Juanita Rockwell, an award-winning theater director, playwright, composer and educator from Baltimore, has been selected as the recipient of the 2016-2017 Marion International Fellowship for the Visual and Performing Arts.
The Marion Fellowship was created in 2013 by Fredonia alumna Cathy Marion and her husband, Jesse, to support artistic journeys that lead to new opportunities for collaborative artistic excellence that are affiliated with Marion Fellowship Circle member institutions. An $18,000 grant is awarded to complete the artistic journey that will include a presentation by Rockwell on campus in October 2017.
In “Calutron Girls: A Play with Songs,” the working title of her Marion Fellowship project, Rockwell explores the refinement of uranium for the first atomic bombs and the role that women hired at the Oak Ridge nuclear facility had in managing the giant calutron that controlled the process.
Rockwell will begin her Marion Fellowship journey this summer at Chautauqua Institution during Week Eight, whose theme is “War and Its Warriors.”
Developing new works for theater, opera, radio and multi-media has been the focus of Rockwell’s career for more than 25 years. She has taught theatre at Towson University since 1994 and is the founding artistic director of its experimental M.F.A. in Theater program. Rockwell has an M.F.A. in Directing from the University of Connecticut and is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and Dramatists Guild.
