Festival Of Discovery to Feature Plays from the South Asian and Middle Eastern Diaspora Communities

Keynote address to be given by MacArthur "genius" Award winner Patricia Williams

NEW YORK, NY - The Lark Play Development Center kicks off its 11th annual Playwrights' Week Festival, produced in partnership with the Indo-American Arts Council’s Fourth Annual Playwrights Week, on June 10th beginning eight days of play readings. In keeping with the Lark's mission to reach out to unheard voices, submissions for this year's festival were sought especially from cultures whose perspectives are not generally reflected in mainstream theater, specifically the South Asian and Middle Eastern Diasporas. "Playwrights' Week is a global forum, an opportunity to bring together voices that reflect the diversity of this city," explains producing director John Eisner, "it is important to provide a theatrical forum in which we can look behind the headlines." The Festival focuses on co-mingling artistic voices, with playwrights and directors of different backgrounds working together.

Eleven plays will be presented in this year's Playwrights' Week, selected from hundreds of scripts submitted by individuals, agents and theaters. The Lark is one of a few theaters in NY to have an open submission policy and guarantees that all plays submitted will be read and considered. Plays are selected for Playwrights' Week through a rigorous reading and evaluation process involving dozens of Lark artists, staff, and volunteers. This year's selections range from Toniya Hossain's MOTHER IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE, a comedy about a Bengali/American couple whose enagagement is complicated when their two, very different mothers both move into their apartment to GOOD HOPE by August Schulenberg about an indigenous tribe in South Africa in the 1800's who, after repeated wars with colonialists, begin following the apocalyptic visions of a 16-year-old girl. (Complete list of plays.)

Writers come to The Lark with a range of history and experience. Dan O'Brien whose play SOUTHERN CROSS will be part of this year's festival has received commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club, Ensemble Studio Theatre and Trinity Repertory Company and has a play opening at Second Stage this August. Said Sayrafiezadeh (ALL FALL AWAY) is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts playwriting fellowship, as well as a Van Lier and an Artist's Fellowship, both from New York Theatre Workshop and will have a new play developed at Sundance this summer. A full list of playwrights and biographies available at www.larktheatre.org.)

To kickoff this exciting week of events, Patricia Williams, MacArthur "genius" Award recipient, law professor and author, will deliver a keynote address on the relationship between art and social change.

Plays developed in Playwrights' Week regularly go on to full productions at theaters across the country. This year Ian Cohen's Play LENNY AND LOU was at Woolly Mammoth Theatre in DC; Daphne Greave's play DAY OF THE KINGS had its premiere at the Alliance in Atlanta and Sujata Bhatt's QUEEN OF THE REMOTE CONTROL played at Mixed Blood in Minneapolis.

THE LARK PLAY DEVELOPMENT CENTER provides American and international playwrights with indispensable resources to develop their work. The Lark nurtures artists at all stages in their careers, inviting them to freely express themselves in a supportive and rigorous environment. It is a home for an emerging artistic community committed to reshaping how we see and experience the world. Leading the organization are Producing Director John Clinton Eisner and Managing Director Daniella Topol. To learn more about the Lark please visit us on the web at www.larktheatre.org.

INDO-AMERICAN ARTS COUNCIL, led by Executive Director Aroon Shivdasani, is a registered 501(c)3 not-for-profit, secular, service and resource arts organization charged with the mission of promoting and building the awareness, creation, production, exhibition, publication and performance of Indian and cross-cultural art forms in North America.

The IAAC supports all artistic disciplines in the classical, fusion, folk and innovative forms influenced by the arts of India. We work cooperatively with colleagues around the United States to broaden our collective audiences and to create a network for shared information, resources and funding.

Our focus is to work with artists and arts organizations in North America as well as to facilitate artists and arts organizations from India to exhibit, perform and produce their works here. For further information on the IAAC, please visit .

MIDDLE EASTERN THEATER INITIATIVE is a national commitee of Middle Eastern theatre artists and theatre companies reflecting the broad and intricate cultural spectrum that is the Middel East (Iran, Armenia, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, Palestine and Syria). The intiative is deeply committed to supporting and bringing to the forefront Middle Eastern voices in American theatre. The advisory council are the following: Isis Saratial Misdary, freelance stage director, NYC, NY; James Asher, actor, NYC, NY; Torange Yeghezarian, Artistic Director, Golden Thread Productions, San Fran, CA; Nabil Ben Ghachem, Artistic Director, Mosaic Theatre, Santa Cruz California; Jamil Khoury, Artistic Director, Silk Road Theatre Project, Chicago, IL; Abir Haddad, journalist, The Arab Channel, NYC, NY

All events take place at The Lark Studio
939 8th Avenue (btw 55 & 56) Rm 204, 2nd Floor
For Reservations: 212-246-2676 x22 or email tickets@larktheatre.org

BECAUSE OF THE DEVELOPMENTAL NATURE OF THIS WORK, THESE PRESENTATONS ARE NOT AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW.

COMPLETE SCHEDULE BELOW OR ON WEBSITES WWW.LARKTHEATRE.ORG OR