SEVEN DEVILS PLAYWRIGHTS CONFERENCE 2024 Announces Playwrights and Lineup for 24th Year In McCall

Seven Devils Playwrights Conference returns to McCall, ID with a program of free public events running June 3-15. Now in its 24th year, the McCall-based Conference brings playwrights and theater artists from around the country together to develop and present new plays by some of the nation's most exciting new voices in partnership with the Alpine Playhouse.

The 2024 playwrights Derick Edgren Otero, Ron Fromstein, DJ Hills, Daria Miyeko Marinelli, Phaedra Michelle Scott, Cherene Snow, and D.D. Wigley come from across the country and join an illustrious list of playwrights whose work has gone on to success after having been developed in McCall including MacArthur "Genius" Grant recipient and Idaho native Samuel D. Hunter, whose play The Whale (2012 7D Conference) is now a major motion picture featuring an Oscar-winning performance by Brendan Fraser; Eric Coble (The Velocity of Autumn, which went to Broadway); and Jennifer Blackmer (I Carry Your Heart With Me, 2022 7D Conference) received a 2024 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Citation for her play.

"We're bringing you brand new, never before heard plays," says Mallory Metoxen, one of the new Co-Artistic Directors of Seven Devils New Play Foundry. "And by being a part of the first audience to hear these plays and reacting, you're giving us valuable feedback! We can't wait to share them with you!"

In addition to presenting four new plays, selected from over 650 submissions, events include a free playwriting workshop led by 7D Alumni and Board Member, Bob Bartlett for playwrights of any experience level as well as a Master Class featuring new work by McCall-Donnelly High School students.

"Our relationship with McCall-Donnelly High School's playwriting class is one of the cornerstones of Seven Devils," says Adrian Centeno, Co-Artistic Director. "With our new Master Class process, we're able to pull back the curtain and talk about how we make work with the playwrights of the future."

This open workshop, as well as all of our events, are free and open to the public. "Come in and watch us work!" says Managing Director, Paula Marchiel. "The use of The Alpine Playhouse is a gift we return to the community by maintaining an open environment for all."

Conference regulars will find familiar faces in this year's company, as well as many talented new actors, directors and other theater artists, with active careers in stage, film and television from all over the country in beautiful McCall.

All events are free and open to the public.

More information about schedules, events and travel can be found at: sevendevils.org

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

2024 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference

All events are free and start at 7:30pm at the Alpine Playhouse unless otherwise noted

Wednesday, June 5: Master Class with McCall-Donnelly High School (Start time: 7:00)

Company members meet with students from the McCall-Donnelly High School drama program to learn about the development process by working on plays written by the students as part of their drama class. Join the fun and get a behind the scenes look at the play development process.

Friday, June 7: PLANTATION BLACK by Phaedra Michelle Scott

A house. A family. A piece of paper. And a story buried deep under The Loch Dhu Plantation in Cross, South Carolina.

Memories are shared at family barbecues, but are only snapshots. The Prioleau family is no different - but their history runs deeper than the paper claiming one half of the family tree as property. Only you, the audience, will discover the truth.

Saturday, June 8 (at 11 AM): A PLAYWRITING WORKSHOP - Have You Ever Seen a Play in A Laundromat? with Bob Bartlett (11am-2pm at MD High School)

Join us at McCall-Donnelly High School for a free playwriting workshop hosted by Seven Devils alumni playwright, Bob Bartlett, a playwright and professor well-known for his site-specific plays. No experience is necessary, but space is limited. Email: paula@sevendevils.org to reserve your spot.

Saturday, June 8: BEAUTIFUL BLESSED CHILD by Daria Miyeko Marinelli

Aimiko has never taken a road trip with t/her Mom. Sharon has never seen nor heard of any sort of mother-daughterchild road trip. And so, our brave pioneers take to the road, driving West, 10 miles per hour above the speed limit, with tales of cannibals (The Donner Party), crane wives (The Decemberists), and samurai children (the mythic family lore) buzzing over the airwaves, offering avenues of survival, all of which are only moderately helpful when Aimiko's car radiator suddenly goes dead. This is their story.

Friday, June 14: HORSEGIRL & COWDADDY by DJ Hills

summer in southern pennsylvania / swims in restless oceans of corn // Horsegirl, a trans woman in her thirties, lives a routine life alongside her father, Cowdaddy, in a forgotten town-until she falls in love with Bethel, a new-to-town teacher who aims to improve the lives of everyone they meet. the foals are discovering / the world bucks stagnant creatures // As their relationship blossoms, Horsegirl is caught between a desire to change and an impulse to remain the same. who will you be / after you're human

Saturday, June 15: ANTI-HERO: REVENGE OF THE SWIFTIES by Derick Edgren Otero

Fourteen-year-old Cora harasses a prominent music critic and his family into changing his scathing review of a country-turned-pop star's most divisive record. When he ignores her demands, a fandom rises up to save their queen's reputation.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS

Derick Edgren Otero is a former Lambda Literary Fellow and recent participant in the Fresh Ground Pepper NYC BRB Retreat. Their short play Diet Pride appeared at NYU Skirball Center in May as part of the inaugural Say Gay Plays, a fundraising event to benefit New Alternatives NYC. Development includes Lambda Literary LGBTQ+ Emerging Writers Retreat with faculty Victor I. Cazares, La MaMa Umbria with guest artist Todd London, Voyage Theatre Company, November Theatre, Art Garage, Cherry Lane Theatre, Capital Repertory Theatre, and Rockford New Play Festival, curated by Nathan Alan Davis. Awards in KCACTF Region V: 2024 John Cauble One-Act Festival, 2024 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, and 2024 and 2023 Latinx Playwriting Award. University Awards: 2018 Lipkin Prize in Humanities, 2017 David Lindsay-Abaire Prize in Playwriting. Finalist: 2023 Catskills Creative Residency, 2020 Campfire Theatre Festival, 2016 and 2015 Capital Repertory NEXT ACT New Play Summit, 2015 and 2014 Rockford New Play Festival; semi-finalist: 2021 Playwrights Realm's Scratchpad Series, 2017 O'Neill National Playwriting Conference; long list: 2019 Independent International Award for Improper Dramaturgy. BA, Sarah Lawrence. MFA, Iowa Playwrights Workshop.

Ron Fromstein is a largely self-taught playwright from Toronto, who has also lived in New Orleans, Chicago, Iceland and Vancouver. He is a four-time winner of the Canadian National Playwriting Competition and fifteen-time winner-finalist of Toronto-Hamilton Fringe playwriting competitions. Works include The Big Smoke, Two in the Coop, Black & Blue, Dianne & Me, Zach Zultana, Cleft and One in a Million (a micromusical). When not writing he can most often be found on basketball courts throughout the land.

DJ Hills (they/them) is a cross-genre writer for the page, stage, and screen. Their play TRUNK BRIEF JOCK THONG was shortlisted for the 2023 Yale Drama Series. Other plays have been developed and/or produced most recently at the University of California Los Angeles (I SWEAR TO GOD), Carnegie Mellon University (Adult Things), and Single Carrot Theatre (we broke up.). DJ's short plays ...in daylight and big and small were part of Theater Masters TAKE TEN 2022 and 2023, respectively, and subsequently published by Concord Theatricals. Fellowships and residencies include the Substratum writing residency, the Kratz Fellowship for Creative Writing, and the Horticulture Playwriting Fellowship. Their poetry chapbook, Leaving Earth, was published by Split Rock Press and the titular poem was nominated for 2023's Best of the Net and Best New Poets. Connect with DJ online at www.dj-hills.com.

Daria Miyeko Marinelli (they/she) is a Japanese-Italian playwright, screenwriter, and climate storyteller who delights in using the heist genre, stories of wildness, and bifurcating narrative structures to challenge current and construct new cultural mythologies. Daria's work has been performed at Victory Gardens, Ensemble Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse's WOW Festival, Atlantic Theatre Company, The Flea, and HERE Arts Center, among others. Mx. Marinelli has developed work with Cirque du Soleil, Roundabout Theatre Company, The Playwright's Realm, Fault Line Theatre, SPACE on Ryder Farm, The New Harmony Project, Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA, and The Kennedy Center's MFA Playwrights Workshop and TYA/USA's New Visions New Voices at The Kennedy Center. Playwriting accolades include being a three-time Finalist and a two-time Semi-Finalist for The O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, a Bay Area Playwrights Festival Finalist and Semi-Finalist, and a showcased writer at the Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists. Daria serves on the Board of Directors for The New Harmony Project (Vice-Chair) and Fault Line Theatre. Mx. Marinelli is currently developing a TV series with Hill District Media and their original pilot (We are Your Villain) was a Finalist for The Black List's NRDC Climate Storytelling Fellowship. Based in LA, Daria is a forever New Yorker at heart. BA: Brown University. MFA: University of Texas at Austin.

Phaedra Michelle Scott (she/her) is a playwright and screenwriter based in New York City. Her plays include Diaspora! (commissioned by SpeakEasy Stage), Good Hair (recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant) and Plantation Black (Playwrights Horizons LabWorks, InterAct Theater Company Lobstah Lab, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference). Her commissions include the University of Massachusetts, Sparkhaven Theater Company and with Colt Coer to co-create the podcast Pleasure Machine. Scott is an alum of Youngblood with Ensemble Studio Theater, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Great Plains Theater Conference, and Pipeline Theater Company's PlayLab. She is a staff writer on an upcoming project with CBS/SHOWTIME and is a member of the Dramatists Guild and WGA. Her work lies at the intersection between history, fantasy, and science fiction. Phaedra is a crocheter, horror fan and obscure history enthusiast. www.phaedrascott.com

Cherene Snow is a multi-award-winning veteran actor, singer-songwriter and playwright from Chicago, who began her career as a teenager in the cult classic film, Cooley High. She has gone on to appear in City of Angels (Nicholas Cage/Meg Ryan), The Long Walk Home (Whoopi Goldberg/Sissy Spacek) and Out of Darkness (Diana Ross). She has covered all mediums of acting but has an extensive background in theatre including Broadway, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with Scarlett Johansson, and Internationally, Straight as a Line, performed at the fringe festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. Off Broadway credits include: Inkd'Well, For All the Women..., Walking Down Broadway and The Last of the Thorntons. Regional credits include King Lear, Familiar, Skeleton Crew, Little Foxes (Goodman Theatre), brownsville song (b-side for tray) (Humana Festival, Actor's Theatre of Louisville) and Doubt. Film/TV include Jules, Arthur, City of Angels, The Long Walk Home, The Code, Almost Family, Law & Order, Law & Order SVU: Sugar, and Chappelle's Show. After having written 2 solo plays, Circle Session and This Actor's Journey, for which she performed, arranged and sang all of her own original music, Cherene decided to fulfill her dream to become a playwright. During the pandemic, she signed up for an online playwriting workshop. She has since written her third solo play, The Moment I Felt My Soul, which was birthed out of Josh Wilder's Playwright's Workshop. As a result of that workshop and The Playwrights Workshop Rewriting Intensive, Cherene has written her first one-act play, Hiding Inside Him, her first ten-minute play, My Heart is a Little Red Wagon, and her first full length play, Monday Wednesday Friday. She strives to become a well-rounded writer since becoming a member of GeNarrations, a storytelling performance workshop for adults 55+ through Goodman Theatre in Chicago, as well as Intro to Playwriting and Advanced Playwriting. She has penned several works of fiction and many non-fiction stories and is seeking to become a published author. Cherene is thrilled to return to Seven Devils for a third season, this time as a Playwright-in-Residence!

D.D. Wigley is a playwright-in-residence at Key City Public Theatre in Port Townsend, WA. Her plays range from family drama to dark comedy, verbatim to spectacle. Produced work at KCPT from 2008-2023 includes: seven one-act and three 10-minute plays; a world premiere adaptation - with KCPT?s Artistic Director - of The Merry Wives of Windsor; and workshop readings of one full-length and two one-act plays. She?s served on the creative team for new plays in development by Doris Baizley, Richard Dresser, Wendy MacLeod, Jeni Mahoney, David Natale, and Andrea Stolowitz; two of these had world premières at KCPT. D.D. is a writer subscriber to the New Play Exchange and a member of the Dramatists Guild.

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