NEA grant used for development of work by playwright who incorporates ASL into plays

From Broadway World:

The Lark Play Development Center in New York City was one of five theaters selected for the first-ever NEA Distinguished New Play Development Project. Each theater receives $20,000 to support early development activities for a new play which the Lark will be using to implement a national, multi-theater development strategy for Aditi Brennan Kapil's AGNES UNDER THE BIG TOP, A FAIRY TALE.

AGNES UNDER THE BIG TOP, A FAIRY TALE is a quintessentially American story, it is a surreal journey tracing the intersecting paths of a handful of immigrants as they struggle to form a new identity in America without losing connection to their past. Kapil (pictured) says of the development opportunity, "It's an amazing gift to have the space and means to develop this piece with both artistic integrity and institutional support, and to have national attention for this deeply personal story as it evolves into a piece of theater. This play brings together a wide array of ideas that are finally surfacing in this complex world combining American, Bulgarian, Indian, and Liberian characters, circus lore, and fairy tale."

Kapil was first brought to the Lark's attention when she submitted her play LOVE PERSON to its Open Access Program and was selected to the 2006 Playwrights Week festival. LOVE PERSON then went on to multiple productions through the National New Play Network at Marin Theater, Mixed Blood, Phoenix Theatre, and
was nominated for the Susan Blacksmith Award and Pulitzer Prize.

Aditi Brennan Kapil is an actress, writer, and director, of Bulgarian and Indian descent, raised in Sweden, and currently residing in Minneapolis, MN. She is a graduate of Macalester College with a BA in English and Dramatic Arts. Her latest play, LOVE PERSON, A four part love story in Sanskrit, ASL and English, was developed during a Many Voices residency at the Playwrights Center, work-shopped at the Lark Center for New Play Development in NY, and selected for reading at the National New Play Network conference. LOVE PERSON is being produced in a rolling world premiere at Mixed Blood Theatre (MN), Marin Theater (CA), and Phoenix Theatre (IN), in the 2007/08 season. In 2008/09 it will be produced by Live Girls in Seattle, and Victory Gardens in Chicago. 'Love Person' has been nominated for the Blackburn Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, and the Steinberg Award. AGNES UNER THE BIG TOP, A FAIRY TALE is slated for production at Mixed Blood Theatre in 2010.

Aditi's playwriting credits include a number of plays for youth, including THE DEAF DUCKLING, a bilingual (ASL & English) educational touring show about growing up Deaf, created in collaboration with Deaf performer Nic Zapko for Mixed Blood heater, and THE ADVENTURES OF THE HANUMAN, KING OF THE MONKEYS, a Bollywood style musical inspired by tales from the Ramayana for SteppingStone Theater for Youth Development (March 2006). She has also collaborated on several productions with In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater, notably GOTAMA, a play about the early life of the Buddha, and BENEATH THE SURFACE, a water circus. She is currently developing CHITRANGADA: THE GIRL PRINCE for
SteppingStone Theatre for Youth, a play in iambic verse loosely based on an episode in the Mahabharata. MESSY UTOPIA which she directed, and co-wrote with Seema Sueko, Velina Hasu-Houston, Janet Allard, and Naomi Iizuka, received an Ivey Award, and #6 in the City Pages Best of the Twin Cities 2007.