The Lark will present a limited run of Tim J. Lord's On Every Link a Heart Does Dangle; or Owed this May as part of its BareBones programming. The Oedipus adaptation, directed by Meredith McDonough, will star Glass Menagerie's Madison Ferris as a young woman with a disability from Thebes, Illinois.
The production, which runs May 10鈥�19 at The Lark, culminates Lord's residency as the inaugural recipient of the Apothetae & Lark Playwriting Fellowship, the first national award supporting a Disabled playwright. .
In On Every Link, the Oedipus Rex story is re-imagined in Southern Illinois with the focus shifted away from the king and on a disabled woman facing the consequences of a city in ruin. The new work, like the classic play that inspired it, is an exploration of power, but told from an often overlooked perspective.
鈥淚 pushed Oedipus offstage," explains Lord. "Instead, I wanted to focus on the most vulnerable people in this world. Those left to deal with his inability to see what鈥檚 killing Thebes. The new central character is a young woman born in poverty and shunned because she was born with a disability.鈥�
Lord has been developing the play through his residency, which provides a two-year cycle of support to a Disabled writer for the generation of a new play that will challenge perceptions of the "Disabled Experience." Lord became the inaugural recipient of the Fellowship last season, receiving a $40,000 prize and a $5,000 opportunity and resource fund, as well as outreach and scouting toward the commissioning and development of the new play, and a $10,000 production enhancement fund.
鈥淭im鈥檚 play is adventurous and incredible,鈥� said Lloyd Suh, the director of artistic programs at The Lark. 鈥淚t uses classic myths of history and explodes myths of disability; a heroine鈥檚 journey told with wild theatrical imagination.鈥�
Past BareBones productions include Donja R. Love鈥檚 In the Middle, Dominique Morisseau鈥檚 Skeleton Crew, Katori Hall鈥檚 The Mountaintop, and Rajiv Joseph鈥檚 Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo.
