Jessica Kahkoska

Jessica Kahkoska

Jessica Kahkoska is a writer, dramaturg/researcher, and performer. Her projects include AGENT 355 (with Preston Max Allen, 2019 Chautauqua Theater Company), IN HER BONES (2020 Colorado New Play Summit), THE DEATH OF DESERT ROSE (with Elliah Heifetz, 2019-2020 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship, 2019 SBR Productions Commission), NIA (dir. Sarah Wansley, the Drama League), WILD HOME: AN AMERICAN ODYSSEY (with...
Jessica Kahkoska is a writer, dramaturg/researcher, and performer. Her projects include AGENT 355 (with Preston Max Allen, 2019 Chautauqua Theater Company), IN HER BONES (2020 Colorado New Play Summit), THE DEATH OF DESERT ROSE (with Elliah Heifetz, 2019-2020 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship, 2019 SBR Productions Commission), NIA (dir. Sarah Wansley, the Drama League), WILD HOME: AN AMERICAN ODYSSEY (with Notch Theatre Company), and LETTERS TO THE PRESIDENT (dir. Michael Bello, the Cooper Union).

Her writing has been developed and presented at Roundabout Theatre Company, Ars Nova ANT Fest, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theatre, (le) Poisson Rouge, Musical Theatre Factory, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Village Theatre, Bucks County Playhouse, Chautauqua Theater Company, the Drama League, and the North Fork Valley Creative Coalition. She is currently a 2019-2020 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow, and has previously been the recipient of the Marion International Fellowship for the Visual and Performing Arts, an American Antiquarian Society Fellowship for Creative Artists and Writers, Writer-in-Residence at Southern Colorado Repertory Theatre, and held creative residencies at Denver University (Arts & Humanities Marsico Visiting Scholar), the American Music Theatre Project (AMTP) at Northwestern University, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (Powered by Off-Center), the Chautauqua Institution, and UCROSS Foundation.

Dramaturgical work includes new play/musical development Off-Broadway (SAFEWORD., WE ARE THE TIGERS) in NYC (the Cooper Union, Life Jacket Theatre Company), and regionally (the Athena Project, Creede Repertory Theatre), as well as TV research for Bungalow Media and Entertainment and AMC/Sundance Networks. She is currently Co-Regional Vice President of the Mountain West and NYC Metro Region for Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of America (LMDA).

In New York, Jessica has performed at New York Theatre Barn, National Sawdust, (le) Poisson Rouge, Ars Nova, the Bushwick Starr, and the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), among others, and regionally at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (Colorado Henry Award Nomination for Outstanding Performance in a Musical), Theatre Aspen, American Stage Theatre Company, University at Buffalo Performing Arts Center, Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, Lake Dillon Theatre Company and the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival.

She previously served as Director of Marketing and Communications for Creede Repertory Theatre, Chautauqua Theater Company, Notch Theatre Company, and Detroit Public Theatre. Currently: Social Media for New Georges.

Proud member of Actors Equity Association (AEA), Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of America (LMDA), the Dramatists Guild of America, and Broadway Advocacy Coalition. Graduate of Northwestern University.

Plays

  • In Her Bones by Jessica Kahkoska
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: Jewish, Latinx + 7 more
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, drama
    Keyword: Jewish, Latinx, rural America, family, collective memory, memory, magical realism, Colorado, cultural identity
    When an unexpected blizzard forces Berkeley freshman Mia to wait out the storm at a rural highway gas station/ general store/ laundromat/ tow shop in Southern Colorado, she’s forced to confront a past that she is both fleeing and seeking out. As she shares family memories with store owner Moises to pass the time, another world creeps in-- one of shadows, forgotten prayers, and secrets hiding right in plain...
    When an unexpected blizzard forces Berkeley freshman Mia to wait out the storm at a rural highway gas station/ general store/ laundromat/ tow shop in Southern Colorado, she’s forced to confront a past that she is both fleeing and seeking out. As she shares family memories with store owner Moises to pass the time, another world creeps in-- one of shadows, forgotten prayers, and secrets hiding right in plain sight.

    In Her Bones explores the complicated legacy of crypto-Judaism in the Southwest, illuminating an unlikely, alpine tale of secrecy, faith, fear and how we pass on culture when written records are too dangerous to keep. Driven by a community-engaged, Colorado-based research process, this piece explores if our identities and rituals rise from earth and mountains where we spend our days, are inherited in the ancient stories of our blood, or are learned in the motions of mothers at sunset and overheard songs of grandparents.
  • Nia by Jessica Kahkoska
    Cast: 
    7–12
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, drama + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: Greek mythology, Iphigenia + 4 more
    Genre: adaptation, drama, faith-based, musical, tragedy
    Keyword: Greek mythology, Iphigenia, military, southern, North Carolina, American South
    Nia reimagines the Greek story of Iphigenia's sacrifice in a near future, rural Appalachian town governed by fundamental religious rules and a blue collar military tradition. When apocalyptic squalls ground the US Air Guard fleet in Aulis, North Carolina, an overwhelmed Colonel Agamemnon makes the unthinkable choice to offer his daughter to a local Pentecostal ritual for the return of calm skies.
    ...
    Nia reimagines the Greek story of Iphigenia's sacrifice in a near future, rural Appalachian town governed by fundamental religious rules and a blue collar military tradition. When apocalyptic squalls ground the US Air Guard fleet in Aulis, North Carolina, an overwhelmed Colonel Agamemnon makes the unthinkable choice to offer his daughter to a local Pentecostal ritual for the return of calm skies.

    Using the bones of the Euripides story, Nia delves into a dark world of military ferver, Pentecostal snake handling, kudzu vine, porch gossip, and sweet tea. Featuring Achilles as a confused former golden boy, Menelaos as a grief-stricken, bitter veteran, and a Greek chorus of aging church women on the neighborhood porch, Nia grounds this epic Greek myth close to home, all with an ancient, mythic violence lurking beneath the surface.

    Was there indeed a miracle at Aulis, or just hysteria and violence? What story will we choose to believe?
  • Wild Home: An American Odyssey by Jessica Kahkoska
    Cast: 
    6–18
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, adventure + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: community engagement, climate change + 4 more
    Genre: adaptation, adventure, docudrama/historic, immersive
    Keyword: community engagement, climate change, Oil fracking, environment, Colorado, public lands
    Wild Home: An American Odyssey is a new theatre project created by Jessica Kahkoska and Notch Theatre Company that brings to the stage the hopes, struggles, and experiences of local communities in areas under serious threat from extractive industries.

    As our country faces the greatest threat to public lands in its history, Wild Home takes an odyssey across rural America by traveling to fifteen...
    Wild Home: An American Odyssey is a new theatre project created by Jessica Kahkoska and Notch Theatre Company that brings to the stage the hopes, struggles, and experiences of local communities in areas under serious threat from extractive industries.

    As our country faces the greatest threat to public lands in its history, Wild Home takes an odyssey across rural America by traveling to fifteen wilderness areas significantly pressured by oil and gas development. In each town, Notch Theatre Company and playwright Jessica Kahkoska partner with community at every level of the process, beginning with public story-sharing events. Topics include community members’ experiences on public lands, their concerns for their community’s wildlands and wilderness areas, the challenges they are facing, and their hopes and dreams for the future of their community and these spaces. Kahkoska then crafts plays based on shared testimony and community feedback, which are performed by community and professional actors in outdoor spaces, interspersed with facilitated dialogue about wildland preservation efforts.

    Wild Home: An American Odyssey aims to magnify stories about American wildlands under threat and the people who depend on them, specifically at this crucial moment in time—when the North Fork Valley faces more oil and gas development under the Trump administration, which threatens the area’s clean air and water, agricultural heritage and outdoor recreation opportunities. Wild Home performances also provide audience members a chance to be in conversation with one another, and deepen the conversation around protecting public lands and wild places both at a grassroots level and on a national scale.

    Wild Home is designed so the plays can travel from rural areas to urban city centers, deepening the conversation on both a grassroots level and a national, policymaker scale.