Creating pathways for new work: Kenan Arts supports alumni premieres at Edinburgh Fringe

Described as “the world’s greatest platform for creative freedom,” the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (the Fringe) is the oldest of its kind in the world — its roots dating back nearly 80 years ago. It now sets the tone for similar festivals worldwide, bringing together more than 25,000 artists whose work exists on the “fringe” of traditional theater and mainstream performance for its annual three-week run in the Scottish capital every August.

With support from theThomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, UNCSA Drama alumni now have the opportunity to present their original work at the Fringe with significant funding behind them. After a pitch is made and approved, alumni finalize and rehearse their work, learn to market and produce a show at scale, and embrace the rigorous Fringe schedule, all while networking and building connections for the future. In the 2025 pilot year of the program with Kenan Arts, alumni-driven “The Sound of Water” was presented thirteen times over a two-week run at the Fringe.

A story takes shape

Writer and director Julia Ott(B.F.A. ’25) first began to conceive of the show more than four years prior. During a high school backpacking trip, she immersed herself in the rock and canyon deserts of Utah. “I was mesmerized by the deep pockets of water that emerged seemingly out of nowhere,” she recalls. On the trip, Ott read a book called “The Secret Knowledge of Water” by Craig Childs, and a single line connected to the rugged landscape around her: “There are two ways to die in the desert: from dehydration or from drowning.” That concept became the springboard for the story that, five years later, she would tell at the Fringe.

Ott was interested in attending UNCSA because of the devised theater curriculum, which offers students the opportunity to create work as an ensemble, where the script and staging emerge from the group’s ideas, improvisation and experimentation rather than from a single playwright. She began working on “The Sound of Water” during her second year, devising it over time to embrace a narrative of climate change, scarcity of agricultural resources and impacts of AI on the climate crisis and rural communities.

During her senior year, the Fringe landed on her radar.

A long-held vision

The opportunity to present work at Edinburgh Festival Fringe had eluded movement, mask and devising faculty memberJason Bohon since his graduate studies at the London International School of Performing Arts when members of his cohort participated, but he was unable to join them due to financial barriers. Over the years, he built expertise, presenting work at Fringe festivals in the United States and Canada, but always hoped to travel to Edinburgh for the leading festival.

When Bohon arrived at UNCSA in 2019, he brought a long-held dream to the table: the opportunity for students to present work at the Fringe with fewer financial obstacles. “When I learned that the Kenan Institute for the Arts was developing strategies to create global opportunities for young artists,” says Bohon, “I knew the idea would fit very well.” Ott and Bohon worked together to prepare a pitch for “The Sound of Water,” first presenting to Drama Dean John Langs (B.F.A. ’96) before presenting to Kenan Arts. It was met with enthusiastic support.

The Fringe is more than a venue for performance — it is a platform for creative development, professional growth and global exchange that allows artists to engage with audiences, collaborators and ideas from around the world.

Kevin Bitterman, Kenan Institute for the Arts Executive Director

“A core part of our mission is creating transformational experiences that connect UNCSA students and alumni to regional, national and global creative networks,” saysKevin Bitterman, executive director of the Kenan Institute for the Arts. “When you create pathways and reduce barriers, artists gain access to opportunities that can shape the trajectory of their careers. The Fringe is more than a venue for performance — it is a platform for creative development, professional growth and global exchange that allows artists to engage with audiences, collaborators and ideas from around the world.”

From ideation to production

During the spring and summer, Ott and the six-person cast began refining the piece to prepare it for the Fringe — including a two-and-a-half-week residency together in Winston-Salem. “It was a lot of iterating the script and the story together,” remembers Kassandra Rubio (B.F.A. ’25). “Some people focused more on writing, while others focused on movement.” The group would separate to focus on each area of storytelling, then come together to present and move forward collaboratively. 

Additionally, Ott spent a significant amount of time researching agricultural terms and practices, along with selecting music and setting the overall visual tone of the world of the production. “It was very specific to me,” she explains. “How do people who spend their days doing hard physical labor move their bodies as compared to someone who has spent a lifetime doing research in a lab? They’re going to move differently.”

The other big lift in preparation was managing the many logistics required for presenting work at the Fringe: overall budgeting, additional fundraising, travel, lodging, booking a venue, marketing and more. Two students — Ron Weiss (B.F.A. ’25) and Grace Woosley (B.F.A. ’25) — served as producers, coordinating intricate details of the project alongside Ott. Bohon, Bitterman and Kenan Arts Associate Director Liza Vest provided mentorship along the way. Kenan Arts also brokered a partnership with Producer Hub, a NYC-based non-profit that supports independent artistic producers, to serve as fiscal sponsor for “The Sound of Water.” Through this relationship, Ott received assistance in managing the production’s finances while also gaining guidance on contracts.

“It was a trial by fire,” says Ott of the management piece of the experience. “But now I have that skillset. And I learned all of these things in an environment where I knew I could reach back to Kenan [Arts] for support. I learned these new skills in an environment where I was set up to succeed.”

Taking the leap 

“Some early feedback was that Edinburgh might be too large for a pilot initiative and that we should start with a smaller festival,” recalls Bohon. “But we kept coming back to the same question: if the goal was to create a truly transformational global experience, why not begin with the world's largest arts festival? We decided to be bold, and that decision ultimately shaped the success of this pilot for Kenan Arts and UNCSA with the ensemble,” he says.

If the goal was to create a truly transformational global experience, why not begin with the world's largest arts festival? We decided to be bold, and that decision ultimately shaped the success of this pilot for Kenan Arts and UNCSA with the ensemble

Jason Bohon, UNCSA School of Drama faculty member

“There’s nothing like [Edinburgh Festival Fringe] in the world,” says Ott. “There are 300 shows a day. You’re surrounded by people from different backgrounds and with different training. So many people not only want to make theater, but also want to consume it and have dialogues about what they saw.”

The group woke up early each day and distributed flyers to promote the show, performed around 11 a.m., marketed the show again in the afternoon and then attended as many performances and networking opportunities as possible in the evening. “My Fringe experience was incredible,” says Rubio. “It was inspiring to be engulfed by so many types of artists creating through many mediums of art and to see how much innovation went into how the stories were told.”

During the festival, Kenan Arts hosted an event for UNCSA alumni and friends with Fringe connections, offering the opportunity for the team behind “The Sound of Water” to connect with alumni involved in other productions and with various connections around the industry.

“This experience got me my first job in the industry,” shares Ott, who through a Fringe connection joined a popular Netflix show as director’s assistant. “It has also helped me so much with my legitimacy and credibility,” she adds. She is now working with a production company to adapt “The Sound of Water” for film. For Rubio, participating in the Fringe widened her horizons. “It has shifted my perspective on the type of work I want to create,” she says. “This was hard work, but it can be done… as long as we have the right people rooting for us and people who believe in the arts who want to pour into you and your work.”

The Fringe pipeline project continues

The pilot year taught Bohon and Kenan Arts that there is a sustainable model for helping students to present their work on a global scale. “This program allows students to see their new works not as ideas that are going to sit on a shelf, but rather as full and realized potential,” says Bohon. “A lot of students don’t know what to do with their devised pieces,” he continues. “I want them to learn that what they do in the curricular space can eventually move to festivals for further development. The benefit of the Fringe is that there’s a structure and an audience for new work already in place.”

Several pitches were made to Kenan Arts and its selection committee for the 2026 Kenan-sponsored opportunity, and two were selected to premiere at the Fringe with the same faculty guidance and support from Kenan Arts and Producer Hub. In August, Uliana Klimchuk (B.F.A. ’26) and director Lily Afghani (B.F.A. ’26) will present Klimchuk’s one-woman play, “SELEDKA,” an exploration of cultural identity, displacement and the consequences of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Additionally, writer and director Katie Gaven (B.F.A. ’26) and her cast of six recent graduates from UNCSA will present “00:45:00,” a dark exploration of morality, ethics and the human condition that forces five participants in a science experiment to choose which of them will live or die in less than an hour. Jake Bryant (B.F.A. ’26) serves as producer for both plays.

Ott, who assisted in reviewing and selecting the 2026 program participants, has solid advice for alumni who will come behind her: “Embrace the challenge and do not be afraid! You’re learning a new skillset… lean in. Kenan Arts is giving you such a gift. Take every opportunity and reap the benefits, because it really becomes what you make of it.”

By Hannah Callaway

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