PRODUCERS

Jenny McConnell Frederick, Producer
Jenny joined CulturalDC in July of 2009. As Director of Performing Arts, she produces the Source Festival, a three-week performing arts event that cultivates new work in a nurturing environment. Additionally she manages the Mead Theatre Lab Program, which provides production support, theatre space and mentoring to performing artists and emerging companies.

Jenny is also the Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Rorschach Theatre. Founded in July of 1999, Rorschach has received significant acclaim for its fierce performance style, its bold use of theatrical space and its dedication to challenging works that are at once relevant and timeless. The company's work has focused on helping to reveal the contemporary relevance of fable, finding magic in rough spaces and connecting timeless works to a contemporary audience. Rorschach has been nominated for several Helen Hayes Awards, been a finalist for the Mayor's Arts Award for Outstanding Emerging Artists and won a Mary Goldwater award in 2006.

Before coming to CulturalDC, Jenny served as Director of Special Events at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company where she assisted in the successful completion of an $8.5 million Capital Campaign and produced their annual benefit bash for approximately 400 guests. Additionally, Jenny served as a member of the Mead Theatre Lab Advisory Panel for two years, produced Art-O-Matic's theatre component in 2000 and 2003 and is a member of the Hub Theatre's Advisory Board.

Jenny is from Northern Virginia and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre from Virginia Commonwealth University. She lives in Columbia Heights with her husband and son.

James Hesla, Literary Manager
James is a writer, scholar and dramaturg, with a diverse background in theatre performance and production. He has worked with Source Festival in a variety of capacities since 2009, when he collaborated an Artistic Blind Date performance titled, It's me you should blame. His ten-minute play, Lost and Found at the Hotel Mogador was presented as part of Source Festival 2012. Other plays include Long Shot (Active Cultures Theatre), Urban Nomads (Artists' Bloc), Graves' Rule (The Inkwell), and Behold! (Rorschach Theatre), to name a few.

He is also an Associate Artist with Active Cultures Theatre where he has produced several area or world premieres, including The Constellation by Gwydion Suilebhan, The Resurrectionist King by Stephen Spotswood, and Anna Ziegler's award-winning play Photograph 51 (currently under option for a film adaptation funded by the Tribeca Film Institute and produced by Darren Aronofsky). He has curated Sportaculture, an annual festival of ten minute plays about local sports, and Diving Board, a showcase for DC-area writers both for Active Cultures. As a freelance dramaturg, James has worked for the Arizona Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse, The Inkwell, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Prior to coming to DC, James was the Literary Assistant for New Dramatists in New York City, where he administered the 2000 season selection process.

As a scholar James has taught acting and playwriting at the University of Hawaii, the University of Arizona, Pima College, University of Maryland-Baltimore County, James Mason University, Shepherd University, and the Jakarta Institute of Art in Indonesia. James is currently a PhD student at the University of Maryland where he is writing his dissertation on clown theatre praxis in North America. He has a secondary research interest in Asian theatre, and has published on contemporary Indonesian theatre. In addition, James holds a MFA in Playwriting from the University of Hawaii, a BFA in Acting from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, and a MIG welding certificate from the American Welding Society.

Jess Jung, Associate Producer
Jess is a director and teaching artist residing in the DC area. She is a recipient of the Drama League Directors Project Hangar Summer Residency fellowship. While at the Hangar Jess served as an artistic leader directing, producing, and teaching master classes for the Wedge, or Hanger Theatre's second stage. Jess has also served as the Assistant Education Director at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. Directing credits include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Imagination Stage, the Inkwell Theatre, Young Playwrights' Theatre, Walden Theatre, Rorschach Theatre, and The Theatre School at De Paul University. Dramaturgy credits include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and Young Playwrights' Theatre.

When Jess is not directing, she serves as a teaching artist for Shakespeare Theatre Company, Imagination Stage, and Young Playwrights' Theatre. She holds an MFA in Directing from The Theatre School at De Paul University, and has also studied at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland.

Kathryn Coughlin, Assistant Producer
Kathryn Coughlin is a playwright and dramaturg based in Washington, DC. This is her second year with Source. Kathryn has worked with The DC Queer Theatre Festival, Taffety Punk Theatre Company, and is a frequent contributor to Arena Stage's blog, Sub/text: Your Virtual Dramaturg. She has also worked for both Signature Theatre Company in New York, NY and Hartford Stage in Hartford, CT. Kathryn's play, More Than Before received staged readings at Meat and Bone Theatre Company in Brooklyn, NY and The Inkwell Theatre. It was a semi-finalist in the Firehouse Theatre Project's 2012 Festival of New American Plays and was produced at St. Bonaventure University. Coughlin's short play, They Say There's a War Going On, was read as a part of The Disreputable's UNmute! Reading Series. Her ten-minute play, Sounds of Alarm, was read at the Kennedy Center's 2012 Page to Stage Festival and her one act play, All We Have was performed as part of a one-act festival at St. Bonaventure University.

Emily Edmond, Assistant Producer
Emily Edmond is a Washington D.C./Bethesda, MD native. She graduated from Carleton College in Minnesota in 2011, where she majored in English and worked on various school productions. Since then she has interned at several Washington theaters, and developed a deep affection for the DC theater scene. Her interests include new play development, Shirley Jackson, and cheese.

This is Emily's second year with Source Festival.

Aaron Yost, Assistant Producer
Aaron Yost is a recent transplant to the DC metro area, having graduated from Bluffton University in northwest Ohio in May of 2011. While earning his BA in Communication with a concentration in Theatre and an English minor, Aaron completed internships with Pittsburgh Irish Classical Theatre and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. These experiences catalyzed an interest in dramatic literature, new play development, and guiding audiences towards experiencing quality art of all kinds. Throughout college Aaron acted in both classical and contemporary works, reflecting his interest and commitment to a variety of theatrical experiences.

Aaron first became acquainted with the Source Festival in 2010 when he worked on run crew for the week of Artistic Blind Date and served as an Assistant Producer and dramaturg for Source Festival 2012.