Romanska Honored by Playwriting Fellowship
Performing Arts Associate Professor Magda Romanska was selected as one of three finalists to receive a special recognition from The Apothetae and Lark Playwriting Fellowship for writers with a disability, supported by the Time Warner Foundation.
This recognition, which includes a no-strings-attached cash award of $5,000, “is a testament to our deep appreciation of you and your work, and a gesture of our sincere hope to engage you, and your extraordinary talents, both at The Lark and The Apothetae in the future,” according to the Fellowship.
The Apothetae, is a theater company committed to the production of works that explore and illuminate the “Disabled Experience,” and The Lark is a play development lab devoted to equity, community, and the power of an individual artistic voice.
Romanska and two other finalists, Oya Mae Duchess-Davis and Jerron Herman, as well as Fellowship winner Tim J. Lord, were selected from a pool of 73 applicants, by a committee comprised of Apothetae and Lark artistic staff, alongside individual artists aligned with the program's mission.
“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,” Lloyd Suh, Lark director of artistic programs, said in a press release. “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.”
Romanska is the author of Opheliamachine, a postmodern drama loosely based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. She is a writer, dramaturg, and theater scholar who has taught at Harvard, Yale, and Cornell universities, as well as Emerson. She has worked on more than 30 productions as dramaturg and director, and written five books and dozens of articles on theater and performance. She is executive director of TheTheatreTimes.com, a global portal for international theater news in 70 countries.
The Apothetae at Lark Playwriting Fellowship is the centerpiece of a broad Apothetae and Lark Initiative designed to provide financial and artistic support and advocacy for Disabled Artists, and to promote the generation of new plays with the power to revolutionize the cultural conversation surrounding Disability.
The Fellowship and Initiative were born directly out of conversations with members of the Disabled and d/Deaf communities, held at The Lark in May 2015 and January 2016. At both meetings, three major needs were expressed: more material, more opportunities, and more convening as a community. The Apothetae and The Lark have been working in partnership, to address these needs, as well as the profound underrepresentation and oppressive misrepresentation of people with disabilities that persists throughout our cultural media.
“The creation of new works and the re-appropriation of existing works can help frame our experience in a historical context while simultaneously creating new mythologies,” Gregg Mozgala, founder and artistic director of The Apothetae, in a press release. “It finally allows us to take ownership of our personal and collective identity.”
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