Lark Play Development Center Begins Construction of New Home

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.

For 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.

Founded in 1994, the Lark is a laboratory for new voices and new ideas, providing 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.

For more information on the Lark Play Development Center, please visit www.larktheatre.org.

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