Multi-talented artist repeats as Marion Fellowship award recipient

Jessica Kahkoska, a writer, dramaturg/researcher, and producer for theatre and television based in New York City, has been named the Marion Fellow for 2022 for her project “Dream: A New Musical.” This is her second Marion International Fellowship, having also received one in 2017.

Ms. Kahkoska describes “Dream” as a “modern, musical reboot of Shakespeare’s most quintessential summer comedy – ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ – set at a giant, Coachella-esque music festival in the woods. Following four teens as they sneak into the festival for the first time, ‘Dream’ takes place in a heart-pounding, toe-tapping world of mistaken identities, festival mayhem, exhilarating music and summer night magic.”

As a Marion Fellow, Kahkoska will be supported on more than a year-long artistic journey through several of the different institutions tied together by the Marion Fellowship that include Chautauqua Institution, Ucross, Alley Theatre, The Alberta University of the Arts, and finally, SUNY Fredonia, where she will present in the fall of 2023.

Kahkoska’s theatre projects include “Wild Fire,” which had its world premiere at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in partnership with History Colorado); “Front Range Fables,” Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center; “Letters to the President,” Great Hall at Cooper Union; “Agent 355,” with Preston Max Allen, Chautauqua Theater Company, New York Stage and Film; “In Her Bones,” Colorado New Play Summit, Denver Center for the Performing Arts; “The Death of Desert Rose,” with Elliah Heifetz, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat; and “Nia,” upcoming at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, among others.

Her work has been developed and presented at Ars Nova ANT Fest, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, the Drama League, Goodspeed Musicals, Village Theatre, Bucks County Playhouse, Phoenix Theatre Company, the American Music Theatre Project at Northwestern University and others.

Kahkoska is a previous recipient of a Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship, Marsico Visiting Scholarship at Denver University, the inaugural Powered by Off-Center residency and the 2017 Marion International Fellowship for the Visual and Performing Arts.

In TV, Kahkoska is currently a writer and associate producer for series/films in production at CNN, Discovery Networks, Discovery+, Magilla Entertainment and Anchor Media. She holds a B.A. from Northwestern University, is currently working on her MBA at SUNY New Paltz and is proud to be on faculty at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts. Additional information is available on her website.

The Marion International Fellowship for the Visual and Performing Arts was created through the Fredonia College Foundation by philanthropists and avid supporters of the arts and education, SUNY Fredonia alumna Cathy, and Jesse Marion.

More information about the fellowship is available online.