MEET THE WRITERS
 
Wednesday, September 26 @ 8pm
Hosted by Catherine Coray
.
Meet the 2007 Playwrights' Week Playwrights! Hear the writers read excerpts from their work and stay afterwards to mingle with the playwrights at our opening night reception.
SAND
by Trista Baldwin
directed by Daniella Topol
 
Thursday, September 27 @ 4pm
In this surreal piece, a young American soldier goes off to a war in the Middle East on what he believes will be a short detour on his route to college, made possible by the U.S. Army. Instead he finds himself in the midst of a complex occupation. His personal history of violence and the history of violence in the country he is fighting for and against collide as his life and the lives of his fellow soldiers are irrevocably changed.

THE DAY THE BIRD FLU CAME
by Jonathan Yukich

directed by Jim Abar

 
Thursday, September 27 @ 8pm
Could a plague really come? Two unassuming health officials investigate reports of an outbreak in a small town. No one could have anticipated what they find. A wildly, comical, thinly veiled look at fear, anxiety and talking birds in America.

PISTACHIO STORIES
by Laura Shamas
directed by Kip Fagan
 
Friday, September 28 @ 4pm
About a diverse group of friends who meet regularly to watch Al Jazeera and discuss the situation in the Middle East. When one of them receives an mysterious package of red pistachios from Syria, it triggers a series of events which threatens their friendships and sense of community.

VELOCITY
by Daniel Macdonald
directed by Sturgis Warner
 
Friday, September 28 @ 8pm
A teenage girl dares to challenge the laws of physics by blowing her dad out the 73rd floor of his office tower and interviewing him as he falls. While Dot's 15 year old world is coming crashing down, she's bound and determined to take everyone else along for the ride - all in 6 seconds.

RAISINS, NOT VIRGINS
by Sharbari Ahmed
directed by Shilarna Stokes
Saturday, September 29 @ 4pm
A tale of spiritual and political turmoil set against a backdrop of New York dating angst, this play traces the hilarious journey and jihad of a young American-Muslim as she traverses the minefields of identity and love.

SHE LIKE GIRLS
by Chisa Hutchinson
directed by Kristin Horton

Saturday, September 29 @ 8pm
Inspired by the 2003 murder of a lesbian teenager in Newark, NJ, She Like Girls is the story of two inner-city high school girls who fall in love in a dangerously homophobic climate.

NOBODY
by Richard Aellen
directed by Jerry Dixon
 
Sunday, September 30 @ 4pm
Explores the lives and friendship of Bert Williams and George Walker, African-American entertainers who create blackface roles so rich and affecting that they can neither surpass nor escape them.  Bert's signature song "Nobody" is recorded on cylinders that sell in the thousands, but the cost is high:  In becoming somebody, he has become nobody.

CHILDREN AT PLAY
by Jordan Seavey
directed by Jackson Gay
 
Sunday, September 30 @ 8pm
A tragic farce in which five friends [hopefully] survive the typical high school experience: algebra, fluctuating sexuality, eating disorders, groping teachers, guns, school bombings, nuclear fallout, and, most dangerous of all, love.

GARY
by Melinda Lopez
directed by Victor Maog
 
Monday, October 1 @ 4pm
Stifled by a city in rapid decline, siblings Tommy, Mark and Annie don't have much to do but play video games and listen to music until one violent night changes everything. Their collective longing, frustrations and desires take on a haunting melody, as each offers up their own tragic verse.

SOUTH ASIAN SAMPLER-
Hear new scenes from South Asian alumni writers in celebration of
the Indo-American Arts Council's 10th Anniversary
scenes directed by Giovanna Sardelli

Monday, October 1 @ 8pm
hosted by the Indo American Arts Council
Join us in celebrating Lark and Indo-American Arts Council's 8 year partnership, plus the 10th Anniversary of IAAC. The reception will feature excerpts from past South Asian Lark Alumni writers and the announcement of the 2007 IAAC Playwright-in-Residence.

Facilitated by
Madhur Jaffrey

Sarovar Banka's JETLAG —A mystery about an aspiring actress and two documentary filmmakers.

Aasif Mandiv's THE HOUSE OF MR. ORANGE – After the death of his wife and detainment of his son to a U.S detention center, a sixty year old Pakistani man goes in search of the woman he once truly loved thirty years ago.

Sonia Pabley's PAGING DR. PATEL, a struggling medical intern's latest page takes him on a wild journey into his future.

Anuvab Pal's
THE PRESIDENT IS COMING —A comedy about 7 young Indian hopefuls who competed against each other to shake George W. Bush's hand during his diplomatic engagement to shake hands with “A young Indian achiever responsible for shaping the new India”.

Aladdin Ullah's THE HALAL BROTHERS —About two Bengali brothers who have a store in Harlem on the day Malcom X was assisinated.

Kesav Wable's FOR FLOW, Dee and Kane are two MC’s from the borough of the Bronx searching for a way to climb out of the hard-knock lives they’ve been forced to lead.

How do I submit a play for Playwrights' Week 2008? Click Here!

How do I apply to be a reader for Playwrights' Week 2008?
Click Here!


Playwrights' Week is made possible in part through the
National Endowment for the Arts
.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
.

Our lead partner organization of Playwrights' Week is the Indo-American Arts Council.

The official beverage sponsor of Playwrights' Week is General Bilimoria Wines.

Additionally, Lark's programming is generously supported by Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, American Theatre Wing, Axe-Houghton Foundation, Birch Foundation, Carnegie Coporation, The Dorothy Strelsin Foundation, The Dramatists Guild Fund, The John Golden Fund, FONCA (Mexico Fund for Arts and Culture), The Greenwall Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Lucille Lortel Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, and with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State arts agency.