Kimber Lee Named 2013-2014 PoNY Fellow

Lark Play Development Center and Playwrights of New York (PoNY) have announced that Kimber Lee will be the recipient of the 2013-14 PoNY Fellowship which provides over $100,000 in comprehensive career support, including housing in the PoNY apartment in the heart of the theater district in Manhattan.

She joins the PoNY family of fellows which includes Carson Kreitzer (NEA Art Works Award for Behind The Eye), Samuel D. Hunter (Obie Award for A Bright New Boise), Katori Hall (Olivier Best New Play Award for The Mountaintop), Tommy Smith (The Wife), A. Rey Pamatmat (Edith Can Shoot Things And Hit Them) and, the current Fellow, Dominique Morisseau (Detroit '67). Together, these PoNY Fellows have written a total of 24 new plays while residing in the apartment - 21 of which have been produced in 15 cities.

In addition to housing for one year, beginning in October 2013, Lee will also receive a living stipend, health insurance and artistic support (workshops, residencies, mentorship) at the Lark including participation in the prestigious Playwrights' Workshop led by Arthur Kopit and advised by such playwrights as Tina Howe, David Henry Hwang, Lynn Nottage, and José Rivera. The Fellowship now also includes artistic opportunities with American Repertory Theater at Harvard University and LAByrinth Theater Company, access to opportunity and travel funds, career support and a new $10,000 Rooted in NYC grant if the playwright elects to continue residency in NYC.

Founded in 2007 by Sandi Goff Farkas and the Lark Play Development Center, the unprecedented PoNY Fellowship revolutionized how a new generation of playwrights was supported, by shifting emphasis to the life of the artist, and helped catapult a shift in the theater industry by encouraging other major donor and theater organizations to deepen their support of emerging playwrights. The Fellowship continues to be the only one of its kind, offering a full range of personal and professional benefits and aiming to launch playwrights into sustainable careers.

Kimber Lee is a 2012-2013 Playwrights' Workshop Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center and a member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab. Artistic Director of the Lark, John Clinton Eisner, said of Kimber's talent "Kimber Lee inhabits many worlds in her writing: gritty city neighborhoods, a Tokyo sushi bar, a lonely town in Idaho. Her plays are as thrilling in their language - which is poetic, real and often funny - as in their compelling action and raw humanity. Although you may not have heard of her yet, this PoNY Fellow is already a leader in the theater's next generation." Lee was nominated for the PoNY Fellowship by Suzan Zeder and Kirk Lynn of the University of Texas at Austin and Amy Wheeler and Liz Engelman of Hedgebrook.