The Lab Community

JOHN CLINTON EISNER is a stage director and producer of classic and contemporary work as well as a story consultant for theater and media. For 27 years he served as Artistic Director of The Lark, a new play development center and think-tank for the theater based in New York City. Currently, he is President of Peacedale Global Arts, supporting writers in their creative process through international and intercultural exchange, and Creative Producer in Residence at En Garde Arts, a national innovator in site-specific, community-based theater. He has worked closely with hundreds of award-winning writers including Jackie Sibblies Drury, Madeleine George, Katori Hall, Tina Howe, Sam Hunter, David Henry Hwang, Arthur Kopit, Matthew Lopez, Rajiv Joseph, Lisa Kron, Martyna Majok, Mona Mansour, Dominique Morisseau, Sarah Ruhl, Robert Schennkan, and Lucy Thurber. Recent projects include: “The Road Less Traveled,” a play commissioning program at Silk Road Rising in Chicago; a yearlong career seminar for MFA playwrights at Columbia University; an International Center for Playwrights in Portugal; a multilingual playwriting residency in Transylvania; and “A Dozen Dreams,” one of the very first live theater events in New York City after the pandemic shutdown. He has dedicated his career to reducing structural barriers to the arts and encouraging inclusive pathways into theater and media careers through intercultural exchange, fellowships, increased artist compensation, and local artmaking.