NEW YORK CITY: The Lark, an international play development laboratory dedicated to amplifying the voices of playwrights, has announced that May Adrales, the acclaimed director of Vietgone and Luce, will serve as its new artistic director. After an inclusive search process led by ALJP Consulting, Adrales was selected by a committee composed of Lark artists, staff, and board members to succeed founding artistic director John Clinton Eisner, who announced his departure after 27 years last week. Adrales will lead the organization alongside executive director Stacy Waring.
Adrales has a long history with the Lark, having first come to the company through the New Generations Future Leaders Fellowship from TCG, and later serving as the its director of artistic programs.
“The Lark…by creating a dynamic, radically supportive and inclusive space for living theatremakers, has influenced and shaped me to be the artist I am today,” said Adrales in a statement. “My vision for the Lark is to wholly empower artists and encourage their fullest potential by providing artistic, financial, and career-building support. My hope is that the work created under the wing of the Lark reveals the widest range of human experience and works towards an equitable, compassionate, and imaginative world.”
As the Lark’s director of artistic programs, Adrales played a leading role in designing artistic programs that continue to be core to the Lark’s play development process, including Monthly Meeting of the Minds, Winter Writers’ Retreat, and Playground. In her acclaimed career as a director, Adrales has also directed numerous world premieres and productions of Lark-affiliated writers, including Katori Hall, David Henry Hwang, Rajiv Joseph, including Katori Hall, Rajiv Joseph, David Henry Hwang, A. Rey Pamatmat, Idris Goodwin, Chisa Hutchinson, Lloyd Suh, Thomas Bradshaw, and Lauren Yee.
“May Adrales is like family coming home,” said Waring in a statement. “Her vision and insight into the needs of our community perfectly positions her as the right leader for the Lark. As two women of color we can not only bring awareness to the challenges our communities face, but as benefactors of the Lark’s mission we understand the value of its promise. It is an honor to serve alongside her.”
“May has deep roots at the Lark, so I am overjoyed about her appointment as the next artistic director,” said founder and artistic director emeritus Eisner. “She has worked with playwrights across a remarkable range of cultural experiences and ideological perspectives and understands that the reason people find common ground is because they share stories. She has come home to the Lark to build on programs and processes she helped create a decade ago, make them more accessible to an expanding network of communities worldwide, and advocate for artists who will bring us together by changing the way we see the world.”
Adrales has directed over 25 world premieres, including Qui Nguyen’s Lortel- and Obie-winning production Vietgone at Manhattan Theatre Club/South Coast Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Seattle Rep. Previously she served as associate artistic director and director of new-play development at Milwaukee Rep, overseeing a robust commissioning and development pipeline for playwrights; artistic associate at the Playwrights Center, working with early career writers; and as artistic associate at the Public, focusing on their Mobile Shakespeare Unit. She has taught and directed at Yale School of Drama, Brown University, Juilliard, NYU, Fordham, ART, and ACT. Adrales is the recipient of the TCG Alan Schneider Directing Award; League of Professional Women Josephine Abady Award; Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation’s inaugural Denham Fellowship and the recipient of a TCG New Generations grant. She has held fellowships at Second Stage Theater, New York Theater Workshop, WP, SoHo Rep, and The Drama League. She serves on the board of Theater Communications Group and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
The Lark is an international theatre laboratory, based in New York, dedicated to amplifying the voices of playwrights by providing transformative support within a global community.
