Starting in 2008, CulturalDC produced the award-winning Source Festival, which served as a vehicle for launching new plays and fostering the careers of emerging artists. After a decade-long run, CulturalDC brought the Festival to a close. Under the helm of Artistic Director Jenny McConnell Frederick, Source Festival became a staple in the DC theatre scene.

Everyone at CulturalDC is grateful to the 1,500+ artists that made Source Festival possible for the last decade. We are eager to see what grows from the roots we help plant in the Nation’s Capital and across the country.

PERFECT ARRANGEMENT by Topher Payne (2013)

M. Elizabeth Osborn Award for best new play by an emerging playwright by the American Theatre Critics Association (2014)
Gene-Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award: Perfect Arrangement (2015)
Metro Atlanta Theatre Award, Best Play: Perfect Arrangement (2015)

NY Times Review

QUALITIES OF STARLIGHT by Gabriel Jason Dean (2012)

Essential Theatre New Play Award
B. Iden Payne Award
Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University
Dramatist's Guild Fellowship

BALLAST (2016) & F*CK LA VIE D'ARTISTE (2017) by Georgette Kelly

Hope on Stage Playwriting Award, (International contest selected among 800 submissions, 10k prize)
2016 Lambda Literary Fellowship
2014 Jane Chambers Student Playwriting Award

DONTRELL WHO KISSED THE SEA by Nathan Alan Davis (2014)

Helen Hayes nominated: Director, Choreography, Play, Sound, Lighting
Krannert Center, 2016

• Annalisa Dias - The Welders, 4,380 Nights WP at Signature 2018, part of Women’s Voices Theatre Fest (dir. Dressing Bobby Strong 2014)

• Elena Valasco – Artistic Director, Convergence Theatre (dir. A Bid To Save The World 2014)

• Phillip Dawkins – playwright Charm, Failure: A Love Story, works with Steppenwolf, Goodman Theatre (wr. Yes To Everything: Son Of Everything 2008)

• Rachel Grossman – Co-founder & Ensemble Director dog & pony dc; Winner of HowlRound proposals: Committee for the Jubilee: Planning for a Nation-Wide Festival; Deaf Theatre Action Planning Session (March 2019) (dir. Blood And Menthol 2009)

• Mary Hall Surface – seasoned director/playwright (dir. Please Report Any Suspicious Activity 2009)

• David Muse – Artistic Director, Studio Theatre (dir. Mnemonist 2008)

• Ari Roth – Artistic Director, Theater J/Founder Mosaic Theatre (wr. The Great White Undulating Orb In The Bed Between Us 2008)

• Estep Nagy – author “We Shall Not All Sleep”, NY Times review, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire (wr. A Taste of Heaven 2008)

JENNY MCCONNELL FREDERICK, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
 

Jenny joined CulturalDC in July of 2009. In her role as Director of Artistic Programs, she produced the Source Festival, a three-week performing arts event that cultivates new work in a nurturing environment. Additionally she managed the Mead Theatre Lab and SPACE4: Arts (debuting in fall 2017), both of which provide 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.

LEE CROMWELL, ASSOCIATE PRODUCER
 

Lee is a theatre and opera director and was with the Source Festival team for 3 seasons. Lee moved to the DC area from Bloomington, Indiana where he received his Master of Fine Arts Degree in directing. While in Bloomington, Lee taught in the Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance and at the Jacobs School of Music. Selected directing credits include: Guys and Dolls, The God of Carnage, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi, and Doubt and Breakfast (by Source Festival alum Nathan Alan Davis). 

A champion of new works, Lee has worked with emerging artists in musical theatre, drama, and opera, most recently directing Sequence for the Bloomington Playwrights Project and Intoxication: America’s Love Affair with Oil for New Voices Opera. In DC Lee has worked with Young Playwrights Theatre, Rorschach Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, DC Queer Theatre Festival and the National Theatre. Lee also works part-time in production and administration for Capital Fringe. 

Before moving to Indiana, Lee was the director of theatre and choral music at the Millbrook School, a co-ed boarding school in the Hudson Valley, where he ran the vocal and theatre arts program for four years. An accomplished musician, his work as a vocalist includes performances with major orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, appearances at the Spoleto Festival USA and he has been featured on both commercial and educational choral recordings. Lee is a magna cum laude graduate of Bucknell University with degrees in music and theatre and he holds a Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from Westminster Choir College. Lee lives in Petworth.

SHARON KING, ASSISTANT PRODUCER
 

Sharon King is thrilled to be returning as producer for CulturalDC’s Source Festival. Sharon holds a Masters’ in Arts Management at George Mason University. She is a Stage Manager and Arts Administrator, currently Subscription Services Manager at The Washington Ballet. Originally from The San Francisco Bay Area she graduated from Southern Oregon University with a BA in theatre, emphasis on Stage Management. After college she moved to the DC area for a Stage Management internship at Theater J. Post internship she stayed on at Theater J as their resident assistant stage manager. As a non-equity stage manager my credits in the DC area include Ford’s Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Studio Theatre, Rorschach Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Imagination Stage, Round House Theatre and was also the Production Stage Manager for the 2015 Source Festival. Along with freelancing for several years as a stage manager she held more of an administrative role and obtained a position at Imagination Stage as Facility Manager and Production Manager for the Capital Fringe Festival and Production Administrator for The School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at The University of Maryland.

PATRICK GALLAGHER LANDES, ASSISTANT PRODUCER

Patrick started working with CulturalDC as a stage manager for Source Festival 2015’s Artistic Blind Dates. He continued to stage manage the ABDs in 2016 and was also picked up as CulturalDC’s Programs intern at the same time. 

Patrick is originally from Harrisonburg, VA and is a proud graduate of Connecticut College and the National Theater Institute. Patrick is also a freelance playwright, stage manager, director, and actor. Patrick is passionate about developing new plays that push the boundaries of traditional performance and that address social and environmental issues.

JAMES L. ROGERS III, ASSISTANT PRODUCER

Trained as an actor, James trod the boards for a while before deciding that luxuries like eating and living indoors were more important than acting, upon which decision he became the Facilities Manager for Studio and then Round House Theatres and then Lead Carpenter for B Street Theatre in Sacramento, CA. As a writer, James is the recipient of a Lucas Arts Residency Fellowship and had a 10-Minute play produced in the 2010 Source Festival. He’s written numerous plays and his first novel was published in 2013.