Lark Play Development Center and PoNY Welcome New Fellow Kimber Lee

Lark Play Development Center and Playwrights of New York (PoNY) welcomed 7th PoNY Kimber Lee, the newest Lark/PoNY fellow to begin her one-year residency in the PoNY apartment in the heart of Manhattan's theater district.

For the past six years the apartment has been home to playwrights who are changing the face of the American Theater. Lee is the seventh playwright in the apartment, former home to Carson Kreitzer (NEA Art Works Award for Behind The Eye), Samuel D. Hunter (2013 Drama Desk Award for The Whale), 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 Dominique Morisseau (Detroit '67 and Sunset Baby). Together, these PoNY Fellows have written a total of 29 new plays while residing in the apartment and garnered 31 productions in 18 cities.

Board members, friends and supporters of Lark and PoNY attended the event welcoMing Lee and congratulating Dominique Morisseau, the 2012-13 fellow, on completing her year in the apartment. During Morisseau's Fellowship year her play Detroit '67 premiered at The Public Theater and Classical Theatre of Harlem and tickets are currently on sale for her production of Sunset Baby which will run at the LAByrinth Theater Company from November 6 - December 8, 2013.

Kimber Lee is a member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab. In 2014, Center Theatre Group will present the world premiere of her play different words for the same thing at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles. On hand to toast Kimber Lee's arrival were Sandi Farkas (Founder of PoNY), Mara Manus (PoNY Advisor), John Clinton Eisner (Artistic Director of Lark Play Development Center), past PoNY Fellows Carson Kreitzer, Dominique Morisseau, A. Rey Pamatmat and Tommy Smith, Andrew Farkas (founder and CEO of Island Capital Group), Seth Glewen (Gersh Agency), Ellen and Arnie Jacobs (partner, Capital Markets), Amanda Lipitz (producer), Ben Pesner (producer and writer, co-author of Outrageous Fortune), Lark and PoNY staff and many friends.

Founded in 2007 by Sandi Goff Farkas and the Lark Play Development Center, the unprecedented PoNY Fellowship revolutionized how a new generation of playwrights would be supported by shifting emphasis to the life of the artist, and helped catapult a shift in the theater industry by encouraging other major donors and theater organizations to deepen their support to emerging playwrights. The Fellowship continues to be the only of its kind, offering a full

[Text Box: Ben Pesner, Seth Glewen, Tara Smith, Ellen Jacobs, Victor Maog, Arnie Jacobs, Jodi Zotkow, Andrew Farkas Photo by Andres Otero] range of personal and professional benefits and which help launch playwrights into sustainable careers. In addition to housing for one year, Lee will also receive a living stipend, health insurance, artistic support (workshops, residencies, mentorship) at the Lark, career advice and business skills provided in Lark's Business of Art program.

About KIMBER LEE: In 2014, Center Theatre Group will present the world premiere of different words for the same thing at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles. Her work has also been presented by the Lark Play Development Center, Page 73 Productions (Page 2 Workshop), Hedgebrook Women Playwrights Festival, Dramatists Guild Fellows Program, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Represent Playwrights Festival at ACT/Seattle, Playwrights' Center Core Apprentice Program, Theatre of the 1st Amendment/1st Light Program, Great Plains Theatre Conference (Mainstage), Southern Rep, and Mo'olelo Performing Arts Company. Her play fight received the 2010 Holland New Voices Award, and she has been a Finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, the Ruby Prize, Soho Writer/Director Lab, and Premiere Stages Play Festival. Kimber was a 2012-2013 Playwrights' Workshop Fellow at the Lark, and is currently a member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab and the 2013 recipient of the PoNY Fellowship. MFA: UT Austin.

About LARK PLAY DEVELOPMENT CENTER: The Lark Play Development Center, now in its 19th year, is a laboratory for new voices and new ideas, providing playwrights with resources to develop their work, nurturing artists at all stages in their careers, and inviting them to express themselves freely in a supportive and rigorous environment. The Lark reaches across international and cultural boundaries to seek out and embrace unheard voices and diverse perspectives, celebrating differences in language and worldviews. By placing authors at the center of the creative process and giving them the tools they need to succeed financially and professionally, Lark's goal is to empower them to tell their stories and reflect the world back to us in unique and important ways. Lark's focus is on maintaining a laboratory where talent is rewarded, diversity abounds and everyone's idea is worthy of consideration.

The PoNY Fellowship is one of Lark's four major playwriting fellowships that provide economic flexibility to writers at different stages of their careers. Last year, Lark served 945 artists, including 186 playwrights; partnered with over two dozen theaters and universities; and supported numerous projects serving a diversity of communities, such as a touring residency program for Roma youth in Eastern Europe, an annual U.S.-Mexico Playwright Exchange and, in partnership with Signature Theatre, a Contemporary Chinese Playwriting Series. Recent plays substantially developed at the Lark include David Henry Hwang's Chinglish, Katori Hall's The Mountaintop, Rajiv Joseph's Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo and Theresa Rebeck's Seminar. The Lark is led by its co-founder and Artistic Director John Clinton Eisner and Managing Director Michael Robertson. For more information about the Lark Play Development Center, visit www.larktheatre.org.

About PLAYWRIGHTS OF NEW YORK: Playwrights of New York (PoNY) is committed to ensuring the creation of vibrant and diverse new American plays in the center of the theater world. The first of its kind, the PoNY fellowship addresses the many challenges of living as a playwright in New York City, providing practical support (housing, living expenses and health insurance) as well as more profound considerations such as artistic development and connection to a supportive community. In addition to providing support during the fellowship year, deeper and ongoing professional support is given to all PoNY fellows through partnerships with American Repertory Theater at Harvard University and LAByrinth Theater Company. Past PoNY Fellows are Carson Kreitzer, Samuel D. Hunter, Katori Hall, Tommy Smith, A. Rey Pamatmat, Dominique Morisseau and, this year's Fellow, Kimber Lee. For more information about Playwrights of New York, visit: www.playwrightsofnewyork.org.

Pictured: Arthur Kopit, John Clinton Eisner, Kimber Lee and Sandi Goff Farkas. Photo by Andres Otero.