle Eastern American heritage applied from all over the U.S. and, according to Torange Yeghiazarian , Golden Thread Artistic Director, “Yussef is not only a leading Arab-American playwright but he has been instrumental to the recognition of this community and its invaluable contribution to American theatre. I can't wait to read and produce the play he writes for this commission.”
For more information on Middle East America: A National New Plays Initiative, please visit: www.middleeastamerica.org.
YUSSEF EL GUINDI’s most recent productions include Language Rooms (Wilma Theater) and Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes(Golden Thread Productions, InterAct Theater, Kitchen Dog Theater, Theater Schmeater). His plays, Back of the Throat, as well as Such a Beautiful Voice is Sayeda’s and Karima’s City, have been published by Dramatists Play Service. The latter one-acts have also been included in “The Best American Short Plays: 2004-2005”, published by Applause Books in 2008. His play Ten Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith, is included in “Salaam/Peace: An Anthology of Middle-Eastern American Playwrights,” published by TCG, 2009. Upcoming production:Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World at ACT in Seattle. He holds an MFA from Carnegie-Mellon University and was playwright-in-residence at Duke University.
Founded in 1996, GOLDEN THREAD PRODUCTIONS is dedicated to exploring Middle Eastern cultures and identities as expressed around the globe. We present alternative perspectives of the Middle East by developing and producing theatrical work that is aesthetically varied and politically and viscerally engaging, while supporting countless Middle Eastern artists in all phases of their careers. Our mission is to make the Middle East a potent presence on the American stage and also to make theatre a treasured cultural experience within Middle Eastern communities. We build cultural bridges by engaging the community in an active dialogue and facilitating collaborations among artists of diverse backgrounds with the aim of creating a world where the common human experience supersedes cultural and political differences. Golden Thread Productions is led by Artistic Director Torange Yeghiazarian and Managing Director, Serge Bakalian. For more information: www.goldenthread.org.
SILK ROAD THEATRE PROJECT showcases playwrights of Asian, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean backgrounds, whose works address themes relevant to the peoples of the Silk Road and their Diaspora communities. Through the mediums of theatre, video, education, and advocacy, we aim to deepen and expand representation in American culture. Silk Road Theatre Project is led by Artistic Director, Jamil Khoury and Executive Director, Malik Gillani. For more information: www.srtp.org.
January 20, 2011
The Lark Play Development Center today named award-winning playwright Lloyd Suh its Director of Onsite Programs, effective immediately. Suh first came to the Lark in 2006 as a member of the company’s renowned Playwrights’ Workshop, led by Arthur Kopit, and is familiar with the gamut of the company’s programs. He was the inaugural playwright in the Lark’s pilot round of Launching New Plays into the Repertoire, an initiative designed to promote national collaborations around worthy new plays by unheard voices that is supported by a major grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. His plays include American Hwangap, The Children of Vonderly, Happy End of the World, Jesus in India, and Great Wall Story.
Suh succeeds May Adrales in a position that she helped to create as part Lark’s strategic plan to expand its artistic team to more effectively oversee a growing portfolio of programs and fellowships at its new home on 43rd Street. Adrales, a longstanding member of Lark’s artist community, leaves to pursue a freelance directing career, but will continue to spearhead selected projects and programs at the Lark. Funds to launch the Director of Onsite Programs position have been provided by Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Artistic Director John Clinton Eisner said, “I take great pride that all our programs are designed and led by the artists who use them. That’s why it makes perfect sense that Lloyd—who has test-driven many of our programs and been a part of our Artistic Advisory Committee—should assume this important leadership position.”
Suh’s work has been produced by Ma-Yi Theater Compay, The Play Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Magic Theatre (San Francisco), East West Players (Los Angeles), and internationally at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. He was a participant in the National Endowment for the Arts Arena Stage New Play Development program, and has received fellowships and commissions from the New York State Council on the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Jerome Foundation, Theatre Communications Group, and the Dramatists Guild. He has previously served as Co-Director of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab (2006-2010) and Artistic Director of Second Generation (2005-2009), and is currently a member of the Soho Writer Director Lab. He received a BA from Indiana University and an MFA from the Actors Studio Drama School at New School University.
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October 26, 2010
The Lark Play Development Center, a leading research and development laboratory for playwrights and the American theater, broke ground this month on expanded office and studio performance space in the heart of Manhattan’s theater district. Members of the company’s Board of Trustees, staff and key artists gathered for an intimate groundbreaking ceremony on the fourth and fifth floors of 311 West 43rd Street where guests expressed their good wishes for the Lark by painting colorful images and expressive graffiti on the walls of the raw space. The groundbreaking was hosted by Sandi Goff Farkas and Lesley Malin and attendees included playwrights Katori Hall, David Henry Hwang, Arthur Kopit, Rajiv Joseph, and Emily Mann.
Fo r the first time in its 16-year history, the Lark will create a “home” that brings programmatic, administrative, and community activities together under one roof. The Lark’s new home shares an address with many leading New York theater organizations including Manhattan Theatre Club, the Mint Theatre Company, and Second Stage Theater. Construction is scheduled for completion in December and the Lark will open its new facility to the public in January 2011.
Lark’s move coincides with its increasing profile as many of the playwrights the company has championed are receiving national and international recognition through major prizes and productions. All three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama this year wrote their breakthrough plays at Lark and several Lark-developed plays are en route to significant productions. “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” by Rajiv Joseph is going to Broadway this spring, starring Robin Williams, as is Katori Hall’s “The Mountaintop,” starring Samuel Jackson, which won the 2010 Olivier Award for Best Play. David Henry Hwang’s “Chinglish” is headed to the Goodman Theater in Chicago and then to The Public Theater in New York City.
Originally operated out of Artistic Director John Clinton Eisner’s Upper West Side apartment, the Lark moved in 1995 to the Chelsea Playhouse and in 1997 to its current location near Columbus Circle where it shares office space with a realty company. The new facility was designed by architect Stephen Furnstahl to reflect the Lark’s philosophy that artists must be empowered to lead their own creative processes. The light-filled 9,300 square foot space, on two levels, will include a lobby and gallery space, a playwright library, two flexible studios for rehearsal and performance and an office suite with a kitchen, reception area and planning room.
Eisner explains, “While our artists love the comfortable and scrappy building that has been our home for fourteen years and has helped form our identity, we have grown too big to fit here. Our core resources are people—the artists we serve, the staff that supports them, and the audience that engages with them. Our new facility will embrace this expanding community in a comfortable and generous way.”
The project’s $2.1 million capital campaign has been made possible through the commitment of the Lark’s Board of Trustees: Colin Greer (Chair), Patricia Bosworth, A.J. Epstein, Sandi Goff Farkas, Phil Gelston, Rita Goldberg, Harvey Granat, Dan Gross, Katori Hall, Alan Hruska, David Henry Hwang, Alan Kingenstein, Arthur Kopit, Lesley Malin, Clinton O. Mayer III, Deb McAlister, Theresa Rebeck, Aroon Shivdasani, Larry Shuman, Marvin Tepper, and Daniella Topol.
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THE LARK ANNOUNCES SELECTIONS FOR
THE 17 TH ANNUAL PLAYWRIGHTS’ WEEK
September 14, 2010
NEW YORK, NY – The Lark Play Development Center is proud to announce the selections for Playwrights’ Week 2010. Eight plays were chosen from over 500 submissions. The playwrights will spend a weeklong residency at the Lark developing their work with professional actors, a director, and Lark staff; each will then present that work as a public reading October 18 – 23.
This year's selections are:
THE LAST PAIR OF EARLIES by Joshua Allen - A young couple migrates from rural Mississippi to Chicago, where the collision of their dreams with reality threatens to destroy their marriage.
CLEMENTINE IN THE LOWER NINE by Dan Dietz - A Lower Ninth Ward family struggles to rebuild their home, and escape their troubled past, in this blues-infused story, adapted from Aeschylus’ Agamemnon.
MILVOTCHKEE, VISCONSIN by Laura Jacqmin - Molly has a hole in her head. Will she be able to fill it before everything that she remembers - and everything that makes her who she is - trickles out and away?
TRANSIT by Kait Kerrigan - A small town newscaster seizes her opportunity for a big break when an unidentified Muslim woman jumps in front of a commuter train and dies.
FLOODPLAINS by Gabe McKinley - When Private Lily Johnson mysteriously disappears from duty in Iraq, her father and brother in Missouri are forced to battle each other, the Army and the rising river.
BETHANY by Laura Marks - In an American suburb wiped out by foreclosures, Crystal, a young saleswoman, discovers how far she’ll have to go in order to survive.
SPACEBAR: A BROADWAY PLAY BY KYLE SUGARMAN by Michael Mitnick - Kyle is 15 and on a mission: he is convinced he has written the single, best play in the history of the Universe – and he won't stop until Broadway realizes it.
GIRLS IN THE EDDY by Stacy O'Neill - In a laundromat in Florida, 17-year-old Chrissy Ford has been washing her clothes every day for weeks only to discover she’s not the only one trying to make a clean break.
Plays developed at the Lark regularly go on to full productions at theaters across the globe. This past year Katori Hall’s THE MOUNTAINTOP played London’s West End and will appear on Broadway in fall 2010, Lloyd Suh’s AMERICAN HWANGAP was produced by the Magic Theatre, Ma-Yi & Play Company, and will be produced in Manila, Philippines this month, and Rajiv Joseph’s BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO premiered at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles and was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize.
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NEW YORK, NY – The Lark Play Development Center is proud to announce the 2010-11 Playwrights Workshop Fellows, which include Neena Beber (Jump/Cut), Carla Ching (2G Artistic Director), Greg Kotis (Urinetown), Tommy Smith (P73 Fellow, Lark PONY Fellow), and Playwright-in-Residence Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife).
Playwrights’ Workshop was founded and led by Lark Playwright Advisor Arthur Kopit, and is co-hosted by writers like David Henry-Hwang and Lynn Nottage. The program brings together a community of professional playwrights to create a rigorous yet flexible environment for sharing, supporting, and discussing newly written work. Playwrights invited to this highly competitive program are nominated by the Lark’s esteemed pool of Playwright Advisors, artistic directors at regional theatres, and members of the Lark’s leadership team. Fellows participate in bi-weekly workshop sessions over a seven-month period and present new work developed in the workshop in public readings in May 2011.
Past fellows have included: Thomas Bradshaw (The Bereaved), Sheila Callaghan (Dead City), Katori Hall (The Mountaintop), Jason Grote (1001), Lisa Kron (Well), Sarah Ruhl ( In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) ), among others .
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LARK’S U.S./MÉXICO PLAYS FEATURED AT
CHICAGO’S GOODMAN THEATRE
Goodman’s Latino Theatre Festival brings Mexican plays and playwrights from Lark’s U.S./México Playwright Exchange
July 20, 2010
New York, NY – The Lark Play Development Center is proud to announce that five Mexican plays from its U.S./México Playwright Exchange will be presented at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre from July 23 – 25, presented in partnership with several local companies Aguijón Theater Company, 16 th Street Theater, Teatro Luna, Teatro Vista, and Urban Theater Company.
While the focus of Lark’s internationally collaborative program is to bring U.S. and Mexican playwrights together in order to create English translations of new work from México for U.S. audiences, the program also works to bring Mexican voices into the mainstream of the U.S. theater scene. According to Goodman Resident Artistic Associate Henry Godinez, “We at Goodman have become acutely aware of the benefits of extending the remarkable work the Lark has done beyond New York and of its potentially significant impact on the broader American theatre.”
The plays being presented at the Goodman span from all the past four years of Lark’s U.S/México program; which will continue in November 2010. The plays being presented at the Goodman are:
- Our Dad is in Atlantis by Javier Malpica, translated by Jorge Cortiñas
- Of Princes, Princesses and Other Creatures by Paola Izquierdo, translated by Susana Cook
- Deserts by Hugo Alfredo Hinojosa Díaz, translated by Caridad Svich
- A Lover’s Dismantling: Fragments of a Scenic Discourse by Elena Guiochins, translated by Andy Bragen
- Yamaha 300 by Cutberto López Reyes, translated by Mando Alvarado
For more information about the Lark Play Development Center’s U.S./MÉXICO Playwright Exchange Program, led by playwright Andrea Thome, please visit: www.larktheatre.org. For more information on the Goodman Theatre’s Latino Theatre Festival, please visit: www.goodmantheatre.org.
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OBIE WINNER KYLE JARROW’S LOVE KILLS
SHAKES, RATTLES, AND ROLLS AT THE LARK
June 28, 2010
New York, NY - The Lark Play Development Center, in association with Jaimie Mayer Phinney and Ellen Raphael, is proud to present two free staged readings of LOVE KILLS, book, music & lyrics by Kyle Jarrow, on Friday,July 30 & Monday, August 2 in the Lark Studio.
Hailed as, “An iconoclast,” (TheLA Times) and, “The kind of writer who likes to provoke people,” (The New Yorker), OBIE Award winner Kyle Jarrow picks up where Duncan Shiek (his current collaborator) left off in focusing his work on a new generation. Jarrow says, “There’s a younger audience that’s eager for theater that speaks its own language. This generation—my generation—is attracted by work that packs a visceral punch, and at the same time intelligently and provocatively engages issues relevant to their lives. Issues such as love, violence, responsibility, and the generation gap. HEDWIG was a musical that did this. SPRING AWAKENING was another. My aspiration is for LOVE KILLS to appeal to this same audience.”
Directed by Kent Paul with musical directionby Matt Hinkley, LOVE KILLS is set in a jail cell in 1958 Nebraska, and follows the true story of Charlie Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, two teenaged lovers whose weeklong murder spree inspired such films as Badlands and Natural Born Killers. Equal parts chilling and tender, LOVE KILLS explores the public’s obsession with horror, holds up infatuation to stability, and asks how far you’ll go for someone you love . . . all while accompanied by a pulse-racing rock set.
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LARK ANNOUNCES 4 th ANNUAL PONY FELLOW
4 th Annual “Playwrights of New York” (PONY) Fellowship
awarded to Tommy Smith
May 15, 2010
New York, NY – After three successful years of the Playwrights of New York (PONY) Fellowship, the Lark Play Development Centeris proud to announce that playwright Tommy Smith will be the 2010-11 PONY Fellow, one of the most unique artist fellowships in the country. He will succeed Katori Hall (Olivier Award, THE MOUNTAINTOP) in October 2010.
As the 2010-11 PONY Fellow, Smith will receive housing in the PONY apartment in the heart of the theatre district in midtown Manhattan for one year, a $27,000 living stipend and artistic support from the Lark as a member of the prestigious Playwrights Workshop led by Arthur Kopit and advised by such playwrights as Tina Howe, David Henry Hwang, and Theresa Rebeck.
Smith is a graduate of The Juilliard School’s Playwriting Program, a recipient of the 2008 E.S.T. Sloan Grant, and was the 2008 Page73 Playwriting Fellow. On being award this fellowship, Smith says, “ I'm astonished and for the first time in my life I can actually say that my breath was taken away when I heard. I'm excited to see how this fellowship will change the nature of my work in relation to the theatre community, and I look forward to exposing my plays to more ears and pushing the material to the limits of my creative powers.”
Tommy Smith is a New York based playwright. His plays include SEXTET (upcoming, Washington Ensemble Theatre; Roger Benington, director), THE WIFE (upcoming, IRT Theater; May Adrales, director), WHITE HOT (produced at Here Arts Center; May Adrales, director), PTSD (produced at Ensemble Studio Theatre; Billy Carden, director), THE BREAK-UP (produced at Flea Theater; Sherri Kronfeld, director), BEAUTIFUL NIGHT (commissioned by E.S.T.; Evan Cabnet, director), AIR CONDITIONING (selected for Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference; Steve Cosson, director), GOODNIGHT MECCA (produced at Williamstown Theatre Festival; Gabriel Kahane, composer & lyricist; Kip Fagan, director), among others. His work has also appeared at PS 122, Yale Cabaret, The Ontological Theatre, The Lark Play Development Center, A Contemporary Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, The Huntington Theatre; internationally, he has been produced in Prague, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Montreal and Athens.
He is a two-time winner of the Lecomte du Nouy Prize, a recipient of the E.S.T. Sloan Grant, a winner of the Page73 Productions Playwriting Fellowship and a member of the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writer’s Group at Primary Stages. Publications include WHITE HOT in the 2008 New York Theatre Review and STREAK in “Laugh Lines: Short Comic Plays”, printed by Vintage. He is a graduate of the playwriting program at The Juilliard School.
Tommy co-created (with Reggie Watts) the theatre piece DISINFORMATION, which played at the Under The Radar Theatre Festival at The Public Theatre, The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s Time-Based Art Festival, The Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), The Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh) and ICA (Boston). Tommy won the MAP Fund Award and Creative Capital Award for their follow-up show TRANSITION, which played at the PICA: TBA Festival, Under The Radar and On The Boards. Other collaborations include RADIO PLAY (Ars Nova, Redhouse, Bumbershoot, IRT Theater), OCCURRENCE (Galapagos, The Tank, Ars Nova, Portland’s Leftbank, ICA) and DUTCH A/V (IRT Theater). Visit his website at: http://smithsmith.wordpress.com.
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OLIVIER AWARD WINNER KATORI HALL AND HBO WRITER SARAH TREEM AMONG WRITERS IN LARK’S PLAYWRIGHTS’ WORKSHOP READINGS
May 4, 2010
NEW YORK , NY – The Lark Play Development Center is proud to present the Fourth Annual Playwrights Workshop Readings. This year’s Playwright Fellows include Katori Hall, Sarah Treem,Michi Barall,Madeline George and David Weiner. Readings take place May 17-21 at 8pm at the Lark Studio.
Katori Hall is Lark’s 2009 Playwrights of New York Fellow who recently won an Olivier Award for her play THE MOUNTAINTOP. Sarah Treem is a writer and producer on the acclaimed HBO series “In Treatment”; as well as the upcoming Mark Whalberg produced HBO series “How to Make it in America.” Michi Barall is a member of the Ma-Yi writers’ lab where she just had a recent production of her play RESCUE ME. Madeline George is a founding member of the Obie-Award-winning playwrights collective 13p where she will have an upcoming production. And David Weiner is a core writer of The Playwrights’ Center.
Created in 1999 and hosted by Arthur Kopit, co-hosted this year by Playwright Advisors such as Theresa Rebeck and Tina Howe, also by guest playwrights such as Lynn Nottage. Playwrights’ Workshop Fellows participate in bi-weekly sessions over an eight-month period where playwrights share pages or scenes from works-in-progress which are read by professional actors. They then may, at their choice, invite their colleagues and Playwright Advisors to comment on the work.
Recent Fellows from the Workshop have gone on to receive productions for the plays they developed in the Workshop. Recent success stories include: Katori Hall’s THE MOUNTAINTOP , which has been produced on London's West End (slated to appear on Broadway in 2010/11); Rajiv Joseph’s BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO which has been produced by Center Theatre Group at both their Kirk Douglas Theater and Mark Taper Forum (2009 Pulitzer Prize finalist), Rachel Axler’s SMUDGE was produced by Women’s Project; and Thomas Bradshow’s THE BEREAVED was produced by Partial Comfort.
Plays include: SEVEN HOMELESS MAMMOTHS WANDER NEW ENGLAND by Madeleine George (May 17), GOLIATH by David Wiener (May 18), OUR LADY OF KIBEHO (working title) by Katori Hall (May 19), ORPHAN ISLAND by Sarah Treem (May 20), and ON THE LINE by Michi Barall (May 21).
LARK BRINGS IVORY COAST PLAYWRIGHT
KOFFI KWAHULÉ TO NEW YORK CITY
Koffi Kwahulé’s play presented at the Lark
April 22, 2010
NEW YORK, NY –The Lark Play Development Center is pleased to host French-African playwright Koffi Kwahulé in New York City as part of Lark’s 7 year project to translate, develop, and publish seven of Kwahulé’s plays in an effort to both encourage international exchange and to bring to the forefront a unique theatrical voice, one that has not been heard widely in the United States. Free public readings of Kwahulé’s play THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC, translated by Chantal Bilodeau will be presented on May 13 and 14 at the Lark Studio.
Born in the Ivory Coast, Kwahulé, currently residing in Paris, is a playwright, novelist, essayist, actor and director. He has written more than twenty five plays, which have been translated in many languages and presented throughout Europe and Africa. Working with translator Chantal Bilodeau, seven of his plays, including THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC, have been translated into English. The goal of the Koffi Kwahulé project is to develop “stage-ready” translations of these plays. Furthermore, the Lark wishes to create a movement around Kwahulé’s body of work through strategic partnerships, global and national, which promote the development, production and teaching of his plays. To that end, the Lark has facilitated or hosted events with the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, The Berkshire Theater Festival, the New York Theatre Workshop, The Internationalists, the hotINK International Festivalof Play Readings, Howard University and The Movement Theatre Company. Étant donnés: The French-American Fund for the Performing Arts has been a major funder of Lark’s activities.
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LARK BRINGS CANNES FILM FESTIVAL PALM D’OR AWARDED
WRITER FROM ROMANIA TO NYC
Andreea Valean’s plays presented as part of
Eastern European Playwright Exchange Program
April 12, 2010
NEW YORK , NY –The Lark Play Development Center, in collaboration with the Romanian Cultural Institute New York (RCI), with support from CEC Artslink, is pleased to host Romanian playwright Andreea Valean in New York, as part of its Eastern European Exchange Program. Free public readings of Valean’s play DON’T CRY, WE’LL ALL MEET ON THE OTHER SIDE will be presented on April 15 & 16 at the Lark Studio; and on April 19 her play WHEN I WANT TO WHISTLE, I WHISTLE will be presented at RCI.
Valean is also a producer, theatre director, and an award-winning screenwriter. She was awarded the prestigious Palm d’Or Award in 2004 at the Cannes Film Festival for the film TRAFIC and the film based on her play WHEN I WANT TO WHISTLE, I WHISTLE was recently awarded the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. This marks Valean’s third visit to New York, as part of her ongoing residency.
The Lark’s Eastern European Exchange Program is led by playwright Saviana Stanescu who says that, “the program is aimed at going beyond ‘cultural tourism’ and allowing a true artistic dialogue to exist between the U.S. and Eastern Europe.”
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MIDDLE EAST AMERICA INITIATIVE
SEEKING APPLICATIONS FOR ROUND TWO
Golden Thread Productions, Lark Play Development Center,
and Silk Road Theatre Project announce the second round of
Middle East America: A National New Play Initiative
March 04, 2010
NEW YORK, NY - Middle East America: A National New Plays Initiative, created by Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco, the Lark Play Development Center in New York, and Silk Road Theatre Project in Chicago, is gearing up for the second round of the program which represents the first national effort to actively cultivate and support the development of Middle Eastern-American playwrights and their plays.
In each two-year cycle, Middle East America provides a playwright of Middle Eastern descent with a $10,000 commission, intensive developmental support from the Lark Play Development Center, possible productions at Golden Thread Productions and Silk Road Theatre Project, and travel funds to be present at all stages of the process. During the commissioned play’s development and production arc, representatives of each partner organization travel to each city— Chicago, New York, and San Francisco—to observe the process and to engage in conversations and panel events about Middle Eastern voices.
The inaugural MEA prize was awarded in 2008 to playwright/performer Adriana Sevahn Nichols to develop her play NIGHT OVER ERZINGA. Additionally, Special Jury Prizes were given to playwrights Leila Buck and Sinan Ünel. About her experience over the past two years Nichols says, “This support of my play goes far beyond developing a ‘product.’ While visiting the three theatres, I saw how passionately they rally their hearts behind the urgency of a voice and a story that must be told. They are committed to birthing new plays, while giving writers creative homes to take risks in, bringing their audiences bold new work that challenges and expands them.” Adriana's commission is scheduled for productions in fall 2011 and spring 2012.
Applications will be accepted March 1 – June 15, 2010. The selected writer will be announced in December 2010. For more information and application guidelines, visit: www.middleeastamerica.org.
This initiative is supported in part by The Boeing Company Charitable Trust and the National Endowments for the Arts.
LARK APPOINTS DIRECTOR OF
OFFSITE PROGRAMS AND PARTNERSHIPS
Lisa Rothe Joins Artistic Team
January 12, 2010
New York , NY - The Lark Play Development Center is pleased to announce the appointment of Lisa Rothe as Director of Offsite Programs and Partnerships, a newly created position that will oversee Lark’s programs dedicated to providing expanded opportunities for playwrights “off campus” and strategic multi-lateral partnerships aimed at advancing new work to production nationally and globally.
The establishment of this new position is integral to Lark’s strategic plan to restructure its artistic team over the next few years. Specifically, the new structure will more closely mirror Lark’s three focus areas: Scouting—how plays come to the Lark through our Open Access Program and via targeted outreach; Incubation—how plays are developed through playwright-centered programs such as workshops, residencies and artist-led writing groups; and Advancement—how plays move on to continued life beyond the Lark through advocacy and partnerships. The Director of Offsite Programs and Partnerships will provide oversight primarily in the Advancement area which is Lark’s largest area of growth in recent years and includes programs like Middle East America, Launching New Plays into the Repertoire, and U.S.-Mexico Playwright Exchange. The Lark plans to announce additional structural changes as they occur over the next few years.
Rothe is passionate about new work and has workshopped, developed and directed many new plays. Recent credits include: Interpreting William by James Still (Indiana Repertory); Looking for the Pony by Andrea Lepcio (Synchronicity Performance Group @ Seven Stages in Atlanta); Penelope by Ellen McLaughlin and composer Sarah Kirkland Snider (Getty Villa, Gallatin School in NYC, Princeton University); Couldn’t Say by Christopher Wall (MITF - Best Director Award) as well as productions for NYMF and SPF. She also received an EST/Sloan Foundation grant with composer Kim Sherman and librettist Margaret Vandenburg for work on Ada, a new opera. Alum of the Women's Project Director's Lab as well as a Drama League alum & Fox Fellow. MFA: NYU Graduate Acting.
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4th ANNUAL U.S./MÉXICO PLAYWRIGHT EXCHANGE
Playwrights from México work alongside
U.S. playwrights in a ten-day residency
October 30, 2009
NEW YORK , NY –The Lark Play Development Center in collaboration with Mexico’s Fund for Culture and Arts (FONCA) is pleased to announce The Word Exchange : U.S./México Playwright Exchange Program. For the fourth year the Lark will host four playwrights from México and pair them with four American playwrights for a ten day translation and development residency designed to create stage-worthy translations of new works from México; it also introduces the writers to New York’s theatre scene, industry leaders, and the Lark community. Public readings of these works will be presented on November 21 & 22 at the Lark Studio, followed by a closing night Celebración on November 23 at Atlantic Theatre Company’s Linda Gross Theatre.All events are free and open to the public.
This year’s exchange includes Quetzalcoatl Puddle by Irela de Villers, translated by Rogelio Martinez (the story of a love triangle on a beach with an artificial sun); Gourmet Homicide: or the fine art of Murder by Edgar Alvarez Estrada, translated by Maria Fernanda Coppel (about four strangers whose common pastime is murder); A Lover’s Dismantling: Fragments of a Scenic Discourse by Elena Guiochins translated by Andy Bragen (the story of two couples finding, living and losing love through time, distance, and dreams); Hitler in my Heart by Noé Morales Muñoz, translated by Maria Alexandria Beech, a play that reveals the evil we all carry within.
"After attending last years US/Mexico Exchange Program I can honestly say this is one of the Premiere Programs of its kind in the country. The Lark should be applauded for its commitment to bringing all of us an artistic night to remember. I was blown away by the quality of writing and collaboration that took place that night and look forward to the coming years of this exchange. It gives me hope! And sometimes that's hard to find."
-Edward James Olmos
The 2009 U.S./México Advisory Committee includes Maria Alexandria Beech (playwright) , Luis Castro (Executive Director, Time Warner Philanthropic Initiatives) , Migdalia Cruz (playwright), Henry Godinez (Associate Artistic Director – Goodman Theatre) , Daniel Jáquez ( Calpulli Danza Mexicana ), Marléne Ramírez-Cancio ( Fulana & Hemispheric Institute ), Andrea Thome (The Word Exchange Program Director) , Raul Zorilla (Executive Director, Mexican Cultural Institute) . This program is a collaboration between the Lark and Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes ( Mexico’s National Fund for Culture and Arts) with support from The Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, Dos Equis, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation,and City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs.
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THE LARK AND INDO-AMERICAN ARTS COUNCIL ANNOUNCE SELECTIONS FOR THE 16 TH ANNUAL PLAYWRIGHTS’ WEEK FESTIVAL
July 29, 2009NEW YORK , NY – The Lark Play Development Center and the Indo-American Arts Council are proud to announce the selections for Playwrights’ Week 2009. This year’s eight writers, chosen from over 600 submissions, bring diversity in subject matter ranging from a flooding city to a virginal Sunday school teacher to an ancient bog queen. The playwrights will spend a weeklong residency at the Lark developing their work with professional actors, a director, and Lark staff; they will then present that work in a public reading during the Festival which runs September 30 – October 4.
This year's selections include:
THAT MEN DO by Chad Beckim , a modern-day ghost storyinvolving whispering Scrabble boards, the Giant Buddha of Leshan, earthquakes, and Martin Lawrence.
MISS LILY GETS BONED by Bekah Brunsetter, in which a virginal Sunday school teacher is forced to re-examine her faith
THE ATLAS OF MUD by Jennifer Fawcett concerns a flooding city, a boat full of birds, and a mother and child trying to find each other in a world of water.
FUTURE ANXIETY by Laurel Haines,about the future America plagued by Tsunamis, strawberry riots, and China calling in its debt, while everyone wants to board a homemade spaceship.
LUTHER by Ethan Lipton in which Walter and Marjorie, like a lot of people these days, ha ve adopted an abandoned veteran of war. Sadly, that was the last good decision they made.
THE OLD SHIP OF ZION by Natalia Naman in which a dying deaconess, a troubled church boy, and a college girl all in the midst of tragedy must join a congregation to move on.
NILA by Jennifer Silverman concerns an ancient bog queen pursued by the men who discovered her, the bog-man who loved her, and a musician in search of a muse.
PICKED: A GRIM (FAIRY) TALE by Stephanie Timm takes us to a pillaged land once upon a time where a girl is offered a promise of living happily ever by marrying a stranger across the sea, and discovers that hope might just be her worst enemy.
The Festival kicks off with a Meet the Writers reception on September 30 th, hosted by Morgan Jenness, where the playwrights will be introduced, interviewed, and will read excerpts of their work. The Festival will come to a finale on October 4th with a special announcement of the 2009 IAAC Playwright-In-Residence followed by a closing party, hosted by the Indo-American Arts Council.
The Playwrights’ Week selection process began with over 600 scripts submitted through the Lark's open submission policy. Finalists were chosen through a rigorous process involving the Lark’s Literary Wing, comprised of dozens of theatre artists and community members. The final eight playwrights were selected by a group of esteemed industry professionals including: Mark Blakenship (CREDIT), Kent Gash (CREDIT), Andrea Hiebler (Lark Literary Associate) , Chisa Hutchinson (playwright, SHE LIKE GIRLS) , Miles Lott (Lark LitWing Chair) , Will MacAdams, Megan Monaghan (Lark Artistic Program Director) , Morgan Jenness ( Abrams Artists ) , Aroon Shivdasani (Indo-American Arts Council) , Rob Urbinati (Queens Theatre in the Park) , Tamilla Woodard (The Internationalists).
Playwrights Week 2009 is generously supported, in part, with public funds by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and with major support from Jerome Foundation, NYC City Speaker Christine Quinn, Time Warner’s Diverse Voices Fund and MetLife Foundation.
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BARALL, GEORGE, HALL, TREEM & WIENER SELECTED FOR LARK'S 2009-10 PLAYWRIGHT'S WORKSHOP
The Lark Play Development Center is proud to announce the selected playwrights for the 2009-10 Playwrights’ Workshop. This year’s writers are Michi Barall (Ma-Yi Writer’s Lab), Madeleine George (13P founding member), Katori Hall (Lark’s 2009 PONY Fellow), Sarah Treem (HBO’s “In Treatment”) and David Wiener (Extraordinary Chambers).
Playwrights’ Workshop is founded and led by Lark Playwright Advisor Arthur Kopit, and co-hosted by other Lark Playwright Advisors writers including David Henry Hwang, Tina Howe, Theresa Rebeck, and Doug Wright. It brings together a community of professional playwrights to create a rigorous, yet flexible, environment for sharing, supporting, and discussing each other’s work as part of the playwright’s creative process. Highly competitive, writers included in this program are nominated for inclusion in the Workshop by the Lark’s esteemed pool of Playwright Advisors, artistic directors at regional theatres, and members of the Lark leadership team. Fellows participate in bi-weekly sessions over an eight-month period and present new work developed in the workshop in public readings in May 2010.
2008-09 Playwrights' Workshop fellow Samuel D. Hunter, who presented his play GOD OF MEAT in last year's Workshop public readings, said of his experience, "It is one of the most exciting groups I've ever been a part of. The chance for emerging writers to be working on tenuous first drafts alongside writers like Arthur Kopit and Lisa Kron is truly inspiring. The Lark takes plays and makes them to soar by having them read by some of New York's most talented and respected actors."
Michi Barall is a Brooklyn based actor, playwright and scholar-in-training. As an actor, she has worked predominantly on new plays by American writers --including Julia Cho, Philip Kan Gotanda, A.R. Gurney, John Guare, Naomi Iizuka, Han Ong, Jose Rivera, Sung Rno, Paul Rudnick, Charles Mee, Sarah Schulman, Anna Deavere Smith, Diana Son, Doug Wright, and Chay Yew. The author of three plays, she has had readings with Ma Yi and 2g. She is currently under commission from Fluid Motion Theater & Film to develop How we Became Nomads, a multi-media puppet extravaganza about the life and times of Genghis Khan. Her dance-theare piece, if, then, will be produced by Ma-Yi in their 2009-2010. In addition to being a member of the Ma-Yi writer's lab, and she is an NYTW Usual Suspect. She has been awarded two John Golden Incentive grants administered by Hunter College. A graduate of Stanford University and NYU's Grad Acting, Michi’s now a second year student in the doctoral program in Theatre at ColumbiaUniversity. She secretly dreams of being a circus clown.
Madeleine George’s plays have been produced or developed at Clubbed Thumb, Soho Rep, New York Theatre Workshop, the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, The Playwrights' Center/Guthrie Theater, Rude Mechanicals, and Playwrights Horizons, among other places. She collaborated with LightBox on the multimedia play MILK-N-HONEY, about democracy and appetite in America, which ran at 3LD in the fall of 2007.Support includes a MacDowell Fellowship, the Princess Grace Playwriting Award, a Manhattan Theatre Club Playwriting Fellowship, and the Jane Chambers Award. Madeleine was a member of the 2007-2008 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, is a founding member of the Obie-Award-winning playwrights’ collective 13P, and holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU.
Sarah Treem - Full length plays include: Empty Sky, Against The Wall, Mirror, A Feminine Ending, Human Voices, and Vienna's Amazing. A Feminine Ending received its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons in fall 2007, was subsequently produced at South Coast Repertory and Portland Center Stage in 2008, and is published by Samuel French. Human Voices was part of Manhattan Theatre Club’s Springboard’s New Play Series and New York Stage & Film’s Powerhouse Reading Season in 2007. Sarah has been in residence at The Sundance Institute and The Ojai Playwriting Conference. She has been commissioned by South Coast Repertory and Playwrights Horizons. Sarah is a writer/producer on the acclaimed HBO series, "In Treatment"; as well as the upcoming Mark Wahlberg produced HBO series "How to Make it in America." She is currently adapting Tom Wolfe’s novel "I Am Charlotte Simmons" for Bill Haber and Tina Brown at HBO. Sarah graduated from Yale University and the Yale School of Drama.
David Wiener -Playwriting credits include: Guts, La Arana, Love Song of the Apocalypse, Blood Orange, in vitro, Huera, Cassiopeia, Baltimore Star, System Wonderland and Extraordinary Chambers. His work has been developed and produced in the United States and the United Kingdom at theaters including: The Cherry Lane, The Blue Heron Arts Center, The Etcetera Theater (UK), HB Studios, The Atlantic Theater, The Almeida Theater (UK), The New Group, A Contemporary Theater, South Coast Repertory, The Berkshire Theater Festival, The Pacific Playwrights Festival, The Ojai Playwrights’ Conference and Soho Rep. Mr. Wiener is a graduate of Duke University and Columbia University’s MFA Dramatic Writing Program. He is the recipient of the Cherry Lane Fellowship, The Rossetti Fellowship, and The Reynolds Price Award for Drama as well as commissions from Atlantic Theater Company, South Coast Repertory, SoHo Rep, and A Contemporary Theater. His plays are published by Dramatists Play Service and Smith & Krauss. He is a Core Writer of the Playwrights’ Center. He lives in New York City.
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THE 2009-10 SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORA
PLAYWRIGHT-IN-RESIDENCE AWARD ANNOUNCED
The Lark Play Development Center and Indo-American Arts Council are proud announce playwright Rehana Mirza as the 2009-10 South Asian Diaspora Playwright-in-Residence. The formal presentation of the award will take place at the final celebration event of Playwright’s Week on October 4.
As the 2009-10 recipient Mirza will receive a $1,000 cash award, support from the Lark for the year as she develops new work through roundtable readings, and a public reading at the end of the year. After the fellowship, Mirza will be eligible for Lark’s alumni programs which provide long term support. According to Lark Artistic Program Director Megan Monaghan, “This award identifies and supports extraordinary playwrights from the South Asian diaspora in the New York City metro area, in order to expand the body of work that illustrates the many diverse experiences and interests of South Asian Americans.”
Mirza is the founder and Artistic Director of Desipina Productions, a company focusing in film and theatre, which is dedicated to promoting cross-pollinations of artistic, political, and cultural dialogues. About this opportunity Mirza says, “There are millions of reasons out there to stop being a playwright. But the one reason I keep at it is for the love of telling a story that wouldn't (or couldn't) get told by anyone else. For the next year, I'll have a second reason: a place for the story to be heard, and an artistic community to help shape it. This fellowship is coming at just the right time, as I've been constantly hoping for that extra push that can better connect me to my work, and that can connect others to it.”
For more information about Indo-American Arts Council, please visit: www.iaac.us.
Rehana Mirza : MFA: Playwriting, Columbia University; BFA: Dramatic Writing, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. Rehana’s full-length plays have been produced/developed at: Asian American Theater Company ( San Francisco), Arena Stages ( Los Angeles), Studio Space @ Theater Row, HERE Arts Center, Rasik Arts ( Toronto), and Asian American Arts Centre ( Philadelphia). Her short plays have been presented at the Culture Project, EST, The Flea, Center Stage NY, The Tenement Museum, Richmond Shepard Theater, Artwallah (Los Angeles), CSV Center (2G), and Abrons Arts Center. Her play, BARRIERS, was published with the Alexander Street Press, and was on the theater curriculum at Berkeley, West Virginia University, and Yale University. Her short plays have also been published with the Alexander Street Press as well as in The New York Theater Review, with Blue Box Productions Best of Sticky Series. She is a Leopold Schepp Scholar, a resident member of Ma-Yi Theater’s Writer’s Lab, as well as the recipient of an EST/Sloan Commission, LMCC artist grant, John Golden Award, and TCG Future Leaders mentorship with New Georges/Susan Bernfield. Rehana is the founder and Artistic Director of Desipina Productions. She is also the filmmaker of the award winning short film, Modern Day Arranged Marriage, which has played in over 40 festivals and the feature film, Hiding Divya, with Madhur Jaffrey, Pooja Kumar and Deep Katdare.
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LARK LAUNCHES LLOYD SUH’S “AMERICAN HWANGAP” INTO MULTIPLE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTIONS
NEW YORK , NY – The Lark Play Development Center with support from TheAndrew W.Mellon Foundation has created a new initiative entitled Launching New Plays into the Repertoire which will create a multiple productions of a single play both nationally and internationally. The inaugural project is American Hwangap by Lloyd Suh (The Children of Vonderly) which recently closed a successful run at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre andis now in previews for its New York Off Broadway co-production (Ma-Yi Theater Company and The Play Company). It is scheduled for a 2010 production at Tanghalang Pilipino in the Philippines with additional U.S. productions being negotiated.
This initiative enables Lark, over five years, to create consortia of theater companies that will launch three new plays into national and international prominence by creating an arc of multiple productions of each play, keeping the playwright at the center of the process throughout. The hope is that these arcs will build individual followings for these new works and ignite further collaborations among theater organizations to advance work, ultimately ensuring an extended life of each play. According to Lark Producing Director John Clinton Eisner, “At its heart, this program looks at where theater is going in the next 100 years as an art form and platform for social exchange. We are experimenting with how to create a movement around a play and how to expand the leadership role of artists and the arts in blazing new paths towards collaboration and cooperation—values that have become more instrumental than ever to the future of our society.”
About this opportunity, playwright Suh says, “I’ve often heard people ask, ‘what do playwrights need?’ and ultimately the answer is obvious: production. This consortium initiative is the most hardcore response to that I've ever seen. To have four productions lined up with such a significant support presence behind each, it's incredible.”
Kate Loewald, Founding Producer of The Play Company, and Ralph B. Peña, Artistic Director of Ma-Yi, state "a 'rolling premiere' that gives a play multiple productions in many different communities truly supports new American writing in an new exciting way: plays have the chance to deepen over time, taking shape and growing in front of audiences."
American Hwangap is a quintessential homecoming story. On the momentous occasion of his sixtieth (his “hwangap”) birthday, a Korean immigrant returns to Texas to reunite with the family he abandoned 15 years before. As the birthday celebration unfolds, his wife and their three grown kids must traverse their own broken past to allow for the promise of a future.
The Ma-Yi Theater Company and The Play Company co-production in previews now and its official opening at The Wild Project (195 E. 3 St.) is Sunday, May 17 and runs through June 7. For more information on that production, please visit www.ma-yitheatre.org or www.playco.org.
Having just celebrated its 42nd Season, Magic Theatre is one of the most prominent theatres in the nation solely dedicated to the development and production of new plays. Under the leadership of Loretta Greco, Artistic Director, the mission of Magic Theatre is to give voice to playwrights, both emerging and established, and to develop and promote the work of theatre artists. Magic Theatre engages audiences in intimate, professional productions that speak to contemporary issues with originality and wit, a sense of urgency and adventure.
Ma-Yi Theater Company is one of the nation's leading theater companies presenting works by Asian American writers about the Asian American experience. In its 20-year history, the company's best-known production is the multiple Obie Award-winning play THE ROMANCE OF MAGNO RUBIO by Lonnie Carter. Ma-Yi was founded to develop new plays and performances about Asian American experiences -- challenging the perceptions of what culturally specific theater should be by producing forward-thinking plays by today's emerging playwrights. Recent productions include SOUL SAMURAI and TRIAL BY WATER by Qui Nguyen; the Drama Desk-nominated, Off-Broadway premiere of Tony Award-winner Warren Leight's NO FOREIGNERS BEYOND THIS POINT; Mr. Miyagi's Theatre Company's SIDES: THE FEAR IS REAL; Sung Rno's wAve; Han Ong's MIDDLE FINGER and WATCHER; and Alice Tuan's LAST OF THE SUNS. Ma-Yi Theater Company is under the guidance of Ralph B. Peña, Artistic Director, and Jorge Z. Ortoll, Executive Director.
Lloyd Suh is the author of American Hwangap (Magic Theatre in SF; upcoming with Ma-Yi/Play Co. in NY and Tanghalang Pilipino in Manilla), The Children of Vonderly (Ma-Yi Theater Co.), Masha No Home (Ensemble Studio Theatre, East West Players), Happy End of the World (NEA/Arena Stage New Play Development grant), The Garden Variety, Great Wall Story, and several shorter plays, including Happy Birthday William Abernathy and Not All Korean Girls Can Fly (EST Marathon). His plays have been presented across the country at additional theaters and festivals including the Lark Play Development Center, Ojai Playwrights Conference, New York Stage & Film, McCarter Theatre Center, Stamford Center for the Arts, and others. He has received further grants and commissions from the Jerome Foundation, South Coast Repertory, Theatre Communications Group, New York Foundation of the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and the Lilah Kan Red Socks Award from the National Asian American Theatre Company and Pan Asian Rep in recognition of an artist's commitment to community service. He currently serves as Artistic Director of Second Generation and Co-Director of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, the largest resident company of Asian American playwrights ever assembled.
The Play Company is dedicated to advancing an international view of contemporary playwriting. The company was formed to address our community’s lack of access to plays from other parts of the world, and to promote theatre as a means to engage with the ideas, issues and artists that shape our time. We include the U.S. in our "international view", producing American plays within this global context to emphasize cultural dialogue and the open exchange of ideas. We make our work affordable and accessible through modest ticket prices and grassroots outreach to the city's many cultural communities. The Play Company’s work expands the spectrum of theatre produced in our city, diversifies the repertoire in NYC and beyond, deepens our community’s understanding of contemporary playwriting by introducing foreign texts, and encourages artists and audiences to view American writing within a broader international context. In 2007, these achievements were cited when Play Co. received an OBIE Theatre Grant Award for its contribution to the Off-Broadway theatre community.
Tanghalang Pilipino is the resident theater company of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Since its establishment in 1987, it has successfully presented nearly 200 full productions within 19 seasons while generating one of the best audience attendance records among CCP’s resident companies. Many of the company’s productions have been critically acclaimed by both local and international critics.
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LARK ANNOUNCES 3 rd ANNUAL PONY FELLOW
3 rd Annual “Playwrights of New York” (PONY) Fellowship
awarded to Katori Hall. Tarell Alvin McCraney receives special jury award.
New York, NY – After two successful years of the Playwrights of New York (PONY) Fellowship, the Lark Play Development Center is proud to announce that playwright Katori Hallwill be the 2009-10 PONY Fellow, a one of a kind opportunity worth $80,000. She will succeed Samuel D. Hunter in the fall of 2009. And a special PONY Jury Award of $5,000 was given to Tarell Alvin McCraney for the extraordinary quality of his writing and the exceptional merit of his application.
As the 2009-10 PONY Fellow, Katori Hall will receive benefits valued at $80,000 including housing in the PONY apartment in the heart of the theatre district in midtown Manhattan for one year, a living stipend and artistic support from the Lark as a member of the prestigious Playwrights Workshop led by Arthur Kopit and advised by such playwrights as David Henry Hwang and Tina Howe.
Hall is currently at Juilliard and the playwright-in-residence at Woman’s Project. About this fellowship, she says, “We playwrights have always struggled with the economics of our profession; however, these current times—when theatres are slashing budgets like crazy and commissions are hard to come by—are scary for everyone who works in the theatre. To be given the opportunity to be supported not only financially but artistically during these dire times is beyond a blessing—it’s a watershed moment in my career.”
The PONY fellowship is underwritten, in part, by Lark playwright and board member Sandi Goff Farkas, who conceived PONY because she saw a need for a deeper investment in emerging writers. Farkas says, “writing plays and financial security have become so mutually exclusive for this generation of playwrights--they spend so much time having to support themselves in jobs outside of theater, they have no time to dedicate to writing deep, complex plays. It's critical that our community rally around these writers and support them as wholly as possible to ensure the future of good theater."
Of his time as the 2008-09 PONY Fellow, Hunter says, “ I am just about mid-way through my fellowship year right now, and I think I can safely say that it's been one of the best years of my life. I wake up every morning to financial security and for the first time in my life, playwriting has become my day job. ”
For more information on the Playwrights of New York Fellowship (PONY), please visit: www.playwrightsofnewyork.org.
THEATRE COMMUMICATIONS GROUP AWARDS LARK
TWO PRESTIGIOUS FELLOWSHIPS
December 11, 2008
For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Matthew Paul Olmos / 212-246-2676 ext. 24
NEW YORK , NY – The Lark Play Development Center was recently awarded two of Theatre Communications Group’s most prestigious awards. The national theater service organization selected Lark for a Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship (funded by the William & Eva Fox Foundation) which will go to actor Hoon Lee and a New Generations Future Leaders Fellowship (funded by Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation) which goes to director May Adrales. Each fellowship comes with monetary awards of $22,500 and $70,000 respectively and places each artist in a leadership role as part of their career advancement.
During Lee’s one-year fellowship, the longtime Lark actor, will participate in programs, including Playwrights’ Workshops, Studio Retreats, Barebones presentations and international exchanges. Alongside Lark Producing Director, John Clinton Eisner, he will develop a Playwright-Actor project with a Lark playwright. Hoon will also work closely with Lark artistic advisor Olympia Dukakis, who will act as a mentor. Of this opportunity, Lee says, “ It's incredibly encouraging and empowering to receive such a distinguished award. Not only does it grant me the space and time to improve my craft in a personalized, focused way, while forging relationships with mentors and peers who are pursuing parallel paths, but it's also deepening my relationship with the Lark, an institution whose purpose and personnel are an inspiration to the theatrical community.”
As the New Generations artistic leadership fellow, Adrales will be mentored by Eisner in artistic programming and strategic planning working full-time at the Lark for two years. Adrales will also work with executive leadership to develop a plan for sustained artistic support of core playwrights and to identify best practices for deepening Lark’s investment in unheard and marginalized voices and strengthening cross-pollination among these communities. She will play a leadership role fostering community dialogue, facilitating dramaturgical discussions, and directing new work. Adrales says, “ The next two years will be dedicated to building my artistic life, navigating my artistic goals and learning through responsibility and observation how to be an effective leader. It is especially meaningful to work at The Lark which has been an artistic home for me for several years; I have seen it grow and change dramatically under John’s leadership and am excited about being part of its ever growing success.”
About the two fellowships, Eisner says, “We recognize the long-term importance to playwrights of in-depth relationships with actors and directors, and that means finding the financial means to support writers and the creative teams with whom they work. We are thrilled that May and Hoon are helping us to take a major leap in strengthening our artist base through these two important artist grants.”
For more information on the Theatre Communications Group fellowship, visit: www.tcg.org. For more information on the Lark, visit: www.larktheatre.org.
May Adrales - has directed and developed work at The Public Theater, Second Stage Theatre, New York Theater Workshop, The Hangar Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, New Jersey Repertory, Ensemble Studio Theater, and The New York International Fringe Festival. Recent productions and awards: Lisa Ramirez's EXIT CUCKOO (Midtown International Theater Festival, Best Solo Performance); Jose Rivera's CLOUD TECHTONICS (Pure Theater), Odon Von Horvath's FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY (awarded SSDC Denham Fellowship); Anton Dudley’s COLD HARD CASH (Williamstown Theater Festival). May received a Van Lier Directing Fellowship, a SDCF Observership, and a Drama League Directing Fellowship. She was a member of SoHo Rep Writers/Director's Lab, Women's Project Directors Lab and New York Theatre Workshop Directing Fellowship for 2006-07. May worked as an Artistic Associate at The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival from 2006-08, where she played a leading role in the development of the Public's classical acting program, The Shakespeare Lab, as well as the education and community outreach efforts. MFA, Yale School of Drama, directing.
Hoon Lee - Broadway: PACIFIC OVERTURES, URINETOWN, FLOWER DRUM SONG. Off-Broadway/Regional: YELLOW FACE (Public Theater and Mark Taper Forum), SIDES: THE FEAR IS REAL… (Culture Project, P.S.122, Ma-Yi Theater), CHILDREN OF VONDERLY (Ma-Yi Theater), AMERICAN HWANGAP (The Lark Play Development Center), THE KING & I (Papermill Playhouse). TV and Film: We Own the Night (Universal), Saving Face (Sony Pictures), “Sex and the City,” “Law & Order.” Interactive: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Midnight Club III. He is a founding member of Mr. Miyagi’s Theatre Company and a graduate of Harvard University.
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LARK SELECTED TO PARTICIPATE IN
NEW NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS
NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
December 4, 2008
For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Matthew Paul Olmos / 212-246-2676 x24
NEW YORK , NY – The Lark Play Development Center was one of five theaters selected for the first-ever NEA Distinguished New Play Development Project. Each theater receives $20,000 to support early development activities for a new play which the Lark will be using to implement a national, multi-theater development strategy for Aditi Brennan Kapil’s AGNES UNDER THE BIG TOP, A FAIRY TALE.
Working with Lark will be Mixed Blood Theatre, InterAct Theatre, 4 th World Laboratory for International Theater Research, and The Playwrights’ Center. The process was designed by the playwright and her collaborator, dramaturg Liz Engelman in conjunction with Lark and its partners. Each theater will contribute to specific aspects of the development process as devised by the creative team, which will include research assistance, dramaturgy, consultations with designers, and workshop opportunities.
AGNES UNDER THE BIG TOP, A FAIRY TALE is a quintessentially American story, it is a surreal journey tracing the intersecting paths of a handful of immigrants as they struggle to form a new identity in America without losing connection to their past. Kapil says of the development opportunity , “It's an amazing gift to have the space and means to develop this piece with both artistic integrity and institutional support, and to have national attention for this deeply personal story as it evolves into a piece of theater. This play brings together a wide array of ideas that are finally surfacing in this complex world combining American, Bulgarian, Indian, and Liberian characters, circus lore, and fairy tale.”
Administered by Arena Stage, NEA’s new initiative is intended to help the nation’s nonprofit theaters bring more new plays to full production. "Every year the NEA supports about 135 new theatrical premieres, but the NEA New Play Development Program, in partnership with Arena Stage, is something special. It creates a small but superb national network to develop new works from across the country," said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. According to Lark Producing Director John Clinton Eisner, “Through this collaboration, we hope to create a safe and effective space for theater decision-makers to come together in different
configurations and form multilateral partnerships that advance playwrights
and their plays into a reinvigorated repertoire.”
As the first step in this process, the Lark will host a roundtable reading and partner planning meeting on December 11 in New York, where Kapil, Engelman, Peter Karapetkov (Founder/Co-Director, The 4 th World Theater Lab/Rhodopi Theater Collective), Jack Reuler (Artistic Director, Mixed Blood Theatere), and Seth Rozin (Producing Artistic Director, InterAct Theatre Company) will convene for a roundtable reading of the current draft of the play, followed by a discussion about the developmental arc and goals for the next steps in this process.
Kapil was first brought to the Lark’s attention when she submitted her play LOVE PERSON to its Open Access Program and was selected to the 2006 Playwrights’ Week festival. LOVE PERSON then went on to multiple productions through the National New Play Network at Marin Theater, Mixed Blood, Phoenix Theatre, and was nominated for the Susan Blacksmith Award and Pulitzer Prize.
The four theaters also selected for the Distinguished New Play Development program are California Shakespeare Theater ( Berkeley, CA), The Children’s Theatre Company ( Minneapolis, MN), The Foundry Theatre ( New York, NY), and Rude Mechanicals ( Austin, TX). Meanwhile as part of this same initiative, the NEA also selected Center Theater Group ( Los Angeles, CA) for NEAOutstanding New American Play to receive support in producing Rajiv Joseph’s BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO, which was developed at the Lark and presented as a Lark BareBones® in May 2007. The McCarter Theatre ( Princeton, NJ) also received the Outstanding New American Play selection.
Aditi Brennan Kapil is an actress, writer, and director, of Bulgarian and Indian descent, raised in Sweden, and currently residing in Minneapolis, MN. She is a graduate of Macalester College with a BA in English and Dramatic Arts. Her latest play, LOVE PERSON, A four part love story in Sanskrit, ASL and English, was developed during a Many Voices residency at the Playwrights’ Center, work-shopped at the Lark Center for New Play Development in NY, and selected for reading at the National New Play Network conference. LOVE PERSON is being produced in a rolling world premiere at Mixed Blood Theatre (MN), Marin Theater (CA), and Phoenix Theatre (IN), in the 2007/08 season. In 2008/09 it will be produced by Live Girls in Seattle, and Victory Gardens in Chicago. “Love Person” has been nominated for the Blackburn Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, and the Steinberg Award. AGNES UNER THE BIG TOP, A FAIRY TALE is slated for production at Mixed Blood Theatre in 2010. Aditi’s playwriting credits include a number of plays for youth, including THE DEAF DUCKLING, a bilingual (ASL & English) educational touring show about growing up Deaf, created in collaboration with Deaf performer Nic Zapko for Mixed Blood Theater, and THE ADVENTURES OF THE HANUMAN, KING OF THE MONKEYS, a Bollywood style musical inspired by tales from the Ramayana for SteppingStone Theater for Youth Development (March 2006). She has also collaborated on several productions with In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater, notably GOTAMA, a play about the early life of the Buddha, and BENEATH THE SURFACE, a water circus. She is currently developing CHITRANGADA: THE GIRL PRINCE for SteppingStone Theatre for Youth, a play in iambic verse loosely based on an episode in the Mahabharata. MESSY UTOPIA which she directed, and co-wrote with Seema Sueko, Velina Hasu-Houston, Janet Allard, and Naomi Iizuka, received an Ivey Award, and #6 in the City Pages Best of the Twin Cities 2007.
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BEYOND BORDERS:
MEXICAN AND U.S. WRITERS UNITE IN NYC
Newly translated plays from Mexico November 22 nd - 24 th
November 14, 2008
For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Matthew Paul Olmos / 212-246-2676 x24
NEW YORK , NY –The Lark Play Development Center in collaboration with Mexico’s Fund for Culture and Arts (FONCA) is pleased to announce the return of THE WORD EXCHANGE: U.S./México Playwright Exchange Program. For the 3 rd year the Lark will host four playwrights from México and pair them with four American playwrights for a ten day translation and development residency in which the Lark introduces the writers to New York’s vibrant theatre scene, as well as to industry leaders and the Lark community. Public readings of the newly translated work will be presented on November 22 and 23 (4pm and 8pm) at the Lark Studio, followed by a closing night Celebración on Monday the 24 at New York Theatre Workshop. All are free and open to the public.
This year’s selected plays range in theme and style. They include the “reality theatre” events of a dysfunctional family, paid to play themselves onstage four days a week in Luis Ayhllón’s THE CAMELS (translated by Maria Alexandria Beech), a dark comedy about a young drug smuggler named “Animal” attempting to make his last delivery in YAMAHA 300 by Cutberto López Reyes (translated by Mando Alvarado), as well as the story of two actors playing friends who confront the ills of a classist society in DECOMPOSITION by Jose Alfonso Cárcamo (translated by Mariana Carreño King ) , and THE MAIDS OF HONOR by Ernesto Anaya (translated by Migdalia Cruz) in which a dwarf, a princess and two ladies of the court of King Philip IV lead us through the tortured soul of Spain’s master painter, Diego Velásquez.
THE WORD EXCHANGE serves as one of Lark’s central programs, furthering its commitment to not only theatrical exchange, but forming inter-cultural relationships. In addition to the artistic emphasis of the residency, the playwrights will have a week of events and opportunities designed to experience different aspects of New York, including meeting industry leaders and seeing a variety of plays. This year’s Mexican Advisory Committee, that helped create the program, included Daniel Jáquez (Calpulli Danza Mexicana ), Shoshana Polanco (Creative Producer), Marléne Ramírez-Cancio (Fulana & Hemispheric Institute ), Luis Castro (Executive Director, Time Warner Philanthropic Initiatives), Migdalia Cruz (playwright), Raul Zorilla(Executive Director, Mexican Cultural Institute), and Program Director Andrea Thome. This program is a collaboration between the Lark and Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes ( Mexico’s National Fund for Culture and Arts) with support from The Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, Corona Extra, and City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs. NY1/NY1 Noticias is the official media sponsor of the U.S./Mexico Playwright Exchange Program.
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BRADSHAW, HUNTER, KOPIT, KRON, O’CONNOR SELECTED TO LARK’S 2008-09 PLAYWRIGHTS’ WORKSHOP
October 22, 2008
For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Matthew Paul Olmos / 212-246-2676 x24
NEW YORK , NY – The Lark Play Development Center is proud to announce the selected playwrights for the 2008-09 Playwrights’ Workshop Fellows 2008. This year’s writers include Thomas Bradshaw ( Southern Promises ) , Samuel D. Hunter (Lark’s 2008 PONY Fellow) , Lisa Kron (Well) , Deirdre O’Connor (Hero) , and Playwright-in-Residence Arthur Kopit (LarkPlaywright Advisor) .
Playwrights’ Workshop brings together established, emerging, and mid-career writers to create a rigorous yet flexible environment for sharing and discussing each other’s work. This program supports a community of self-guided professionals who desire creative connection and peer relationships as part of their creative process. Highly competitive, playwrights included in this program are nominated for inclusion in the Workshop by the Lark’s esteemed pool of Playwright Advisors, artistic directors at regional theatres, and members of the Lark leadership team. Fellows participate in bi-weekly sessions over an eight-month period and present new work developed in the workshop in public readings. Chairing this year’s workshop will be Lark Playwright Advisor David Henry Hwang (Yellow Face) .
Past workshop fellows include: Jason Grote, who developed Box Americana in the Workshop, which was read at Playwrights Horizons; Anton Dudley who developed his play Substitution, which was then produced by The Playwrights Realm at Soho Playhouse; Katori Hall who’s The Mountaintop has been read at Juilliard and Primary Stages;and Rachel Axler, who’s Workshop-developed play Smudge will be produced by Manhattan Theater Club in 2008-09. Last year’s Playwright-in-Residence was Tina Howe.
A laboratory for new voices and new ideas, the LARK PLAY DEVELOPMENT CENTER provides playwrights with indispensable resources to develop their work. The Lark brings together actors, directors, playwrights and the community to allow writers to learn about their own work by seeing and hearing it, and by receiving feedback from a dedicated and supportive community. The company reaches into untapped local populations and across international boundaries to seek out and embrace unheard voices and diverse perspectives, celebrating differences in language and worldviews. The Lark also plays a leading role in advancing unknown writers and their works to audiences through carefully stewarded partnerships with a host of theaters, universities, community-based organizations, and NGOs, locally, nationally and globally. The Lark is led by Producing Director, John Clinton Eisner, Managing Director, Michael Robertson, and Artistic Program Director, Megan Monaghan.
Thomas Bradshaw - His newest play Dawn will Premiere at The Flea Theater on November 9th directed by Jim Simpson. His play Southern Promises premiered at Performance Space 122 in September. His play entitled Purity was produced at Performance Space 122 in January 2007 and his plays Strom Thurmond Is Not A Racist and Cleansed were produced on a double bill at The Brick Theatre in February ‘07. His plays Prophet, Strom Thurmond Is Not A Racist, Cleansed, and Purity are all published by Samuel French, Inc. Strom/Cleansed were nominated for Outstanding Original Full Length Script by the New York Innovative Theater Awards in 2007. He has been featured as one of Time Out New York’s ten playwrights to watch, as one of Paper Magazine’s 2006 Beautiful People, and Best Provocative Playwright by the Village Voice in 2007. His play entitled Prophet was presented at P.S. 122 in December 2005 . He was a fellow at New York Theater Workshop in 2006-07’ and is now a Usual Suspect. Strom Thurmond Is Not A Racist was produced in Los Angeles in June 2008’ and Thomas’s play Dawn received a workshop with New York Theater Workshop at Dartmouth College in August. Dawn has been translated into German and was presented at Theater Bielefeld in Germany in October. His play Purity was published by Theaterheute in Germany in April and his play Dawn was published by Theater Der Zeit in October. He is currently working on an adaptation of The Book Of Job which has been commissioned by Soho Rep. He is also Soho Rep’s 2008-2009 Streslin Fellow.
Samuel D. Hunter is originally from Moscow, Idaho. He received his BFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 2004, an MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop in 2007, and is currently a playwright-in-residence at the Juilliard School. Most recently, Sam was awarded the 2008-2009 Playwrights of New York (PONY) Fellowship from the Lark Play Development Center. His plays include: I am Montana at the 2008 Ojai Playwrights Conference, 2008 Juilliard New Play Festival, 2007 Bay Area Playwrights Festival and the 2007 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Norman Rockwell Killed My Father at the 2005 O'Neill Playwrights Conference, Abraham (A Shot in the Head) at Richard Foreman's Ontological-Hysteric Theater, Abraham (I am an Island) in Studio 42's Scattered Festival at Collective: Unconscious, Pigheart at the 2007 Iowa New Play Festival, and his newest play, Idaho / Dead Idaho , which recently received its first reading at Juilliard, and will have a reading in September at Ars Nova as part of their Out Loud reading series. Sam has taught at the University of Iowa, Fordham University, and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories at Ashtar Theater (Ramallah) and Ayyam al-Masrah (Hebron). He lives in New York with his partner, dramaturg John Baker.
Arthur Kopit is the author of: Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad; Indians (Tony Nominee, Finalist for Pulitzer Prize); Wings (Tony Nominee, Finalist for Pulitzer Prize); a new translation of Ibsen's Ghosts; the book for the musical Nine (based on Fellini’s 8 ½), music and lyrics by Maury Yeston (Tony Award for Best Musical, 1982 and Tony Award for Best Musical revival, 2003), and about to start filming, with Rob Marshall directing and Daniel Day-Lewis as Guido); End of the World with Symposium to Follow; the book for the musical Phantom; the book for the musical High Society; Road to Nirvana; BecauseHeCan (originally entitled Y2K); Chad Curtiss, Lost Again, and numerous one act plays. Current PROJECTS include Discovery of America, a play based on the account of the Spanish conquistador, Cabeza de Vaca, and two plays about memory, one called Autumn Light, the other with the working title, The Incurables. AS A TEACHER: Mr. Kopit has taught playwriting at the Rita and Burton Goldberg Graduate Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU, Yale School of Drama, Yale College, Columbia University, Harvard, CCNY, Hunter College, Princeton, and, this past spring, at Denison University, where he was Jonathan Reynolds Playwright-in-Residence. Mr. Kopit is a member of the Writers Guild of America, the Dramatists Guild, the Dramatists Guild Council, and The Lark Play Development Center, where he heads The Lark Playwrights’ Workshop. He lives in New York.
Lisa Kron has been writing and performing theater since coming to New York from Michigan in 1984. Her play Well opened on Broadway at the Longacre Theater in March 2006, receiving two Tony nominations. It premiered at the Public Theater in 2004 and was listed among the year’s best plays by the New York Times, the Associated Press, the Newark Star Ledger, Backstage, the Advocate, and is included in the anthology, “Best Plays of 2004-2005.” 2.5 Minute Ride (Obie Award, Drama Desk nom., GLAAD Award) premiered and at the Public Theater in 1999 and has been presented all over the world at theaters including the London Barbican, and Japan’s Rinkogun. Other plays include 101 Humiliating Stories (P.S. 122, Lincoln Center, Drama Desk Nomination), Charity and Montecore (2006 Humana Festival, New York Fringe), and 43/13 (Dad’s Garage, Atlanta). Kron is a founding member of the OBIE and Bessie Award–winning theater company The Five Lesbian Brothers. Fellowships/Grants include: Lortel and Guggenheim Foundations, NEA/TCG, Cal Arts/Alpert Award, Creative Capital Foundation, NYFA. Projects in the works include Five Questions for Center Theater Group, a musical adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, as well as new plays for the Sloan Foundation through Playwrights Horizons and for Drew University.
Deirdre O'Connor's productions include Hero (Naked Angels, Armed and Naked in America), The Death of May McAllister (Northeastern University), Penicillin (Naked Angels, The Mag 7), White Jesus (Naked Angels, Democracy Project), The Attic (St Ann's Warehouse, Labapalooza), and Wednesday (Naked Angels, Fear). Deirdre was a 2008 Cherry Lane Mentor Project Fellow mentored by Michael Weller. Her play Jailbait will be produced by The Cherry Lane Theatre in 2009. She is a graduate of Hampshire College, and Columbia University's MFA Playwriting program where she received the John Golden Playwriting Award. Deirdre writes for “The Electric Company” which will begin airing on PBS in January 2009. She is a member of the Naked Angels Writers Group and Teaching Artist for the Roundabout Theatre Company.
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MELLON FOUNDATION AWARDS OVER
$2.5 MILLION TO NEW WORKS LABS
Lark Play Development Center, New Dramatists, Playwrights’ Center, and Sundance Institute Theatre Program receive major grants in support of new work
For Immediate Release
Media Contact:
Michael Robertson / 212-246-26076 / michael@larktheatre.org
NEW YORK– The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded over $2.5 million in grants to four play development organizations as a means to support the creation and production of new work over the next three to five years. The recipients, receiving grants range from $500,000 to $1,000,000, are the Lark Play Development Center (NYC), New Dramatists (NYC), the Playwrights’ Center ( Minneapolis), and Sundance Institute Theatre Program ( Beverly Hills, CA) .
While these grants support activities ranging from creating movie-like trailers for new plays to establishing consortia that bring plays to multiple productions, the overarching focus is deeper support for individual playwrights and innovative strategies to launch vital new plays to production.
According to the Mellon Foundation, “These centers have a distinguished history of providing support for artists and of collaborating successfully with regional theaters across the U.S. in producing new works that have been developed at their labs. While different in terms of programming, all share a goal of bringing new voices to the American theatre repertoire.”
The Lark Play Development Center’s grant of $500,000 over 5 years will support its “Launching Plays into the Repertoire Initiative” which will “create a movement” around vital new plays. Lark will form consortia of theater organizations that will result in at least twelve productions of three new plays in the U.S. and internationally. Partner organizations will participate in the full production arc of the play including traveling to see each production and engaging in conversations and community engagement activities. Funds will provide significant financial support for playwrights, substantial production subsidies for producing organizations, and extensive travel funds for all participants. Producing Director John Clinton Eisner says, “it is our conviction that good playwrights become great playwrights through trial and error in front of audiences, and good plays become great plays through multiple productions in multiple venues. This initiative will provide the financial incentives to support the risk-taking involved in producing new work and ensure that the playwright is fully engaged in the process.”
New Dramatists, awarded $675,000 over four years, will launch two new initiatives: Creativity Fund and Full Stage USA. Creativity Fund will provide up to 15 writers per year with the resources to schedule and design their own workshops in order to more fully realize works-in-progress. Full Stage USA will establish institutional collaborations between New Dramatists’ playwrights’ laboratory and producing organizations across the country. Each Full Stage partnership will consist of a multi-year collaboration beginning with $25,000 writer commissions, two years of unlimited writer-driven development at New Dramatists, and culminating premiere productions at the partner theatres. According to Artistic Director Todd London, “Our four companies have been working with a common purpose for years. These extraordinary gifts will allow us, as a collegial community, to do more of what we do best: listen to playwrights, provide the support they truly need to make important work, and serve as a collective laboratory to the American nonprofit theatre. Playwrights and the whole theatre community will reap the benefits.”
For The Playwrights’ Center, who received $1 million over 5 years, the grant will double its workshop hours for writers, deepen the workshop experience, and increase pay rates for all theater artists. An innovative online “trailer” project will preview new plays the way the film industry previews new movies, and funding will significantly increase travel by producers to and from the Center. Playwrights will also benefit from a number of social networking tools built by the Center into its new website that will help them promote their own work and connect with other writers, artists, and potential collaborators.
Polly Carl , Playwrights’ Center Producing Artistic Director, says “In the end, the play’s the thing. Workshops, readings—these are invaluable parts of the development process. We do this work very well. But stopping there is a bit like creating a play with no climax or conclusion. Our aim is to see that good work—work that merits staging—reaches audiences through full productions. New work is crucial to the future of the art form — the only way to keep the theater vibrant.”
Sundance Institute Theatre Program received $600,000 over 3 years to further develop and deepen its models of new play development. Stabilizing the Theatre Program and refining methodologies is an ongoing commitment. The Institute will expand its pre- and post-Lab dramaturgical model; augment a fund for commissions and living stipends for playwrights; enhance its LABthink program (a series of structured conversations created by the Institute in 2007 to more comprehensively understand how best to serve the playwriting field); increase outreach to learn about new work and emerging talent in a range of urban centers; explore the creation of a Phase II Theatre Lab, which would afford Sundance alumni further exploration of complicated theatrical material in a development setting; commit to training new American dramaturgs by adding a paid dramaturg intern position at our Labs.
Sundance Institute Theatre Program Artistic Director Philip Himberg says, "The Mellon Foundation’s convening of artists and artistic leaders committed to new play development has inspired a new way of thinking about the field. We wish to think in a larger way about the work we do and about how it can influence our culture; we wish to share more with our colleagues and to learn deeply about how we structure supporting new voices; and we want to effectively assure that the resources that go into the development of work are harvested effectively when a play reaches production and its audience."
Supported by the Mellon Foundation, Sundance will host a historic convening in New York – an intimate working group of the leaders of six play development institutions that solely provide development support-not production-to playwrights (2008 New Play Development Summit). The summit will take place this December in New York City to discuss the future issues and opportunities facing new play development. Joining the Lark Play Development Center, New Dramatists, Playwrights’ Center, and Sundance will be Arena Stage, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, and Playwrights’ Foundation. To learn more about each organization, please visit: www.larktheatre.org, www.newdramatists.org, www.pwcenter.org, and www.sundance.org.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is a private philanthropic institution that makes grants on a selective basis to institutions of higher education, independent libraries, centers for advanced study, museums, art conservation, and performing arts organizations. The Foundation’s Performing Arts program focuses on achieving long-term results by providing multi-year grants to leading organizations in the disciplines of music, theater, and dance. Annual giving in the area of the performing arts has averaged approximately $28 million per year since 2005. In 2004 The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation was awarded a National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States Government. For more information: www.mellon.org.
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MIDDLE EAST AMERICA
ANNOUNCES 1st DISTINGUISHED PLAYWRIGHT AWARD
Matthew Paul Olmos 212-246-2676 ext. 24
October 14, 2008
For Immediate Release
NEW YORK, NY –The three theater organizations from across the nation, Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco, the Lark Play Development Center in New York, and Silk Road Theatre Project in Chicago, who formed Middle East America (MEA): A National New Plays Initiative have awarded the 2008 Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award to Adriana Sevan . Additionally, due to the outstanding pool of applicants, MEA has honored both Leila Buck and Sinan Unel with the 2008 Middle East America Special Jury Prize.
The first of its kind, this prize provides a $10,000 commission for Sevan to write a new play, intensive developmental support from the Lark, possible productions at Golden Thread and Silk Road, and travel funds to be present at all stages of the process. According to Lark Producing Director John Clinton Eisner, "Our nation's energy and innovation has often sprung from immigrant's stories and global perspectives, and this commission represents a new path for cultural institutions learning to collaborate on building new repertoire that more accurately mirrors and celebrates America's ever-evolving cultural landscape."
During the commissioned play’s development and production arc, representatives of each partner organization will travel to each city— Chicago, New York, and San Francisco—to observe the process and to engage in public conversations and panel events about Middle Eastern voices. Jury Prize awardees Buck and Unel will both receive $1,000 in recognition of the high quality of their writing and potential contribution to the American theater.
Sevan is an American artist of Armenian, Dominican, and Basque ancestry; her one-woman show Taking Flight, has been workshopped and performed at the Goodman Theatre, Center Theatre Group, San Diego Repertory, South Coast Repertory, and Sundance Institute Theatre Program. About the award, Adriana says, “ What a blessing to have a trinity of theatres so committed to the heart of my unwritten play, eager to share their wisdom and resources, provide a nurturing community, and help the seeds of my story to grow."
About Sevan’s proposed new work, the Artistic Director of Silk Road Theatre Project Jamil Khoury says, “ This exciting first commission promises to enrich the canon of American theatre and our understanding of Middle Eastern Americans. Adriana plans to conduct research exploring themes of family, atrocity, migration, and memory, including the untold stories of the Turkish Schindlers who helped Armenians survive their Ottoman tormentors. The play is inspired by Adriana's grandparents who survived the Armenian genocide before fleeing to the shores of New England.”
Playwrights of Middle Eastern American heritage applied from all over the U.S. and, according to Torange Yeghiazarian , Golden Thread Artistic Director, “ The quality of the proposals far exceeded our expectations. The pool of readers highly recommended, to the final selection committee, more playwrights than the Initiative can possibly support in its first round. We hope that in the future we will be able to award more than one commission.”
The chosen playwrights were selected by: John Clinton Eisner (Lark Producing Director) , Jamil Khoury, and Torange Yeghiazarian. The reading committee included a wide range of theatre artists and managers: Suzy Fay, Malik Gillani, Kristin Horton, Isis Saratial Misdary, Sonia Pabley, Jennifer Shook, Shilarna Stokes, Lloyd Suh, Daniella Topol, and Tamilla Woodard. For more information on Middle East America: A National New Plays Initiative, please visit: www.middleeastamerica.org.
Adriana Sevan , a native New Yorker, is an award winning actress and playwright. Her critically acclaimed one woman show, TAKING FLIGHT, has been thrilling audiences across the country. It was recently awarded a 2007 San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award and is a finalist for a 2008 Audie Award for Best Solo Narrative. As a playwright, she has created, developed, and performed her work at the Sundance Theatre Lab, South Coast Repertory, The Mark Taper Forum, The Lark Play Development Center, INTAR, and Dixon Place. In 2006, TAKING FLIGHT, had its world premiere at The Kirk Douglas Theatre, produced by Michael Ritchie and Diane Rodriguez/Center Theatre Group. The play was then recorded live with LA Theatre Works for a nationwide broadcast, on Public Radio, for the series, “The Play’s The Thing.” TAKING FLIGHT has continued to have sold out runs at San Diego Rep, The Fountain Theatre, and the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Sevan is about to begin a nine month playwriting residency, led by Pier Carlo Talenti, at The Mark Taper Forum. As an actress, she has just completed a film called HARVEST, opposite Barbara Barrie and Robert Loggia. She has appeared in multiple guest-starring roles on TV, including “The Unit,” “Law & Order,” “Sex & the City,” “Deadline,” “Dellaventura,” and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.” Onstage, her theatre credits include work at South Coast Repertory, Yale Rep, Coconut Grove Playhouse, LA Theatre Works, The Public Theater, Classic Stage Company, Shakespeare & Company, ACT, and HERE. She currently guest teaches at CAL ARTS, and leads transformational workshops for at risk adolescent girls using creative writing, improvisation, and personal myth-making as tools for girls to discover and express their vibrant, vital, and unique voices.
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LARK WELCOMES 2nd ANNUAL PONY FELLOW
Media Contact:
Matthew Paul Olmos / 212-246-2676 ext. 24 / matt@larktheatre.org
October 3, 2008
For Immediate Release
New York , NY – After a successful inaugural year of the Playwrights of New York (PONY) Fellowship, the Lark Play Development Center is proud to welcome playwright Samuel D. Hunter as the 2008-09 PONY Fellow. On Thursday, October 2 nd, Sam was officially welcomed at the PONY apartment during a housewarming event which included playwright Arthur Kopit, Lark staff and board, as well as donors and friends. Hunter takes the place of the inaugural PONY Fellow, Carson Kreitzer.
As a PONY Fellow, Sam will live in the PONY apartment in the heart of the theatre district in midtown Manhattan for one year rent-free and will receive a $24,000 living stipend and artistic support from the Lark as a member of the prestigious Playwrights Workshop led by Arthur Kopit. The unprecedented fellowship, the only one of its kind, seeks to free writers from the economic constraints typically felt by artists in New York City.
Hunter, currently at Juilliard, says, “It’s been a constant struggle to make ends meet financially while finding time to write. Playwriting, the reason I came to New York, has felt like a side project, something I turn to on nights on weekends.”
The PONY fellowship is underwritten, in part, by Lark playwright and board member Sandi Goff Farkas, who conceived PONY, seeing the need for a deeper investment in emerging writers. “ So many playwrights have to put their plays on the back burner, due to the harsh economics of being a playwright in New York. Our community needs to rally around these writers in a significant way to make sure this generation of voices is heard , ” says Farkas.
Of her time as the 2007-08 PONY Fellow, Kreizter says, “To live in New York completely supported, not having to worry about overwhelming rent, with nothing to do but write—it’s more than I ever dreamed possible.”
Hunter says the PONY Fellowship “is completely overwhelming and humbling at the same time. It’s the greatest gift an artist can receive—the chance to work unencumbered by real world responsibilities. I can’t wait to see what my output will be when my main responsibility in life is to write plays.”
For more information on the Playwrights of New York Fellowship (PONY), or the Lark Play Development Center, please visit: www.larktheatre.org.
Samuel D. Hunter is originally from Moscow, Idaho. He received his BFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2004, an MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop in 2007, and is currently a playwright-in-residence at the Juilliard School. His plays include: I AM MONTANA at the 2007 Bay Area Playwrights Festival and the 2007 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, NORMAN ROCKWELL KILLED MY FATHER at the 2005 O’Neill Playwrights Conference, ABRAHAM (A SHOT IN THE HEAD) at Richard Foreman’s Ontological-Hysteric Theater, ABRAHAM (I AM AN ISLAND) in Studio 42’s Scattered Festival at Collective: Unconscious, PIGHEART in the 2007 Iowa New Play Festival, and his newest play, IDAHO / DEAD IDAHO, which received its first reading at Juilliard this Spring. Sam has taught at the University of Iowa, Fordham University, and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories at Ashtar Theater (Ramallah) and Ayyam al-Masrah ( Hebron).
LARK APPOINTS ARTISTIC PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Megan Monaghan Joins Leadership Team
September 10, 2008
For Immediate Release
The Lark Play Development Center announced today the appointment of Megan Monaghan as Artistic Program Director after a comprehensive national search. In mid-October she will join Lark’s executive leadership team which includes Producing Director John Clinton Eisner and Managing Director Michael Robertson. She assumes the role previously held by Daniella Topol who left the job in May to pursue a freelance directing career and has since been elected to the Lark’s Board of Trustees.
Monaghan comes to the Lark from her post as Literary Manager at South Coast Repertory Theatre where she spearheaded new play commissioning and development projects and served as co-director of the Pacific Playwrights Festival. In her new role at the Lark she will be responsible for overseeing artistic programs including design, execution, and assessment, assembling creative teams, implementing the artistic vision of the company, and long-range planning with Eisner, Robertson and Lark’s board.
“Megan ‘gets’ what the Lark is all about,” explains Eisner. “Throughout her career, she has been deeply in love with playwrights and new plays. She is passionate about the unique voices of artists and what they have to tell us about the world we live in and the future they envision for us. She is committed to shaping and protecting an environment in which playwrights can collaborate effectively with other artists and audiences. We are thrilled to welcome her to our dedicated and growing staff.”
Monaghan’s South Coast Repertory production dramaturgy credits include the world premieres of What They Have, An Italian Straw Hat, The Piano Teacher, My Wandering Boy, The Studio and The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler, and productions of A Little Night Music, A Feminine Ending, Bach at Leipzig and Dumb Show. She has previously served as the Literary Director of the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, GA, the Director of Playwright Services at The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, MN, and the Director of New Play Development at Frontera @ Hyde Park Theatre in Austin, TX. Her freelance directing and dramaturgy work has included projects at the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, the New Harmony Project, Actors Express, Horizon Theatre, Theater Emory and the Bay Area Playwrights Festival.
“I am excited by the question of theater’s role in the next few decades and the kind of home that will let theatre flourish. Playwrights are at the center of this for me,” says Monaghan. “At the Lark, I want to help playwrights take risks and create their strongest, truest work. I look forward to collaborating with John and Michael to build innovative partnerships and forge ties that connect vital and engaging new plays to communities and audiences. It’s a time of tremendous growth at the Lark and I am thrilled to be part of it
THE LARK AND INDO-AMERICAN ARTS COUNCIL
PRESENT PLAYWRIGHTS’ WEEK 2008
July 17, 2008
For Immediate Release
On Tuesday, September 23, following the reading of Motti Lerner’s BENEDICTUS, there will be a panel moderated by Catherine Coray (hotINK International Festival Director) entitled “A Discussion About Intercultural Collaboration” with the playwright and his collaborators Dr. Mahmood Karimi-Hakak , Roberta Levitow , Torange Yeghiazarian, and Daniella Topol (Director) . To celebrate the close of the Playwrights’ Week 2008 on Sunday, September 28 th, the Indo-American Arts Council will host a celebration following the reading of Lina Patel’s SANKALPAN (Desire), which will also feature the announcement of the 2008-09 IAAC/Lark Playwright-in-Residence. All Playwrights’ Week 2008 readings and events are free and open to the public. For a complete schedule and reservation information, please visit: www.larktheatre.org.
The Playwrights’ Week selection process started in November of 2007. Hundreds of scripts were submitted through the Lark's open submission policy. Finalists were chosen through a rigorous process involving the Lark’s Literary Wing, comprised of dozens of theatre artists and community members. The final eleven playwrights were selected by a group of esteemed industry professionals including: Catherine Coray, John Clinton Eisner (Lark Producing Director) , Suzy Fay (Lark Associate Program Director) , Daniel Jaquez (Calpulli Danza Mexicana) , Morgan Jenness , Katori Hall (playwright, HOODOO LOVE) , Miles Lott (Lark LitWing Chair) , Aroon Shivdasani (Indo-American Arts Council ) , and Rob Urbinati (Queens Theatre in the Park) , and Jose Zayas (Immediate Theater Company) . Playwrights Week 2008 is generously supported, in part, with public funds by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and with major support from Jerome Foundation, NYC Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, Time Warner’s Diverse Voices Fund and MetLife Foundation . Playwright fees are supported by The Dorothy Strelsin Foundation .
THERESA REBECK TAKES LARK TO DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL
NEW YORK , NY – This past spring Theresa Rebeck invited several playwrights from the Lark Play Development Center to Vermont for a week-long residency to develop work. The Lark Writers’ Retreat was such a success that the Lark and Rebeck decided to take the process a step further by inviting those writers back to Vermont to take part in the Dorset Theatre Festival. And on Monday, August 25 th the Lark writers will present excerpts from the newly-developed plays at the New Play Reading Series at Dorset. The playwrights include Rob Ackerman, Suzanne Bradbeer, Rajiv Joseph,
and Marisa Kraus.
Rebeck has long been affiliated with the Lark, as a Board Member and as a Playwright Advisor who occasionally co-hosts Lark’s Playwrights’ Workshop program with writers like David Henry Hwang and Arthur Kopit. As a playwright at the Lark, Rebeck has developed such works as The Water’s Edge, later premiered by Second Stage Theatre, and Mauritius, which premiered on Broadway this past fall at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Biltmore Theatre. The Lark Writers’ Retreat was created by Rebeck in order to “provide an out-of-town opportunity for emerging and mid-career writers to focus on their work in a collaborative, relaxed environment,” according to Lark Managing Director Michael Robertson. The retreat was launched in spring 2008 and will continue to take place annually.
According to Dina Janis, who is directing the New Play Reading Series for Dorset Theatre, “Nothing is more useful to writers than continuity of support as they develop a new play. You can’t beat having Theresa Rebeck as a mentor as she is both a brilliant writer, but also- an inspired mentor/teacher. The fact that Dorset Theatre Festival under the leadership of Carl Forsman is now supporting this kind of developmental work is exciting as well. What a perfect opportunity for the writers, the Festival, and also for the rural audience base of Southern Vermont.” Earlier this summer, that audience was treated to a special reading of Rebeck’s play Poor Behavior, which she has developed while being in residence at Dorset.
For more information on the Dorset Theatre Festival, visit www.dorsettheatrefestival.org or call 802-867-5777. For more information on the Lark, visit: www.larktheatre.org .
A laboratory for new voices and new ideas, the LARK PLAY DEVELOPMENT CENTER provides playwrights with indispensable resources to develop their work. The Lark brings together actors, directors, playwrights and the community to allow writers to learn about their own work by seeing and hearing it, and by receiving feedback from a dedicated and supportive community. The company reaches into untapped local populations and across international boundaries to seek out and embrace unheard voices and diverse perspectives, celebrating differences in language and worldviews. The Lark also plays a leading role in advancing unknown writers and their works to audiences through carefully stewarded partnerships with a host of theaters, universities, community-based organizations, and NGOs, locally, nationally and globally. The Lark is led by Producing Director, John Clinton Eisner and Managing Director, Michael Robertson.
The DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL has been a fixture in the Dorset and Manchester area for more than 30 years. Founded by the late Jill Charles, with John Nassivera, in the 1970s, the Festival now plays in a renovated historic barn at 104 Cheney Road in Dorset. DTF has served as a launching pad for acclaimed plays and playwrights including Douglas Carter Beane’s When Bees in Honey Drown and Advice from a Caterpillar, The Jazz Club by John Nassivera and the 1996 Pulitzer Prize finalist Old Wicked Songs by Jon Marans. The Dorset Theatre Festival received the Moss Hard Award for Outstanding Theatre in 1995 and 1997. Dorset Theatre Festival is led by Artistic Director Carl Forsman and Managing Director Michele Z. Sargent.
July 18, 2008
THE LARK AND INDO-AMERICAN ARTS COUNCIL ANNOUNCE SELECTIONS FOR THE 15 TH ANNUAL PLAYWRIGHTS’ WEEK FESTIVAL
NEW YORK , NY – The Lark Play Development Center and the
Indo-American Arts Council are proud to announce the selections for Playwrights’ Week 2008. This year’s eleven writers, chosen from nearly 400 submissions, bring diversity in subject matter ranging from a father being crucified to an Arab-American man stripped of his rights to a young boy who yearns to become God’s prophet . The playwrights will spend a weeklong residency at the Lark developing their work with professional actors, a director, and Lark staff; they will then present that work in a public reading during the Festival.
For the Lark, the Playwrights’ Week is a key program in unearthing new writers from around the world, as it stems from an open-submission policy, as well as an outreach to numerous community groups, universities, and theatre professionals. The goal is to find unique and unheard voices who may not have an agent, “connections” or traditional access to theatre companies. According to Playwrights’ Week alumni Chisa Hutchinson, “There are so many reading series out there. I wouldn’t recommend any of them before I’d recommend Playwrights’ Week at the Lark. Heck, I’d recommend a reading at the Lark over full fledged productions at some other theaters.”
This year's selections include: THE NOISEMAKERS by Mark Borkowski, about how a father’s wish to be crucified unveils a family’s darkest secrets; CHARM by Kathleen Cahill about the woman who inspired Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter”; THE TWELFTH LABOR, by Steven Gridley where a single day, October 15 th,1949, is filtered through the warped and damaged mind of an Idaho farm girl; MIDDLEMEN, in which two model employees realize they are the only ones left in a sixty-story building, byDavid Jenkins; WILDFLOWERS, by Lila Rose Kaplan, about how a woman and her troubled son look to escape their past in Crested Butte, a small town with its own share of secrets.; TRUTH SERUM BLUES, by Ismail Khalidi delves inside the tortured mind and body of Kareem, a young Arab American man stripped of his rights and lost in his own memories; IN THE SAWTOOTHS by Dano Madden in which three longtime hiking friends must navigate an immense and unexpected wilderness when their bond is shattered by tragedy; FAITH, by James McLindon, concernsSimon, a young boy who yearns to receive the stigmata and become God’s prophet and encounters a mysterious being floating above the Walmart parking lot bearing a message that can save the world; SLASHER by Allison Moore about a woman cast in a slasher flick who must battle a masked serial killer on the set—and her raging feminist mother at home; and SANKALPAN by Lina Patel, an inventive fusion of Chekhov's THREE SISTERS and Tagore's THE HOME AND THE WORLD, evoking a time of revolution that draws sharp parallels to the geopolitics of today. Additionally, Lark has invited a leading Israeli playwright, Motti Lerner, to work on his play BENEDICTUS, where an Israeli arms dealer desperate to rescue his sister from Teheran, meets a childhood friend who is an influential Iranian Ayatollah.
The Festival kicks off with a Meet the Writers reception on September 22 nd where the playwrights will be introduced, interviewed, and will read excerpts of their work. The Festival will come to a finale with a special celebration of the Lark’s 9 th year in partnership with IAAC on September 28.
The Playwrights’ Week selection process started in November of 2007. Hundreds of scripts were submitted through the Lark's open submission policy. Finalists were chosen through a rigorous process involving the Lark’s Literary Wing, comprised of dozens of theatre artists and community members. The final eleven playwrights were selected by a group of esteemed industry professionals including: Catherine Coray (Festival director, HotINK) , John Clinton Eisner (Lark Producing Director) , Suzy Fay (Lark Dramaturg/Roundtable Director) , Daniel Jaquez (Calpulli Danza Mexicana) , Morgan Jenness (Abrams Artists) , Katori Hall (playwright, HOODOO LOVE) , Miles Lott (Lark LitWing Chair) , Aroon Shivdasani (Indo-American Arts Council ) , and Rob Urbinati (Queens Theatre in the Park) , Jose Zayas (Immediate Theater Company) .
Playwrights Week 2008 is generously supported, in part, with public funds by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and with major support from Jerome Foundation, NYC City Speaker Christine Quinn, Time Warner’s Diverse Voices Fund and MetLife Foundation .
THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP (TCG)
ANNOUNCES RECIPIENTS OF
SPRING/SUMMER 2008 TCG/ITI TRAVEL GRANTS
NEW YORK, July 2, 2008– Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for American not-for-profit theatre, which serves as the U.S. Center of the International Theatre Institute (ITI), is pleased to announce the latest recipients of the TCG/ITI Travel Grants for Spring/Summer 2008.
The TCG/ITI Travel Grants, funded by the Trust for Mutual Understanding, are designed to foster cultural exchange and artistic partnerships between theatre professionals in the United States and their counterparts in Russia and Eastern and Central Europe. These grants support travel in either direction between theatre artists, administrators and educators, enabling them to share ideas, gain exposure to each other’s cultural traditions and communicate contemporary theatre techniques. Applicants may be either a U.S. not-for-profit theatre applying on behalf of a theatre professional, or an individual theatre professional who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.
In announcing the latest recipients, TCG’s director of artistic programs and director of the U.S. Center of ITI Emilya Cachapero remarked, “It is vital that we find more ways to foster relationships between U.S. theatre artists and their colleagues in Russia and Central and Eastern Europe. The TCG/ITI Travel Grants Program continues to provide theatres and theatre professionals opportunities for successful and ongoing international collaborations. It is truly an investment in the growth of the international theatre field. We are again grateful to the Trust for Mutual Understanding for their continued support of such a valuable program.”
The Spring/Summer TCG/ITI Travel Grants recipients are:
Actor/producer Bridgit Evans ( New York, NY) and director/producer Cynthia Croot ( Walla Walla, WA) will travel to Croatia to produce a high-profile radio docu-drama inspired by Suzan-Lori Parks’ Venus, designed to focus media and public attention on Croatia’s sex trafficking crisis.
Joanna Klass ( Costa Mesa, CA), artistic director of Arden-2 will travel to Poland to help coordinate 2009 Year of Grotowski worldwide events by the invitation of the Grotowski Institute.
Lark Play Development Center (New York, NY) playwrights Yussef El Guindi and Lloyd Suh, along with two Romanian playwrights, will work with the acting company of the National Theatre’s New Drama Festival at the Romanian National Theatre in Timisoara, Romania, to develop translations of their plays (based on the theme of “Emigrating to America”) for publication and future production.
Puppet artists Tom Lee and Matt Acheson ( Brooklyn, NY) will travel to Rhodopean Drama Theater in Smolyan, Bulgaria to develop an experimental performance.
Mara Isaacs, producing director of McCarter Theatre Center ( Princeton, NJ) will travel to Moscow and St. Petersburg to attend productions by director Alexander Morfov and begin collaborative planning with Russian producers.
Johanna Smith, associate professor of theatre education at CSUSB Theatre Arts ( San Bernardino, CA) and Gina Pavlova ( Bulgaria/ Los Angeles , CA) will present a collaborative, multimedia puppetry work at the International Puppetry Festival in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Sheri Wills , scenery director/live video performer ( New York, NY), Ofer Ben-Amots, composer/librettist/music director ( Colorado Springs, CO) and actor Jeremy Wilhelm
( Minneapolis, MN) will travel to collaborate with Czech Republic artists on a performance of The Dybbuk Project, at Theatrum Kuks in August.
TCG/ITI Travel Grant Selection Panel
A national independent selection panel comprised of theatre professionals reviewed applications for the Spring/Summer round of the TCG/ITI Travel Grants. The panelists were Sarah Benson, artistic director, Soho Rep (New York, NY); Jeff Church, artistic director, Coterie Theatre (Kansas City, MO); Jonathan Fox, executive artistic director, Ensemble Theatre Company (Santa Barbara, CA); James Haire, producing director, American Conservatory Theater (San Francisco, CA) and Helen Richardson, associate professor of theatre, Brooklyn College (Brooklyn, NY).
The Trust for Mutual Understanding was established in 1984 by an anonymous American philanthropist as a private, grantmaking organization dedicated to promoting improved communication, closer cooperation, and greater respect between the people of the United States, the Soviet Union, and other countries in Eastern and Central Europe. Today, the Trust makes grants to American nonprofit organizations to support the international travel component of cultural and environmental exchanges conducted in partnership with institutions and individuals in Russia and Eastern and Central Europe. Priority consideration is given to projects in which direct, professional interaction plays a major role. For more information on the Trust for Mutual Understanding please visit their website at www.tmuny.org.
Theatre Communications Group ( TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, offers a wide array of services in line with its mission: to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional not-for-profit American theatre. Artistic programs support theatres and theatre artists by awarding approximately $3 million in grants annually, and offer career development programs for artists. Management programs provide professional development opportunities for theatre leaders through workshops, conferences, forums and publications, as well as industry research on the finances and practices of the American not-for-profit theatre. Advocacy, conducted in conjunction with the dance, presenting, opera and symphony orchestra fields, includes guiding lobbying efforts and providing theatres with timely alerts about legislative developments. As the country’s leading independent press specializing in dramatic literature, TCG’s Publications include American Theatre magazine, the ArtSEARCH employment bulletin, plays, translations and theatre reference books. As the U.S. Center of UNESCO’s International Theatre Institute, a worldwide network, TCG supports cross-cultural exchange through travel grants and other assistance to traveling theatre professionals. Through these programs, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its member theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field, and promote a larger public understanding of and appreciation for the theatre field. TCG serves over 470 member theatres nationwide.
June 18, 2008
For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Matthew Paul Olmos / 212-246-2676 x24 / matt@larktheatre.org
THREE THEATERS UNITE TO FORM NATIONAL MIDDLE EASTERN
PLAYS INITIATIVE
Golden Thread Productions, Lark Play Development Center,
and Silk Road Theatre Project launch Middle East America
NEW YORK , NY –Three theater organizations from across the nation, Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco, the Lark Play Development Center in New York, and Silk Road Theatre Project in Chicago, are collaborating to form Middle East America: A National New Plays Initiative. This initiative represents the first national effort to actively cultivate and support development of Middle Eastern-American playwrights and their plays.
Jamil Khoury , Silk Road’s Founding Artistic Director, says, “ Silk Road was founded in response to September 11 th, and the subsequent backlash against peoples of Middle Eastern and Muslim backgrounds. In establishing Middle East America, we are taking a proactive stance in assuring that playwrights of Middle Eastern backgrounds receive the nurturing and support they so deserve.“ Torange Yeghiazarian, Golden Thread Artistic Director, says of the Initiative, “it is critical in ensuring that playwrights, such as Yussef El Guindi and Betty Shamieh, continue to be discovered, nurtured, and produced, not only because Middle Eastern-American artists’ work is worthy of broader audiences, but more importantly because American audiences can no longer afford not to see this work.”
Middle East America will provide a $10,000 commission to a Middle Eastern-American playwright to write a new play. Awarded through an application process, the prize also provides intensive developmental support from the Lark, possible productions at Golden Thread Productions and Silk Road Theatre Project, and travel expenses for the writer to be present at all stages of the process. During the play’s development and production arc, representatives of partner organizations will travel to each city— Chicago, New York, and San Francisco—to observe the process and to engage in public conversations and panel events about Middle Eastern voices.
The Initiative is designed to encourage other theatres, both American and international, to produce work from Middle Eastern-American writers, and hopefully, in doing so, creatively challenge the lack of representation and one-dimensional, stereotypical depiction of persons of Middle Eastern descent often seen on America’s stages. Lark Producing Director, John Clinton Eisner says the initiative “supports, with dollars and deeds, the stories and
perspectives of a still-marginalized community that has the potential to change our national and global conversation for the good."
Applications are due July 31. The selected writer will be announced in September 2008. For more information and application guidelines on Middle East America: A National New Plays Initiative, visit: www.middleeastamerica.org.
GOLDEN THREAD PRODUCTIONS is dedicated to theatre that explores Middle Eastern cultures and identities as represented throughout the globe. Our mission is to build an organization that consistently produces the highest quality theatre about Middle Eastern culture and to establish a dynamic artistic community and an expanding audience. And to make the Middle East a regular part of the American Theatre Experience and make theatre a regular part of the Middle Eastern community’s cultural experience. Golden Thread Productions is led by Artistic Director, Torange Yeghiazarian. For more information: www.goldenthread.org.
A laboratory for new voices and new ideas, the LARK PLAY DEVELOPMENT CENTER provides playwrights with indispensable resources to develop their work. The Lark brings together actors, directors, playwrights and the community to allow writers to learn about their own work by seeing and hearing it, and by receiving feedback from a dedicated and supportive community. The company reaches into untapped local populations and across international boundaries to seek out and embrace unheard voices and diverse perspectives, celebrating differences in language and worldviews. The Lark also plays a leading role in advancing unknown writers and their works to audiences through carefully stewarded partnerships with a host of theaters, universities, community-based organizations, and NGOs, locally, nationally and globally. The Lark is led by Producing Director, John Clinton Eisner and Managing Director, Michael Robertson. For more information, www.larktheatre.org.
SILK ROAD THEATRE PROJECT showcases playwrights of Asian, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean backgrounds, whose works address themes relevant to the peoples of the Silk Road and their Diaspora communities. Through the creation and presentation of outstanding theatre, we aim to promote discourse and dialogue among multi-cultural audiences in Chicago. Silk Road Theatre Project is led by Artistic Director, Jamil Khoury and Executive Director, Malik Gillani. For more information, www.srtp.org.
* * *
June 10, 2008
For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Matthew Paul Olmos /
212-246-2676 x24 / matt@larktheatre.org
LARK ANNOUNCES 2nd ANNUAL PONY FELLOW
2nd Playwrights of New York (PONY) Fellowship
awarded to Samuel D. Hunter
New York , NY – After a successful inaugural year of the Playwrights of New York (PONY) Fellowship, the Lark Play Development Center is proud to announce that playwright Samuel D. Hunter will be the 2008-09 PONY Fellow. He will succeed Carson Kreitzer on October 1, 2008.
As a PONY Fellow, Sam Hunter will receive housing in the PONY apartment in the heart of the theatre district in midtown Manhattan for one year with a $24,000 living stipend and artistic support from the Lark as a member of the prestigious Playwrights Workshop led by Arthur Kopit. Of her time as the
2007-08 PONY Fellow, Kreizter says, “To live in New York completely supported, not having to worry about overwhelming rent, with nothing to do but write—it’s more than I ever dreamed possible.”
Hunter recently moved back to New York for a fellowship at Juilliard after completing his MFA at the Iowa Playwrights Workshop last May. He says, “It’s been a constant struggle to make ends meet financially while finding time to write. Playwriting, the reason I came to New York, has felt like a side project, something I turn to on nights on weekends.”
The PONY fellowship is underwritten, in part, by Lark playwright and board member Sandi Goff Farkas, who conceived PONY, seeing the need for a deeper investment in emerging writers. “ So many playwrights have to put their plays on the back burner, due to the harsh economics of being a playwright in New York. Our community needs to rally around these writers in a significant way to make sure this generation of voices is heard. ”
Hunter says the PONY Fellowship “is completely overwhelming and humbling at the same time. It’s the greatest gift an artist can receive—the chance to work unencumbered by real world responsibilities. I can’t wait to see what my output will be when my main responsibility in life is to write plays.”
For more information on the Playwrights of New York Fellowship (PONY), please visit: www.playwrightsofnewyork.org. For more information about the Lark Play Development Center, please visit: www.larktheatre.org.
Samuel D. Hunter is originally from Moscow, Idaho. He received his BFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2004, an MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop in 2007, and is currently a playwright-in-residence at the Juilliard School. His plays include: I AM MONTANA at the 2007 Bay Area Playwrights Festival and the 2007 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, NORMAN ROCKWELL KILLED MY FATHER at the 2005 O’Neill Playwrights Conference, ABRAHAM (A SHOT IN THE HEAD) at Richard Foreman’s Ontological-Hysteric Theater, ABRAHAM (I AM AN ISLAND) in Studio 42’s Scattered Festival at Collective: Unconscious, PIGHEART in the 2007 Iowa New Play Festival, and his newest play, IDAHO / DEAD IDAHO, which received its first reading at Juilliard this Spring. Sam has taught at the University of Iowa, Fordham University, and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories at Ashtar Theater (Ramallah) and Ayyam al-Masrah ( Hebron).
A laboratory for new voices and new ideas, the LARK PLAY DEVELOPMENT CENTER provides playwrights with indispensable resources to develop their work. The Lark brings together actors, directors, playwrights and the community to allow writers to learn about their own work by seeing and hearing it, and by receiving feedback from a dedicated and supportive community. The company reaches into untapped local populations and across international boundaries to seek out and embrace unheard voices and diverse perspectives, celebrating differences in language and worldviews. The Lark also plays a leading role in advancing unknown writers and their works to audiences through carefully stewarded partnerships with a host of theaters, universities, community-based organizations, and NGOs, locally, nationally and globally. The Lark is led by Producing Director, John Clinton Eisner and Managing Director, Michael Robertson, and Artistic Program Director Daniella Topol. For more information, www.larktheatre.org.
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May 22, 2008
For Immediate Release
Contact: Michael Robertson / 212-246-2676 x 26 / michael@larktheatre.org
Lark Play Development Center
Announces Staff Change
Daniella Topol to assume new role as advisor and board member
|
New York, NY - The Lark Play Development Center announced today that Daniella Topol will leave her post as Artistic Program Director at the end of the season to focus on her freelance directing career. She will continue her involvement with the company as chair of its Artistic Cabinet and has been nominated to the Board of Trustees. “Daniella’s contribution as artist, manager and strategic thinker has been invaluable to our identity and growth. This shift deepens her commitment to the Lark while supporting the natural evolution of her blossoming directing career, and we are all excited about what lies ahead,” stated co-founder and Producing Director John Clinton Eisner. Topol is currently directing Epic Theatre Ensemble’s production of Palace at the End by Judith Thompson (2008 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize-winner) and has recently directed Trista Baldwin’s Sand at Women’s Project and Sheila Callaghan’s Dead City at New Georges, both of which were developed at the Lark. Topol has assumed many roles during her seven-year tenure, first as a director and then as Managing Director prior to creating her current leadership position where she has overseen all artistic programs. Some of her many accomplishments include launching, with Sandi Goff Farkas, the groundbreaking and prestigious Playwrights of New York (“PONY”) Fellowship, establishing innovative programs to sustain ongoing artistic support of the company’s growing pool of writers, and forging strategic relationships with theaters and other organizations in the U.S. and abroad. She has nurtured collaborations with partners like Center Theatre Group, Fordham University, HotINK, LMDA, the Magic Theater, NAMT, New York Stage and Film, the Public Theater, Queens Theater in the Park, and Women’s Project. These have played a critical role in advancing the Lark’s mission of bringing unheard voices to broad-based audiences at multiple venues. She will continue to play a vital role as artist, advisor, and Trustee. Topol commented about her transition, “The Lark is a powerful seedbed of new writers and new plays that has shaped the way I think theater should and can be created. I am excited about my new role and am honored to have the opportunity to continue to shape the future of a company that is so important to me and the theater community.” The company is launching a national search to fill this executive-level position. Information on the position can be found at www.larktheatre.org/getinvolved/jobs.htm. A laboratory for new voices and new ideas, the LARK PLAY DEVELOPMENT CENTER provides playwrights with indispensable resources to develop their work. The Lark brings together actors, directors, playwrights and the community to allow writers to learn about their own work by seeing and hearing it, and by receiving feedback from a dedicated and supportive community. The company reaches into untapped local populations and across international boundaries to seek out and embrace unheard voices and diverse perspectives, celebrating differences in language and worldviews. The Lark also plays a leading role in advancing unknown writers and their works to audiences through carefully stewarded partnerships with a host of theaters, universities, community-based organizations, and NGOs, locally, nationally and globally. |
Dramatists Guild honors the Lark
with the James Kirkwood Award
Shown left (from left to right) , front row: Katori Hall, James Price.Back row: David Henry Hwang, Sue Drury, John Clinton Eisner, Lark Producing Director, Kenneth Lin, Carson Kreitzer, Tina Howe, and members of the Lefkowitz family representing the James Kirkwood Estate.
May 8, 2008
For Immediate Release
NEW YORK , NY – Tina Howe, on behalf of the Dramatists Guild of America, along with Sue Drury from the Guild, presented the Lark Play Development Center with the James Kirkwood Award for “fostering and promoting the work of contemporary American playwrights.”
The celebration took place at the closing session of Lark’s Playwrights’ Workshop, where this year’s select Lark Fellows were on hand to help commemorate the award. Lark’s 2007-08 Fellows include, Katori Hall, Carson Kreitzer, Kenneth Lin, and James Price. It was especially fitting for Howe to present Lark with the award as during the 2007-08 Workshop, she had been involved as both a writer developing new work and as a Playwright Advisor alongside esteemed colleagues like David Henry Hwang, Lynn Nottage, and Doug Wright.
THE LARK AND THE NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK BRING WRITERS TOGETHER
Shown left, front row: Bevin O’Gara, Associate Artistic, New Rep; Seth Rozin, Producing Artistic Director, InterAct Theatre; Meron Langsner, Playwright Fellow, New Rep; Carson Kreitzer, PONY Fellow, Lark. Back row: Daniella Topol, Artistic Program Director (Lark); Samuel Brett Williams, Playwright Fellow, PTNJ; John Clinton Eisner, Producing Director (Lark); Sean Christopher Lewis, Playwright Fellow, InterAct Theatre.
April 29, 2008
For Immediate Release
As part of a new wave of deeper support for playwrights, organizations like the Lark, New Rep in Boston, InterAct Theatre in Philadelphia, and Playwrights Theater of New Jersey (PTNJ) are hosting writers for one-year fellowships. On April 22, 2008, resident playwrights and artistic leaders from these four organizations met at the Lark Play Development Center in New York City to talk about their residency experiences and to share new plays written during their fellowships.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURING LARK’S
U.S./M É XICO PLAYWRIGHT EXCHANGE PROGRAM TO AIR ON CUNY TV
CUNY-TV’s “Nueva York” will air
short-documentary about the Lark on April 10th
April 9, 2008
For Immediate Release
NEW YORK, NY –The Lark Play Development Center is pleased to announce a CUNY-TV short documentary about its 2007 THE WORD EXCHANGE: U.S./México Playwright Exchange Program which will air on “Nueva York” on Thursday, April 10 th at 10am, 4pm, 10pm and on April 12 th at 2pm on CUNY/TV. For the past two years the Lark has hosted playwrights from México and paired them with American playwrights for a ten day residency in which the Lark introduces the writers to New York’s vibrant theatre scene, as well as to industry leaders and the Lark community. Public readings of the newly translated work are then presented along with a final celebration for all the artists involved. The documentary will also available for online, for more schedule and to view online, please visit www.cuny.tv/series/nuevayork.
The documentary was filmed this past November when CUNY-TV sent a camera crew to the Lark to begin documenting the unique program. They first observed the rehearsal process where they were able to film the guest Mexican playwrights working with their American playwright translator, bilingual director and cast. The crew then interviewed Program Director Andrea Thome about the challenges and successes of having playwrights from different nations collaborate, as well playwrights Susana Cook, Hugo Alfredo Hinojosa, and Paola Izquierdo about their process. Finally they filmed the final celebration which included excerpts of the work.
THE WORD EXCHANGE had quite an unexpected success in its inaugural year as OUR DAD IS IN ATLANTIS by Javier Malpica, translated by Jorge Cortinas (BLIND MOUTH SINGING) , is currently running through April 20 th at Working Theater, co-produced by Queens Theatre in the Park; it will be presented in by Phoenix Theater this May and was part of the National New Play Network’s National Showcase 2007.
2007THE WORD EXCHANGE: U.S./México Playwright Exchange Program featured Ver ó nica Bujeiro’s THESADNESS OF THE LIMES, Hugo Alfredo Hinojosa Díaz's DESERTS, Jorg Celaya’s VAN GOGH IN NEW YORK by Jorge Celaya, and Paola Izquierdo'sOF PRINCES, PRINCESSES, AND OTHER CREATURES. It also featured U.S. playwright/translators: Andy Bragen (06-07 Jerome Fellow) , Migdalia Cruz (SALT) , Caridad Svich (LUCINDA CAVAL) , and Susana Cook (100 YEARS OF ATTITUDE) .
his program is a collaboration between the Lark and Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes ( Mexico’s National Fund for Culture and Arts) with support from The Mexican Cultural Institute of New York.
BETTY SHAMIEH’S AGAIN AND AGAINST
SPENDS TWO NIGHTS AT THE LARK
February 11, 2008
For Immediate Release
New York , NY - As part of their Studio Retreat reading series entitled “Thursdays at the Lark”, the Lark Play Development Center will present two free readings of Betty Shamieh’s AGAIN AND AGAINST on February 28 & 29 in the Lark Studio. This reading will also feature Shamieh (THE BLACK EYED) in the lead role. Seats may be reserved through www.larktheatre.org or by calling 212-246-2676 x24.
In Shamieh’s play a P alestinian-American graduate student is interrogated and accused of terrorism by an Arab-American FBI agent, who tells her that her boyfriend used her as a pawn in a terrorist plot. She must now decide whether to reveal evidence that may entrap her lover and herself.
As one of the Lark’s key selection criteria is plays that reveal vital and unheard perspectives, Shamieh’s unique voice and background are an ideal match. According to Shamieh, “I wrote the play because I wanted to examine the internal debate within the Arab-American community about how to handle the challenges we face at this point in American history. I intended to write the play in a way that doesn't necessarily take sides, but rather explores the experience of being a member of a group that is deemed suspect.”
AGAIN AND AGAINST will be directed by José Zayas ( Strom Thurmond is not a Racist/Cleansed ) and presented at 7pm each night in the Lark Studio, 939 Eighth Avenue (between 55 & 56 Streets), 2 nd Floor. P lease visit www.larktheatre.org for more information on “Thursdays at the Lark,” as well as about other Lark programming. AGAIN AND AGAINST was commissioned by the Lark with support from New York State Council for the Arts, and has been previously developed at the Royal Court Theatre and ThePublic Theater’s New Works Now!festival.
Lark’s Studio Retreat program gives writers 30 intensive hours over the course of a week to work with actors and a director to focus on the text of their piece. Rewrites are encouraged and at the end of the process the Lark presents one or two public readings.
SHE LIKE GIRLS BRINGS THE COLLISION OF HOMOPHOBIA, RACE, AND CULTURE TO THE LARK
January 2, 2008
For Immediate Release
New York , NY - To start off the new year the Lark Play Development Center will present a BareBones® production of SHE LIKE GIRLS by Chisa Hutchinson. The play deals with two girls who fall in love in Newark, NJ amidst homophobic surroundings. The performances will take place at the Lark Studio from January 9 -13, tickets are $15 ($10 Students) and may be purchased through www.larktheatre.org or by calling 866-811-4111.
For Hutchinson, who grew up in Newark, SHE LIKE GIRLS is a very personal endeavor, she says, “ The immediate trigger for this play was the fatal stabbing of a 15-year old lesbian in Newark …but the play isn't about murder...it's more about the urban community, the urban family, and how they respond to homosexuality.”
Hutchinson hopes that audiences come away with heightened awareness of about which people can and can’t marry; which people have and don’t have souls. She says, “If people didn’t questions the validity of those types of assertions, then folks like me might still have to jump brooms and ride them all the way to hell or limbo or wherever it is that white people thought the pseudo-souls of black people ended up back then. And the fact that gays are being excluded, harassed, and murdered by a group of people still reeling from the effects of having others do those very things to them? The irony is just too much. My theory is that there are only a handful of really toxic, really vocal haters, and pretty much everybody else is neutral…and they need to hear a voice of love and acceptance every now and then or else they’ll just habituate the hate. Or worse. They succumb to the toxicity and join in. And wouldn’t that be a waste?“
The Lark was introduced to Hutchinson through its Open Access Program, where SHE LIKE GIRLS was chosen from over 400 submissions. According to Lark Producing Director John Eisner, “T hough Hutchinson deals with critically important social themes in this play, its humanity shines through in its delightfully mischievous theatricality. She is a brilliantly intelligent and skillful writer, young, funny, and glowing with compassion. She's the kind of writer the theater of the future is going to need."
LARK ANNOUNCES NEW, UNPRECEDENTED PLAYWRITING FELLOWSHIP
1st “Playwrights of New York” (PONY) awarded to Carson Kreitzer Fellowship provides a year of free rent in NYC, monthly stipend and artistic support valued at $80,000
August 28, 2007
For Immediate Release
The Lark Play Development Center – the NY theatre that has been the writing home for such playwrights as Theresa Rebeck (“Mauritius”), David Henry Hwang (“Yellow Face”) and Sarah Ruhl since it opened its doors in 1994 – announces a new, unprecedented playwriting fellowship, the “Playwrights of New York,” (PONY) which will provide an emerging playwright a year of free housing in NYC, a monthly living expense and artistic support at the Lark, including mentoring with the playwrights Tina Howe and the Tony Award-winner Arthur Kopit.
Announced by John Eisner, the Lark’s Producing Director, this first annual “Playwrights of New York” fellowship – with an estimated cash value of $80,000 including rent, stipend and programming support for the playwright – has been awarded to Carson Kreitzer, a writer who enjoyed a measure of success early in her career with plays in NY including “Freakshow” and “Dead Wait” (Clubbed Thumb), “Take My Breath Away” (P.S. 122) and “The Slow Drag” (American Place Theatre), along with the more recent “The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer” in theatres across the country. Lacking, however, a breakthrough hit that enabled her to continue writing and working in New York City, Ms. Kreitzer relocated for several years. PONY will give her a full year to live and work again in NY’s lively theatre community, specifically in the thriving, supportive environment of the Lark Play Development Center, located at 939 Eighth Ave. in New York City.
With the PONY, the Lark Play Development Center has created one of the largest fellowships available to playwrights in the U.S. The fellowship is underwritten, in part, by Lark playwright and board member Sandi Goff Farkas, who conceived PONY, seeing the need for writers to have a bridge between the academic and professional arenas of playwriting. Because so many playwrights leave the profession due to the harsh economics of being a writer in NYC, Ms. Farkas sought to create a way to help with the difficult transition.
Ms. Kreitzer says the PONY fellowship is a “dream come true” for her: “I lived in NY for eight years, and my life in theater was always in competition with paying my rent. This fellowship will allow me to pursue my craft in the city where it means the most, and a chance to forge relationships and alliances that will carry me through my professional life.”
About the Lark’s new PONY fellowship, Mr. Eisner remarks, “We want to give the grant to a writer for whom the experience will be a transformative one, and in Carson’s case, we are thrilled to be able to bring her back to New York, where she started. The fellowship is the newest opportunity that the Lark has to do what we do best, that is, to provide a platform where writers can create their work and develop it in a supportive environment in the city’s vibrant theatre scene.”
With its emphasis on providing playwrights of all backgrounds and achievement with a safe haven to write plays free of routine pressures and artistic agendas, the Lark Play Development Center was the place where Sarah Ruhl wrote her original draft of “The Clean House,” and where Tanya Barfield wrote “The Blue Door.” Two other Lark-generated plays will receive major productions in New York this season: Ms. Rebeck’s “Mauritius” (opening Oct. 4 on Broadway at the Biltmore) and Mr. Hwang’s “Yellow Face,” (opening in ovember at The Public Theatre). One of the Lark’s most public and avid supporters amongst writers, Ms. Rebeck, in fact, has written all of her recent work as a playwright at the Lark: “The Scene,” “The Water’s Edge,” along with “Mauritius.”
Ms. Kreitzer says that she expects during her fellowship year at the Lark to write her newest play, “Enchantment” about the crisscrossing lives of the Freudian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Bruno Bettelheim and Temple Grandin, a high functioning autistic woman known for designs of more humane slaughterhouses. She also expects to complete her play “Be Here Now,” an adaptation of “The Three Sisters,” as well as a work-in-progress about a pair of Chicago socialites and their obsession with dollhouses.
According to Mr. Eisner, a remarkable 72 plays developed at the Lark have gone on to 82 stages worldwide in the past 2 years, from “Yellow Face” and “Mauritius” to Anna Ziegler’s “BFF” Off-Broadway, Chantal Bilodeau’s “Pleasure and Pain” at the Magic Theatre, Rajiv Joseph’s “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” and David Freeman’s “A First Class Man.”
Over 80 playwrights each year participate in the Lark Play Development Center’s numerous programs, including Playwrights Week, its BareBones Series, International Exchange Program and Studio Retreats.
THE LARK ANNOUNCES SELECTIONS FOR THE
14TH ANNUAL PLAYWRIGHTS’ WEEK FESTIVAL
NEW YORK, NY – The Lark Play Development Center and the Indo-American Arts Council are proud to announce the selected playwrights for Playwrights’ Week 2007. This year’s eight writers, chosen from nearly 500 submissions, bring a diversity in subject matter ranging from an outbreak of bird flu to a soldier stuck in the Middle East to a tragic African-American entertainer. The playwrights will spend a weeklong residency at the Lark developing their work with professional actors, a director, and Lark staff; they will then present that work in a public reading during the Festival.
For the Lark, the Playwrights’ Week is a key program in unearthing new writers from around the world, as it stems from an open-submission policy, as well as an outreach to unique and unheard voices. According to Playwrights’ Week alumni Chantal Bilodeau, “Playwrights Week is a gift and the Lark’s greatest quality is that it invests in writers, not just in plays.”
This year's selections include: NOBODY by Richard Aellen, the tragedy of Bert Williams, an African-American entertainer; RAISINS, NOT VIRGINS by Sharbari Ahmed, traces the journey and jihad of an American-Muslim woman in New York; SAND, by Trista Baldwin, details a young American soldier occupying the Middle East; SHE LIKE GIRLS inspired by the 2003 murder of a lesbian teen in Newark by Chisa Hutchinson; GARY, by Melinda Lopez, about three youths lost in the mundane until one violent night changes everything; VELOCITY, by Daniel Macdonald, in which a 15 year old girl decides to blow her father out the 73 rd floor of an office tower; CHILDREN AT PLAY, a tragic farce about five friends struggling to make it through junior high and high school, by Jordan Seavey; and DAY THE BIRD FLU CAME by Jonathan Yukich, where two health officials investigate an outbreak in a small town.
The Festival kicks off with a Meet the Writers reception on September 26 th where the playwrights will be introduced, interviewed, and will read excerpts of their work. The Festival will come to a finale with a special celebration of the Lark’s 8 th year in partnership with IAAC on October 1 st, where seven South Asian Lark Alumni writers will share work and the 2007 IAAC Playwright-in-Residence will be announced, concluding with a reception commemorating the 10 th Anniversary of the Indo-American Arts Council.
The Playwrights’ Week selection process started in November of 2006. Hundreds of scripts were submitted through the Lark's open submission policy. Finalists were chosen through a rigorous process involving the Lark’s Literary Wing, comprised of dozens of theatre artists and community members. The final eight playwrights were selected by a group of esteemed industry professionals including: Catherine Coray (curator, HotINK), Anton Dudley (playwright, SLAG HEAP), Suzy Fay (Lark Dramaturg/Roundtable Director), Daniel Jaquez (Intar New Works Lab), Morgan Jenness (Abrams Artists), Rajiv Joseph (playwright, BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO), Miles Lott (Lark LitWing Chair), Aroon Shivdasani (IAAC), and Rob Urbinati (Queens Theatre in the Park).THE LARK’S 2ND YEAR IN RESIDENCE AT NEW YORK STAGE AND FILM
NEW YORK, NY – The Lark Play Development Center is welcomed back for its second year in residency at New York Stage and Film , July 17 – 22. Fifteen Lark artists will spend a week retreat on the beautiful campus of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY to develop work including the creation of a hip-hop piece, the development of book and lyrics for a musical, the expansion of a 10-minute play, the beginning of a new translation, and much more. This year’s participants include ten writers: Chantal Bilodeau, Ian Cohen, Kristoffer Diaz, Anton Dudley, Rajiv Joseph, Angela Kariotis, Arthur Kopit, Catherine Leger, Lynn Rosen, Charlie Sohne, and Saviana Stanescu. Joining the writers as directors and dramaturges will be John Eisner, Suzy Fay, Daniella Topol, and Sturgis Warner, and actors Andres Munar and Jennifer Dorr White.
This partnership began in the summer of 2006, when the Lark participated in a one-week residency at NYSAF. Then this past spring, the Lark hosted NYSAF in Manhattan to help support the selection of NYSAF’s upcoming season. The Lark is honored to be a part of NYSAF again and is thrilled that three Lark-developed plays are part of NYSAF’s 2007 season: SUBSTITUTION (by Anton Dudley ), DANCE OF THE HOLY GHOST (by Marcus Gardley ), and AMERICAN HWANGAP (by Lloyd Suh ).
According to Lark Artistic Programming Director, Daniella Topol , “We consider our process at the Lark to be a ‘retreat in New York City’, under the radar from commercial pressures, but it’s nice to take our artists out-of-town where they can really forget the daily grind, enjoy nature, and give life and breath to their work. A residency at NYSAF enables our artists to focus on critical dramaturgical questions and to be a part of a community focused on play development and critical thinking.”
While in residency, the writers will be working on a wide array of work including: Bilodeau’s (PLEASURE & PAIN) translation of Leger’s AMERICAN CAR, in which characters cross paths around a dead body, a hit & run, and a botched wedding ceremony; Diaz’s (WELCOME TO ARROYO’S) third play in his GUERNICA trilogy entitled SLATE; TINA GIRLSTAR by Dudley (SLAG HEAP)and lyricist Sohne , a musical about an aging record producer who decides her swan song will be to create the world's greatest Pop Princess; ODYSSEY TRIPPIN by Kariotis ( REMINISCENCE OF THE GHETTO & OTHER THINGS THAT RAIZED ME), a play that explores ancestral lineage and stretches the line between the early 20th century folk music of Rembetika in Greece and Hip Hop today; PUDDY TAT by Rosen (BACK FROM THE FRONT) about a poor man, with barely a family or a friend, who has a magnificent secret ; Stanescu’s (WAXING WEST) play ALIENS , based on the true stories of people engaged in green card marriages and illegal immigration. Meanwhile Cohen (LENNY & LOU), Joseph (BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO, HUCK & HOLDEN) and Kopit (NINE, INDIANS, WINGS) will work on new, untitled projects.
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THE LARK AND ROMANIA CULTURAL INSTITUTE GO BEYOND TOURISM
NEW YORK, NY – The Lark Play Development Center, the Odeon Theatre, and the Romanian Cultural Institute (RCI) are bringing several esteemed artists from Romania as part of their ongoing American Romanian Theatre Exchange program (ARTE). Making the trek to New York during this installment of the program are renowned Romanian actress and General Manager of the famed Odeon Theatre Dorina Lazăr, theArtistic Councilor of the Odeon Alina Moldovan, and playwright Alina Nelega, who’s play AMELIA BREATHES DEEPLY will be presented as a public reading starring Lynn Cohen on May 10, 7pm at the Lark Studio.
ARTE began in May, 2006 when Producing Director John Clinton Eisner led a delegation of playwrights and artistic leaders to Romania, including – Tanya Barfield (THE BLUE DOOR), Saviana Stanescu (WAXING WEST), Kelly Stuart (THE LIFE OF SPIDERS), Doug Wright (I AM MY OWN WIFE), as well as Gordon Edelstein, Artistic Director of Long Wharf Theatre, and Randy Gener, senior editor for American Theatre Magazine.
ARTE, supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute, is spearheaded by Stanescu, who was Lark’s Theatre Communications Group International Fellow. According to Stanescu, “The travels and projects that we developed as part of ARTE have gone far beyond ‘cultural tourism’ and allow a true artistic dialogue to happen. And we are committed to continuing to deepen, to diversify and to treasure that dialogue.” RCI’s Corina Suteu says that they were eager to take part in this program, “In order to support exchange in the field of playwriting and translation between Romania and the U.S. with the hope that it grows into a fully fledged long-term program of play development and translation."
During their current visit, the Romanian artists will not only continue developing relationships with key artists here in New York, but will also take part in a “think tank” discussion on U.S. – Romanian theater exchange. They will also travel to the Long Wharf Theatre as guests of Gordon Edelstein to see his adaptation and direction of UNCLE VANYA. Upon returning to the Lark, they will present a public reading of Nelega’s AMELIA BREATHES DEEPLY, in a translation by Kelly Stuart and starring Lynn Cohen. This reading will be followed by an excerpt from the play in Romanian, performed by Lazăr, as well a panel discussion entitled “How Plays Feel Different in Different Languages.”
On the importance of building international bridges like these, Eisner says, “Every encounter between the U.S. and international artists yields powerful results: relationships are formed, projects are imagined and advanced, and deep questions are raised about the role theater plays in helping different people, with different experiences, to talk with each other.”
A BENGAL TIGER WANDERS THE STREETS OF BAGHDAD AT THE LARK
The Lark partners with Queens Theatre in the Park to present
Rajiv Joseph’s powerfully, relevant BENGAL TIGER AT
THE BAGHDAD ZOO.
New York, NY - The Lark Play Development Center continues its ongoing partnership with Queens Theatre in the Park – presenting a BareBones® production of BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO by Rajiv Joseph from April 13 - 14 & 16 - 21 at 8pm. After performances at the Lark Studio, the production will move onto Queens Theatre in the Park from April 26 - 29. Tickets are $15 and may be purchased through www.larktheatre.org, 866-811-4111 or through www.queenstheatre.org for their performances.
Acutely relevant amidst our current political climate, Joseph’s darkly, comedic drama takes the audience straight into the Middle East where the lives of two American soldiers, an Iraqi translator and a tiger intersect on the streets of Baghdad; consequently changing each other’s lives forever.
For Joseph (ALL THIS INTIMACY, HUCK & HOLDEN) it took a small Associated Press news article about a bizarre interaction at the Baghdad Zoo to germinate this play of political and personal displacement. “The sadness and absurdity of that event,” says Joseph “led me to a different way of thinking about the war in Iraq. There’s a point where the media and government’s articulation of the war stops being particularly helpful.”
Lark’s Producing Director John Eisner says, “By placing America’s current dilemma in Iraq into a wider context of history and the ghosts of innocent victims, Joseph calls upon us to recognize the enormous challenge we face in creating a world that prizes humanity above nationhood.”
Working alongside Joseph is director Giovanna Sardelli (HUCK & HOLDEN, BAD DATES) who has been part of BENGAL TIGER’s development since Joseph was a 2005-06 Playwrights’ Workshop Fellow at the Lark. The cast for this production is as follows: Joseph Kamal, Ryan King, Tom Ligon, LeRoy McClain (THE HISTORY BOYS), Sharone Sayegh, and Alok Tewari. BENGAL TIGER has also been developed through residencies set up by the Lark at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, Centro Helenico in Mexico City, and SUNY Purchase. The development of BENGAL TIGER is supported in part by The Greenwall Foundation. Please visit www.larktheatre.org for more information.
THE LARK PARTNERS WITH CULTURE PROJECT AND THE PUBLIC THEATER
NEW YORK, NY – This year, the Lark Play Development Center continues to expand its role in not only developing new work, but in advancing that work through partnerships with theatres and residencies across the country. Current partners include the Culture Project, Playwrights Foundation (San Francisco), New York Stage and Film, Queens Theatre in the Park and The Public Theater.
Most recently the Lark hosted a residency for New York Stage and Film, February 26 – March 2. This will be followed by: Jessica Litwak’s TERRIBLE VIRTUE, presented in partnership with the Culture Project on March 8; a partnership with Playwrights Foundation in which four Lark writers are in residence in San Francisco; a public reading of Tracey Scott Wilson’s THE GOOD NEGRO will be presented in partnership with The Public Theater on March 29 and in April Rajiv Joseph’s BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO will be presented at the Lark with additional performances at Queens Theatre in the Park.
While the Lark has been exploring ways of discovering and supporting playwrights for thirteen years, Producing Director John Eisner says, “ Without the combined resources of many theaters, universities and other cultural institutions, it is nearly impossible to bring vital and unheard voices onto stages and into the American theater repertoire. The Lark is excited to play a role in advancing important projects by bringing key people and institutions together to form healthy and productive partnerships .”
On the TERRIBLE VIRTUE partnership, Allan Buchman, Artistic Director of the Culture Project says, “We are keenly aware of the kind of support playwrights need in developing risk-taking, meaningful work and are pleased to be collaborating with Lark where playwrights are put first and foremost and are given that support." Meanwhile, THE GOOD NEGRO will be the Lark’s second project with the Public Theater; they previously partnered on David Henry Hwang’s YELLOW FACE. Public Theater Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis, says “The Lark has been a wonderful, nurturing and creative partner, providing space, resources, insight and community. They are a rare and marvelous company, deserving of support and recognition.”
This month the Lark also heads across the country, as their partnership with Playwrights Foundation continues. Four Lark writers – Nastaran Ahmadi, Rachel Axler, Marcus Gardley, and Jason Grote - will each be in residence for a week and participate in the Bay Area Playwrights Festival in San Francisco.
In addition to these partnerships, the Lark also continues to work with Center Theatre Group, Harlem Arts Alliance, Hip-Hop Theater Festival, Indo-American Arts Council, Japan Society, Magic Theater in San Francisco, and Second Generation, among others.
THE LARK PARTNERS WITH THE PUBLIC THEATER ON NEW DAVID HENRY HWANG PLAY, SOON TO PREMIERE AT CENTER THEATRE GROUP
Hwang and others head to Lark for development.
NEW YORK, NY – This winter and spring, the Lark Play Development Center presents Thursdays at the Lark, devoted to writers such as David Henry Hwang and emerging playwright, Enrique Urueta. Both will have public readings of new work presented at the Lark Studio in midtown. Hwang’s YELLOW FACE will be read November 30 and Urueta’s DANGER OF BLEEDING BROWN will take place on December 7.
While it has always been the Lark’s mission to develop new plays, these next two in particular illustrate how the process remains a necessity to playwrights at all stages of their careers. Hwang (M. BUTTERFLY, FLOWER DRUM SONG) is taking advantage of his reading in preparation for the upcoming premiere of YELLOW FACE at Center Theatre Group in May of 2007, as well a production at The Public Theater. Meanwhile, Urueta (M.F.A. Playwriting, Brown University) represents perhaps the essence of the Lark’s development program. He submitted his play through Lark’s open submission process, his talent was noticed and a window of opportunity to develop his craft was created.
For many emerging playwrights, the Lark represents their first taste of recognition for their craft, while more established playwrights think of it as a place they can always turn to. Hwang says of developing at the Lark, “ For many playwrights such as myself, the Lark has become the best
place in America to work on our new plays - a smart creative community devoted to helping each play grow into the work it wants to be . ”
The process behind Thursdays at the Lark involves playwrights engaging in intensive work with actors and a director to focus on the text of their play, followed by a public staged reading. Up first is Hwang’s YELLOW FACE, a biting and funny new work about race and identity in America. In December is DANGER OF BLEEDING BROWN by Enrique Urueta, about race and relationships between a student and his professor. And in 2007, Thursdays at the Lark will continue with BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO by Rajiv Joseph (HUCK & HOLDEN), a new untitled play by Tanya Barfield (BLUE DOOR, a co-commission between Lark and Center Theatre Group) and SPINOZA by Colin Greer. All readings are free, open to the public, take place at the Lark Studio, 939 Eighth Avenue (bet 55 th – 56 th Streets) and start at 7pm..
LARK PLAYWRIGHTS FIND THEIR WAY TO THE STAGE
Taking “R & D” seriously, the Lark is helping playwrights find productions for their work
NEW YORK, NY – What do New York City playwrights Tanya Barfield, Theresa Rebeck and Sarah Ruhl have in common? Well, for one thing, each of them has had a new play in recent production–plays that were originally developed at the Lark Play Development Center, in the Playwrights’ Workshop led by Arthur Kopit. Barfield’s BLUE DOOR ran September 28 th through October 29 th at Playwrights Horizons; Rebeck’s MAURITIUS ran at the Huntington from October 6 th to November 12 th (THE WATER’S EDGE, which played at Second Stage this past summer, and THE SCENE, which will play there this December, were also developed at the Lark); and Ruhl’s THE CLEAN HOUSE runs at Lincoln Center from October 5 th to January 28 th.
In fact, 45 plays that were developed at the Lark Play Development Center moved onto a phenomenal 56 stages at other theaters this past year. This is good news for this “think-tank” organization that does not itself produce the plays it develops. Rather, the company is dedicated to providing a safe environment and resources for playwrights and their creative partners to explore new and ambitious ideas out of the limelight and away from commercial pressures. The Lark is delighted that its efforts are helping so many plays move forward to audiences locally, nationally and globally.
Lark playwrights are effusive in their praise for the company. Rebeck describes the Lark as “a place to go where smart people listen to my work and tell me to keep writing.” In regards to BLUE DOOR, Barfield says “the Lark was important because it provided a consistent opportunity to hear my work and receive feedback.”
“Sometimes what we do here at the Lark doesn’t feel all that ‘sexy’,” observed Lark Producing Director John Clinton Eisner. “We give writers whatever time and resources they need to support their most ambitious ideas, and that can take years. But it sure feels good when we are able to steward these plays towards continuing life in theaters around the country and the world.”
Some of the Lark’s recent successes include Brian Dykstra’s CLEAN ALTERNATIVES, which was produced last year at the 59 E. 59th Street Theater and was awarded a "Fringe First" at the Edinburgh Festival this summer, Adriana Sevan’s TAKING FLIGHT, which premiered at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and Chantal Bilodeau’s PLEASURE AND PAIN, which is moving on to productions in San Francisco and Mexico City.