NEW YORK CITY: The Apothetae and the Lark have named Tim J. Lord as the inaugural recipient of the Apothetae and Lark Playwriting Fellowship for a disabled writer. Lord will receive a two-year residency, a cash prize of $40,000, a $5,000 fund for project-related expenses, and control over a $10,000 production enhancement fund to be allocated to a producing theatre in support of a full production of one of his plays.
Lord was selected from a pool of 73 applicants by the artistic staff of the Apothetae and the Lark, and individual artists. Members of the selection committee included Jesse Cameron Alick, Christine Bruno, Andrea Hiebler, Gregg Mozgala, Lloyd Suh, and Alexandria Wailes. The committee also awarded a cash prize of $5,000 to three finalists: Oya Mae Duchess-Davis, Jerron Herman, and Magda Romanska.
“The depth and breadth of talent within the application pool was astonishing, and we are so grateful for the opportunity to honor Oya Mae, Jerron, Magda, and Tim in this way,” said Suh, the director of artistic programs at the Lark, in a statement. “They each have such distinct gifts as storytellers, and a passion and commitment to diversifying the cultural conversation surrounding disability. In very different ways, their work is ambitious, personal, and challenging, and I’m so excited about what they will do next.”
Lord is a native of St. Louis, and is now based in Minneapolis after living in New York City for 10 years. He is a 2017-18 Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis. Lord’s plays include We declare you a terrorist…, 11 Hills of San Francisco, Peloponnesus, Down in the face of God, Better Homes & Homelands, Over Before We Get There, and Fault & Fold. His work has appeared at the Public Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Working Theater, the New Harmony Project, the Summer Play Festival, NNPN/Kennedy Center University Playwrights Workshop, Circle Rep, the Cutout Theatre, the Vagrancy, HotCity Greenhouse Festival, and the Barn Arts Collective. He has served as a volunteer at the 52nd Street Project since 2012. Lord is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego’s MFA playwriting program.
“I have spent a lifetime not taking anything for granted, so when things go off the rails I am prepared to find alternate ways,” said Lord in a statement. “It’s why when I write plays, my characters tend to be outsiders struggling to find their way through a ‘normal’ world. No one wants to talk about weakness, that’s cool, neither do I. I want to talk about strength and how we, the disabled…can be leaders and guides.”
The Fellowship is the centerpiece of a broader initiative, called the Apothetae and Lark Initiative, which aims to provide financial and artistic support for disabled artists.
