Fellows Spotlight: Jessica Kahkoska

Posted on February 11, 2020 by Hannah Kloepfer

Welcome back to the February edition of Fellows Spotlight!

For those catching up, each month we’ll feature a new Fellow and invite you to take a behind-the-scenes look at our program. (applications for the 2020-2021 class of Fellows are open now!)

Last month we introduced you to Paulo K Tiról, and we’ll be hearing from all other 2019-2020 Fellows: Andrew Rincón, Andy Roninson, Avi Amon, Elliah Heifetz, Jessica Kahkoska, Kate Douglas, Kyoung H. Park, Melis Aker, Nikhil Mahapatra, and Nolan Doran.

Each of these writers were asked the same series of questions, exploring where these writers have been, are now, and are journeying towards. Our Fellows took this gentle structure and ran, each submitting responses as unique and creative as they are.

Allow us to introduce you to Jessica Kahkoska!

What was your first experience with theater?

I grew up in Colorado, so my very first encounters with theater were through visiting national tours and a particularly influential kindergarten production of The Ugly Duckling.

As a teenager, I was lucky to participate in a training program called the Youth Repertory Theatre at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Youth Rep is one of those amazing, comprehensive camps where young people have the chance to act in the show, build the sets, work on the program… and being someone who is so broadly interested in theatre, it was all very exciting to me. Later in high school, I also attended Interlochen Arts Camp for two summers in the musical theatre program.

I think these early experiences with summer theatre programs influenced me more than I realized at the time, because now I have SUCH a soft spot for summer theatre. I just love everything about it! I love the bugs, the rain, rehearsing with the windows open, all the weird things that inevitably go wrong… and a lot of my favorite professional jobs share qualities with these early summers at Youth Rep or Interlochen. I guess I feel like if we’re going to be tired and stressed at some point in the theatre process, at least we should do that in beautiful, sunny places with lots of trees.

How do you describe your work overall? What sets your work apart?

I was initially more focused on performing, but after a couple years in New York, I actually had some health issues that changed my interest in both performing and living in the city. I ended up spending a couple years outside New York, working at various regional theatres in Colorado, Western New York, Michigan, and Maine.

While out of the city, I also had a chance to reflect on some of the badges of success I had initially assumed I needed to claim a life in the arts: namely a New York address and a singular focus of working on commercial musicals. Obviously none of these are destructive in the slightest (or have any deeper meaning!), but I think that as a young person out of school, I had internalized this singular, unchecked narrative about what success in theatre entailed, and at that moment, it wasn’t really serving my creativity, interests, or health.

As I was chewing on all that (and also starting to feel better), I started rethinking a lot of things that I wanted to be true about my own life and creative practice. I’ve always loved using theatre to make new connections and bridges, and I realized that whether as a dramaturg, writer, or administrator, I’m deeply interested in work driven by community, research, and incorporating new types of collaboration.

So I never had a moment where I dropped everything and became a writer, but it was this interest in re-configuring the creative process and broadening my own life and theatre practice that led me to writing. Now, I do live in New York again (among other places) and also work on commercial musicals (among other projects), but feel a lot more aligned with theatre spaces that feel exciting and nourishing to me.

How do you describe your work overall? What sets your work apart?

I definitely gravitate towards projects that have a weird factor. I love an unconventional process, mixing genres, and starting with a big, huge “okay, what if we….?” question.

Because my work is driven by an impulse to examine process and incorporate research, I feel like my actual projects are pretty eclectic. I am currently working on an all female/TGNC, punk-rock investigative concert-play with Preston Max Allen, an oral history-driven magical realism play (happening this month at the Colorado New Play Summit at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts), a multi-composer song cycle exploring American history with director Michael Bello and a 19 incredible composers (many of whom are DGF Fellow alums!), a community-responsive project with Notch Theatre Company documenting the experiences of rural communities impacted by oil and gas leasing….

So there’s not a ton of overlap in genre or style, but my hope would be that that they’re all created with a sense of care for the topic, needs of the piece, and collaborators in the room.

Can you tell us a little bit about the work you’ve been developing as a Fellow?

YES! I’m collaborating with composer/lyricist and fellow fellow (….been waiting to use that for months) Elliah Heifetz on a new musical called The Death of Desert Rose, which is a female-driven, revisionist Western. Our musical takes place in 1890’s Colorado, where notorious bounty hunter “Desert Rose” Ramsey is well-known for her vigilante justice and a good-faith alliance with the local sheriff. However, everything changes when Rose receives an order hat she must hunt her arch-nemesis— “Betty Britches” McBain—in her most personal bounty yet. Unbeknownst to most, Betty and Rose ran in an outlaw company together when they were young… but when Betty killed the outlaw gang’s leader, donned his clothing, and took control of his men, Rose decided to walk away. Betty let her go with a promise (“The next time I see you, I will kill you)…

So over the course of the show, we follow this epic game of cat-and-mouse between Rose and Betty, but also learn about their childhood, romance, and what they each consider to be freedom and happiness. The story is basically grappling with destiny, forgiveness, and when/how we get to start over (and at what cost). But it’s also a big huge Western, and explores all these questions through bank robberies and train heists and dime novel culture. The sheer scope of the world is so much fun to dream and write into.

A revisionist impulse is also an exciting starting place because Elliah and I get the opportunity to explore our own complicated relationships to the Western genre, a canon that is obviously rife with problematic assumptions and erasure on many, many levels. In exploring what an updated Western would look, feel, and sound like, it’s been a privilege to have a cohort and mentors through the DGF Fellowship to support this process of interrogation and expansion, and above all, help us stay true and accountable to our vision.

What do you find most rewarding about your work as a writer?

Well, for one, I love how many amazing opportunities there are for writers to develop work at various summer theatres or through summer programs…

BUT during the rest of the year, I really appreciate how the writing process makes space for community– it’s rewarding to see the little communities that spring up and grow around a piece as it develops, and meaningful to cultivate that through developmental steps like readings, workshops and productions.

I think, to be honest, that there are so many times that our larger theatre community or culture fails us in delivering on the empathy and accountability it heralds, but as writers, and emerging ones, we have a unique opportunity in our own processes to model the values that we’re interested in seeing implemented on a larger scale. For example, it feels important to me to prioritize my health and the health of my collaborators, and I think when I’m the writer of project, I’m able to articulate and make space for that in a more impactful and resonant way.

———-

Upcoming work!

Jessica has a reading of her play “In Her Bones” at the Colorado New Play Summit at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts! You can find more information about the show and tickets here.

In Conversation: Sean Patrick Flahaven and Andrew Lippa

Posted on January 9, 2020 by Hannah Kloepfer

At the 2019 DGF Gala we honored President of Concord Theatricals, Sean Patrick Flahaven, TodayTix Founders, Brian Fenty and Merritt Baer, and Tony Award-winners, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty(Ragtime, Once On This Island).

In the weeks surrounding this exciting event, our President, Andrew Lippa sat down with honoree Sean Patrick Flahaven to discuss the creative gifts and challenges of being a creative multi-hyphenate, a parent, a partner, and a leader.

We’re proud to share this interview with you and hope that it inspires you to reflect on the ways in which you nurture your own work, support the work of other writers, and show gratitude to all those around you that make theatre possible.

Andrew Lippa: You’ve been incredibly supportive of DGF over the years, and you also support a number of initiatives that help protect the value and interests of writers. Why is that so important to you? What do you wish people knew about the work of writers?

Sean Patrick Flahaven: The DGF has been a priority for giving for me, personally and professionally, for many years. No one but writers and composers start with a blank page and nothing else. No one else works for no compensation until the show is done, most of the time, which means no one takes bigger artistic and financial risks with their careers. Every show, every song we all love starts with writers and composers. My career and my business have always been in service of them.

AL: You’ve had so many different titles and worked many different jobs. You’re obviously President of Concord, but you’re also a writer, composer, orchestrator, conductor, producer, and were even a journalist for many years. I’m curious, how does that diversity of experience inform your work and life?

SPF: I learned early on in life that having developing multiple interests and cultivating multiple skills made me a happier person. It also allowed me to make a living, especially as a freelancer earlier in my career. Perhaps more importantly, it helped me develop an appreciation for all of the collaborators in a production, and respect everyone’s contributions: artistic, entrepreneurial, and administrative.

AL: How have you maintained a creative life and career in the midst of such a challenging management role? The ability to balance both at your level is astounding to me. 

SPF: It’s certainly not easy to balance creativity, running a large business, and a personal life, including fatherhood. I had wonderful models in my parents and extended family, as well as very supportive friends, colleagues, and employers. It’s involved a great deal of careful scheduling and constant mindfulness of what’s important. While my creative outlets have shifted, I genuinely find satisfaction in the managerial work as well. My partner and kids appreciate that my passion became my work.

AL: Technology, social media, and film and television have changed quite significantly over the past few years, and they are constantly in conversation with the world of theater. In your opinion, has the role of the writer changed over the past decade in light of these other changes? Are writers being better respected? What are the new challenges for writers?  

SPF: I think the Dramatists Guild has certainly helped to improve respect for writers in the theatre, and the success of writer-driven theatre and television projects in particular has raised general awareness in the public. That said, writers and composers still face a steep uphill climb, and the DGF is necessary to sustain their education, growth, and safety net to make things just a little bit easier.

Fellows Spotlight: Paulo K Tiról

Posted on January 6, 2020 by Hannah Kloepfer

Happy New Year!

We’re kicking off 2020 with a fresh batch of Fellows Spotlights featuring the 2019-2020 DGF Fellows!

Each month we’ll feature a new fellow and invite you to take a behind-the-scenes look at our Fellows program.

We’ll be hearing from all our 2019-2020 Fellows: Andrew Rincón, Andy Roninson, Avi Amon, Elliah Heifetz, Jessica Kahkoska, Kate Douglas, Kyoung H. Park, Melis Aker, Nikhil Mahapatra, Nolan Doran, and Paulo K Tiról. 

Each of these writers were asked the same series of questions, exploring where these writers have been, are now, and are journeying towards. Our Fellows took this gentle structure and ran, each submitting responses as unique and creative as they are.

We’re thrilled to introduce you to Paulo K Tiról. 

What was your first experience with theater?

There wasn’t a lot of musical theatre in Manila, where I grew up; but when I was four or five, my parents were determined to expose me to it. They relentlessly played original cast recordings and rented movie adaptations of the great classics, and brought me to what few productions of western musical theatre were being staged. And I resisted it. I dismissed it as “boring, old people music” — even falling asleep during a local production of “My Fair Lady”. (The one exception was the movie version of “Annie”, which, to my brother’s dismay, I watched repeatedly on video and sang non-stop, word for word, from memory.)

Things changed with “Miss Saigon”. Like many Filipinos living in Manila during the late 80’s, I was enthralled by news features about Lea Salonga and the many other Filipinos who were headed somewhere called “The West End”, and the sweeping, melodramatic selections that played over and over on mainstream radio. I was hooked. There still wasn’t a lot of musical theatre in Manila, but I consumed all I could. I got season tickets to the the local theatre company that staged western work; bought every cast recording I could find in Manila and on trips to Hong Kong, Singapore and the United States; and even ordered bootleg reproductions of cast recordings and filmed-from-stage videos from a shady little store which has since closed.

When did you decide to become a writer? Is there a writer, show, or piece of writing that was particularly influential on your path?

I’ve been writing all my life: short stories, journalistic news and features, essays, and eventually, songs. But even when I started writing songs, it wasn’t for musical theatre: it was choral inspirational / liturgical music for a semi-professional group I was with in Manila. Musical theatre writing never even crossed my mind; being a self-taught musician, I wasn’t confident in my composing ability, and with the Manila’s relatively small, resource-constrained theatre scene in the 90s and 2000s, new work wasn’t a thing. (Interestingly, people would remark at the theatricality and drama of my inspirational-liturgical writing.)

There’s no particular writer, show, or piece of writing that I can cite as influential; but I can attribute my entry into musical theatre writing to a professor I had, Michael Wartofsky. In 2012, after over 12 years as a corporate professional and choral composer, I left Manila and moved to Boston to get my first formal music education at Berklee. I enrolled for songwriting courses and was horribly insecure about being a church musician in a school of insanely talented pop, rock, R&B and jazz kids. But my professors made me believe I had what it took, most influential among whom was Michael Wartofsky, with whom I studied musical theatre writing for two semesters before he helped me get a slot and a full scholarship to the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU Tisch. 

How do you describe your work overall? What sets your work apart?

I write Filipino-American stories and characters in a way that I hope speaks to audiences of all backgrounds, by exploring themes that are universal through a frame that just happens to be Filipino-American.

I believe two things set me apart. First, as one of very few Filipino-American musical theater writers in the United States, I’m one of very few telling stories of this community. Second, I came to musical theatre writing relatively late (in my mid 30s), from a non-music, non-theatre background. My first bachelor’s degree was in Communication; I worked in Manila’s corporate sector for over 12 years; I was never in the theatre scene; I was largely a self-taught musician; and my songwriting for 17 years was liturgical and choral. Even when I left corporate life behind and started on a second bachelor’s degree at Berklee in my early 30s, my major was music therapy. As a result of my being self-taught, my music is more intuitive than theoretical; my liturgical music background gives my writing an honesty and earnestness, even a spirituality; my corporate past gives me a certain work ethic and attention to detail; and the time I spent outside of theatre lets me to bring into it a “real world” view.

Can you tell us a little bit about the work you’ve been developing as a Fellow?

I’m working on the book, music and lyrics for “Called”, an original musical set in a Manila-based call center of an American credit card company, where Filipino call center agents pretend to have American names, speak with American accents, work at an American address, and function in an American time zone, as they pretend to happily serve American callers. At the center of the show is Carmela, the ambitious, overachieving star agent on the verge of achieving her long-time dream of moving to the United States; and her relationship with Nelson, an elderly widower calling from North Dakota who threatens Carmela’s plans when he realizes she’s Filipino and asks her to be his friend. Over five days, Carmela navigates the rules of the call center to comply with Nelson’s request; but in doing so, also confronts isolation, identity, and all that she has given up to achieve her American dream. 

I started writing “Called” in 2015, and for a long time was afraid it would be too foreign and specific for it to speak to American audiences. But with the positive reception I got at a presentation of an excerpt in Musical Theatre Factory’s 4X15 series in 2018, and my admission into the DGF Fellows program through “Called” and the response I’ve gotten to it in the program so far, I’m encouraged that this is a story worth telling. I’m proud and grateful to be a Filipino telling Filipino stories in a program as prestigious as DGF Fellows.

What do you find most rewarding about your work as a writer?

I have two favorite moments as a musical theatre writer. 

The first is when I put my writing into the hands of my collaborators — actors, directors, music directors, choreographers, designers. This step in the process used to be absolutely terrifying — who knows if my work makes sense, what if they don’t like it? — but I’ve learned to look forward to the way artists from other theatre disciplines interpret and add to the work, including letting me know it’s not quite working and giving me a sense of how to make it better. What a thrill now when the work ceases to feel like something that’s my own, but rather, something which has been nurtured and grown by a whole family. It helps that I’ve been gifted with collaborators I deeply respect, who believe in creating exceptional art and building a joyous, supportive community at the same time. 

The second is when I know my work has made an impact on an audience member’s life. It’s been edifying for Filipino immigrants and first generation Filipino-Americans to come up to me after my shows and say with gratitude and astonishment: “These are our stories!” It’s the power of representation in theatre made very real. And on the other hand, I’ve had non-Filipino immigrants, and individuals who’s families have been in the United States for generation — tell me they’ve been moved by the broader, more universal themes that I write into my stories and characters.

Do you have any upcoming work you’d like to share?

YES! On February 3 and 4, Prospect Theater Co. is producing a concert staging of “On This Side of the World” as part of its IGNITE concert series. “On This Side of the World” is a song cycle I wrote inspired by the Filipino immigrant experience in the United States, and we’re so excited to be reuniting the phenomenal cast we had at our sold-out two-week workshop production in May 2019. Tickets are available here!

Follow @DGFound on Twitter for further announcements regarding this exciting new work!

Ella’s Music Hall Highlights II

Posted on December 20, 2019 by Hannah Kloepfer

Happy Holidays, DGF Family!

Ella here, the DGF Music Hall Mascot! I’m delighted to be taking over the blog again to celebrate some more Music Hall Highlights.

Every day we have artists at work in our beautiful space, and we are so proud to provide this resource, so writers may feel supported, inspired, and safe. To learn more about the Music Hall or to support the space and the writers within it, click here! 

I wanted to show you some of the ways our community of writers use the Music Hall in their work. Be it readings, rehearsals, or reflections, no two bookings are ever the same within these walls. 

Please enjoy some of my favorite moments from this season (and hold your appaws until the end!) 

“The Dramatists Guild Foundation is the most remarkable resource for writers in NYC.  With a beautiful space for rehearsals and performances with a grand grand piano offered at no cost, they make mounting a reading a fraction of the price.  Thanks to DGF, I was able to produce a reading of my musical Love Quirks, and by some miracle enough potential producers and investors attended. We are very optimistic that we will open the show off-Broadway in 2020, and it is truly all thanks to DGF.  Thank you DGF!”

– Seth Bisen-Hersh, Composer/Lyricist/Author/Accompanist/Vocal Coach/Cabaret Producer

Write Out Loud

Write Out Loud is a celebration of new musical theatre writers. Taylor Louderman (Mean Girls, Bring it On), Ben Rauhala (Broadway Princess Party), and Matt Rodin held a song-writing contest for emerging musical theatre writers. After receiving over 500 submissions, 5 winners were selected, receiving a fully produced music video and recording of their song by Warner Music Group.

When the team decided to grow the project from contest to concert featuring not only contest winners — Kailey Marshall, Joriah Fleming, India Angel, Brandon Michael Lowden, and Mackenzie Szabo– but also 8 other finalists and a cast of Broadway’s finest talents, they brought rehearsals to the Music Hall, facilitating meaningful work sessions between the performers and composers.

Write Out Loud  is directed and hosted by Taylor Louderman and produced by Hannah Kloepfer with musical direction by Ben Rauhala. Submissions for Write Out Loud 2020 open on January 1st! We look forward to hearing this year’s new batch of talent!

Fail Better

Fail Better brought “Quiet Time” to the Music Hall. As the event description says, “haven’t found time to finish that script? Still need to memorize your lines? Want to catch up on your reading? Or maybe you just want to escape the noise of the city. WELL, COME ON DOWN TO (shh!)…*whispers* come on down to Fail Better Quiet Time.”

These were the rules of the day:

Upon entering, please observe the following: 

-Allow silence.

-Enjoy your music at a low volume.

-Enter & exit as you please.

This exercise in collective quiet is such a unique take on community and accountability that so many creators need. We hope to see you again soon!

Athena Writes

Athena Theatre hosted their annual Playwriting Fellowship, Athena Writes, at the Music Hall earlier this month. They selected seven playwrights assembled for a one-year exploration of the theme: “A Deafening Silence” and centered on Athena Theatre’s commitment to supporting new work which pushes at the boundaries of live theatre.

The evening featured excerpts from all Athena Writes playwrights’ full-length plays written in residence.

Congratulations to writers Kate Thomas, Jenny Lyn Bader, Jared Michael Delaney, Luis Roberto Herrera, Yasmine Lever, Joey Massa, and JD Stewart on this end of year celebration of your hard work.

I was so impressed by the many ways you used the Music Hall. Who knows what will come in (our out!) of the space next! Just remember, whatever you’re working on, you’re in the right space. We support you in all stages, as you create the future of American theater.

If you’re interested in using the Music Hall for your work, click here! And don’t forget to follow us on Instagram for more regular updates on all of the work being created. 

Have a happy and healthy holiday!

Until next time, 

Ella