Tim, a St. Louis native, is a playwright who has spent the past ten years is New York, and is now based in Minneapolis, whose plays tend to explore the relationships between communities and the physical landscapes they inhabit via our shared mythologies. They follow characters who attempt to navigate the fates that have been written for them, and grapple with circumstances beyond their own control.
"I have spent a lifetime not taking anything for granted, so when things go off the rails I am prepared to find alternate ways. It’s why when I write plays my characters tend to be outsiders struggling to find their way through a “normal” world," said Tim. "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."
In addition to the selection of the Fellow, three finalists for the award were chosen to receive a $5,000 honorarium. They are Oya Mae Duchess-Davis, Jerron Herman, and Magda Romanska.
The Apothetae at Lark Playwriting Fellowship is the centerpiece of a broad Apothetae and Lark Initiative, designed to provide an unprecedented platform of 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 of 2015 and January of 2016. At both convenings, three major needs were expressed: more material, more opportunities opportunities (which are perpetuated by the creation of more material), and more convening as a community. The Apothetae and The Lark have been working in partnership, along with Steering Committee members Claudia Alick (Community Producer, Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Shirley Fishman (Resident Dramaturg at La Jolla Playhouse), Jack Reuler (Artistic Director at Mixed Blood Theatre), and Howard Sherman (Senior Strategy Director and Interim Director at Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts) to address these needs, as well as the profound underrepresentation and oppressive misrepresentation of people with disabilities that persists throughout our cultural media.
“I believe theater offers one of the greatest venues for perceptions about Disability to change; it is immediate, events happen in real time, and it demands participation,” said Gregg Mozgala, Founder and Artistic Director of The Apothetae. “It also provides visibility, creates community, and serves as a place of inclusion and a forum for ideas. The Disabled Community, and the experiences of that community, are incredibly varied and complex. There are commonalities to be sure, but I believe what makes Disability hard to define and codify is the same thing that makes it inherently dramatic in nature. And worthy of rigorous exploration.”
The Apothetae and Lark Playwriting Fellowship is a critical component in The Lark’s acclaimed portfolio of fellowships, designed to engage a diverse community of extraordinary playwrights at various places in their careers, who represent, collectively, a contemporary national vision. The Lark believes that targeted support is essential to a culture of equity, access, and inclusion, and a national theater that represents the vibrancy of our collective cultural voices.
“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,” says Mozgala. “It finally allows us to take ownership of our personal and collective identity.”
ABOUT THE FELLOW
Tim J. Lord is a 2017-18 Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis. A native of St. Louis, his 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. These and others have been seen 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 been a volunteer at the 52nd Street Project since 2012. Tim studied with Paula Vogel while living in Providence, RI, and is a graduate of UC San Diego's MFA playwriting program.
ABOUT THE FINALISTS



The Apothetae is a company dedicated to the production of full-length plays that explore and illuminate the "Disabled Experience." To do this, The Apothetae focuses on newly commissioned works by both established and up and coming playwrights, and plays that already exist in the theatrical canon featuring characters with disabilities or dealing with disabled themes: Oedipus, Richard III, The Elephant Man, etc. By making visible the human impact of disabled people throughout history, The Apothetae believes empathy can be practiced, perceptions changed, and new communities forged through the collaborative and transformative power of the artistic process.
For more information about The Apothetae, please visit: www.theapothetae.org.
The Lark is an international theater laboratory, based in New York City, dedicated to empowering playwrights by providing transformative support within a global community. Founded in 1994, The Lark provides writers with funding, space, collaborators, audiences, professional connections, and the freedom to design their own processes of exploration. The guiding principal of The Lark’s work is the belief that playwrights are society’s truth tellers, and their work strengthens our collective capacity to understand our world and imagine its future.
For more information about the artists, initiatives and plays of The Lark, please visit: www.larktheatre.org.
ABOUT THE TIME WARNER FOUNDATION