Administered by the Playwrights of New York (PoNY) and the Lark Play Development Center, the fellowship provides playwrights with housing in a midtown Manhattan apartment, a $27,000 stipend and artistic support from the Lark's Playwrights' Workshop led by Arthur Kopit and advised by such playwrights as Tina Howe, David Henry Hwang, Theresa Rebeck and Doug Wright.
"Dominique is the kind of artist who thrives at the Lark," Lark artistic director John Clinton Eisner said in a statement. "She is ambitious in her storytelling, rigorous in her craft, and generous as a collaborator. She is a poet for the beauty of her language as well as the scope of her vision. She is a passionate believer that the world can be made better through the shared experience of theater. The PoNY Fellowship comes at just the right time for her as she struggles financially to find the time to write, build a body of work and see her plays through to production."
Morisseau's plays include Follow Me To Nellie's and Sunset Baby, which will be produced at London's Gate Theater this September. She is also an accomplished actress.
In addition, the Lark and Playwrights of New York announced the creation of a new program named PoNY 2.0, which provides additional development and residency opportunities for new and past PoNY recipients with the American Repertory Theater and the Labyrinth Theater Company.
The playwrights benefiting from the program include A. Rey Pamatmat (Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them, Tommy Smith (The Wife), Katori Hall (The Mountaintop), Samuel D. Hunter (A Bright New Boise) and Carson Kreitzer (Behind the Eye). For more information visit LarkTheatre.