What a lark!

Emerging playwright Alison Rooke is an AustralianPlays.org guest blogger

• Works that are ambitious, fresh, playful, engaging, energizing, provocative, powerful and theatrical;
• works that reveal unheard and vital perspectives;
• authors with clear goals about their writing who are open to the Lark's developmental process..."

These three sentences are what caught my eye as I scanned the web looking for inspiration. After six months of determined saving and hard ‘day job’ toil I had 11 weeks of delicious creative time to spend writing in New York City, the first time I had set foot on American soil.

But the thought of having no structure for that length of time made me panic! And so, a few weeks before flight QF108 departed I was urgently Googling my way around the NYC theatre scene looking for something I could participate in during my time there.

After numerous false starts, I came across the Lark Play Development Center’s website and was smitten.

"The Lark reaches into untapped local populations and across international and cultural boundaries to seek out and embrace unheard voices and diverse perspectives, celebrating differences in language and worldviews…"

The discovery that they had an intern program that started only a week before my arrival was impetus enough to make contact and send through an application for the Dramaturgy Intern position.

After a Skype chat with Suzy Fay, the Associate Program Director, I was accepted. On 14 September 2011 I began my time at the Lark.

The internship experience 

My role was to provide support for Suzy across the Roundtable Program.

As one of eight interns I also helped out across other programs such as public reading events and playwright exchanges, including one of the highpoints of the Lark year – Playwrights Week in September - and the Mexico Playwrights Exchange Program which was held in early November.

I was involved in 24 Roundtables with writers from all over America, as well as international writers from South Africa, Denmark and Israel.

It was a privilege to be in the room as other writers explored their new work, took risks and demonstrated great vulnerability, along with a willingness to grow the work on the page.

"By encouraging artists to define their own goals and creative processes in pursuit of a unique vision, we believe we are reinvigorating the theater's ancient and enduring role as a public forum for discussion, debate and community engagement.”

Advice and mentorship

Another aspect of the internship was the ‘Intern Lunches.’ Every Wednesday we had the opportunity to talk to a New York theatre professional about living and working in NYC; the highs and lows and the secret tips no one usually spills the beans about.

I had the chance to meet playwrights such as David Henry Hwang (M.Butterfly, Chinglish), Tina Howe (Tony and Pulitzer Prize finalist), Thomas Bradshaw, Greg Kotis (Urinetown) and Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife).

There are not enough superlatives available to begin to describe what it was like having Suzy Fay as a mentor. Since Joining the Lark in March 2002, she has overseen over 140 Roundtables for playwrights each year. A Yale graduate, she is a distinguished dramaturg and actor. Suzy taught me bucket-loads about integrity and respect for another artist’s process. Her nuanced responses and ability to ‘read’ a playwright demonstrated the power of responsible dramaturgical feedback.

In the thick of it

Located on West 43^rd Street, just around the corner from Times Square, the Lark is in the thick of all things theatrical. As a result I had many invitations to see new work, both on and off Broadway during my time in NYC, which further served to inspire.

The Lark's Mission is defined by responses to these three challenges: writers have the freedom and the resources to write whatever they choose, without political or commercial pressures; more diverse voices are included in the mainstream; everyone in America is part of a creative community.

“The Lark's Mission is defined by responses to these three challenges:

• writers have the freedom and the resources to write whatever they choose, without political or commercial pressures;
• more diverse voices are included in the mainstream;
• everyone in America is part of a creative community...”

New York theatre struggles with the same issues we do; lack of funding, dire representation of women and minorities, minimal support for emerging artists as well as mid-career writers, gate-keeping etc. But the big difference is that, due to population and audience support, along with a society that doesn’t devalue the arts, they have many more opportunities to get their work before an audience.

I also found the attitude of American theatre-makers refreshing. They never say die. They ask ‘How can we make it work?’, rather than ‘It’s all too hard.’ A big lesson for me, and one that I hope to maintain now that I am home.

Having the opportunity to live in this iconic theatre city gave me the chance to reflect upon my own community of theatre-makers back in Australia. The quality of the work being produced back home more than matches that of New York. We have a vibrant, supportive and creatively rigorous culture and I was proud to discover that Australian writing is up there with the best.

A life-changing trip

My final few weeks at the Lark were taken up in a flurry of activity, writing and re-writing the first draft of a new play, The Blackbird and The Whale, which I had begun working on just before I arrived in New York.

I was lucky to be granted my very own Roundtable on my final night with the Center.

Hearing my characters with American accents for the first time and being on the receiving end of constructive feedback from the participants in the room spurred me on to begin work on the second draft immediately.

All too soon my time was up and I had to board the flight home. Home?

My time living on West 107^th, reading books in cafes in SOHO, walking the 51 blocks of Central Park, eating soul food in Harlem, getting lost in the West Village, hanging with hipsters in Williamsburg, watching incredible musicians in tiny bars in the East Village or scribbling away in the magnificence of the New York Public Library had conspired to infuse me with a sense of ‘home’ I had always felt was missing.

Add to this the generosity, kindness and education provided by the Lark crew and my months in New York were without doubt life-changing.  I have made many new friends within the theatre community and I know I am a better writer, with a renewed thirst to scribble, scribble and scribble some more.

For more information about Lark visit www.larktheatre.org

Alison Rooke is a writer from Sydney, Australia. She is a graduate of the Playwrights Studio at NIDA and has a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Technology Sydney. She has written plays, poetry and film and is currently completing her first novel, The Memory Tree. Her produced plays include The Space Between, I Get Along Very Well Without You (Except Sometimes), You Are Here (Stories from the 428), Apples and Onions (Brand Spanking New) and Sharks Can Smell Fear (Bare Boards Brave Heart Festival). Her play Combat Fatigue was developed as part of the Off The Shelf Residency at Queen Street Studios in Sydney and was an official selection in the 2010 Sydney Fringe Festival. Alison graduated in 2010 from the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) in Screenwriting.