Seven Devils Playwrights Conference Unveils 2023 Playwrights And Event Lineup

Seven Devils Playwrights Conference returns to McCall, ID with a program of free public events running June 7-17. Now in its 23rd 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 2023 playwrights Susan Kathryn Hefti, Gloria Oladipo, Savannah Reich, Alec Silberblatt, Wolfgang Jones, and AZ Espinoza 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 (presented at the 2012 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); Mark Krause (Lemonade, winner of the Woodward/Newman Award); and Dano Madden (In the Sawtooths, winner of the ACTF/Kennedy Center Award.)

Playwright AZ Espinoza, who had their play Homeridae developed at the 2019 Conference, will be returning this year as recipient of the 4-Seasons Residency, a national year-long residency program awarded each year to an exceptional voice in the American Theater. Playwright Wolfgang Jones, a native of New Orleans, is currently in the MFA Playwriting Program at the University of Idaho.

"All our events are free, and you can experience a new play nearly every night," says Artistic Director Jeni Mahoney. "Plus, simply by showing up and enjoying an evening of theater, you're making an important contribution to the development of a new play."

In addition to presenting 5 new plays, selected from over 600 submissions, events include a Master Class featuring new work by McCall-Donnelly High School students and a free playwriting workshop led by A.P. Andrews, a writer for stage and screen whose credits includes the Fox television series The Big Leap.

Conference regulars will find familiar faces in this year's company of artists, as well as many talented newcomers. "Actors, directors and other theater artists, with active careers in stage, film and television, will be joining us from all over the country to bring these new plays to life," says Managing Director Paula Marchiel. "We can't wait to share these amazing plays - and this talented company of artists - with audiences in McCall."

All events are free and open to the public. More information about schedules, events and travel can be found at: https://www.sevendevils.org/2023conference.html.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

2023 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference

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

Wednesday, June 7: 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 9: QUEEN OF THE BONACKERS by Susan Kathryn Hefti

After her father is killed in a tragic fishing accident, Queenie King - the teenage scion of an ancient Bonacker family - feels duty bound to carry on her family's legacy, working the waters they've fished for centuries. But when a rapacious real estate developer, eager to gobble up the last spit of developable land on the East End, ratchets up the pressure for Queenie's family to sell their ancestral property, deep wounds from generational traumas are ripped open, threatening not only the Bonackers' way of life, but also those who refuse to recognize its value.

Saturday, June 10: PLAYWRITING WORKSHOP with A.P. Andrews (11am-2pm at MD High School)

Join us at McCall-Donnelly High School for a free playwriting workshop hosted by former Seven Devils Literary Manager A.P. Andrews, now working as a writer for stage and screen in Los Angeles. No experience is necessary, but space is limited. Email: paula@sevendevils.org to reserve your spot.

Saturday, June 10: THE CARE AND KEEPING OF SCHIZOPHRENIA (AND OTHER DEMONS)
by Gloria Oladipo

Charity's plans to move to California with her girlfriend, Dani, are put on hold when her mother breaks her hip trying to manage her brother through yet another mental health crisis. Determined to finally get her brother the support he needs, Charity moves back to her family home only to find her best efforts thwarted by a surreal mental health system; her mother's insistence that everything is okay; and an obnoxious, aptly named, and increasingly impossible to manage Sleep Demon. The absurdist, humorist romp The Care and Keeping of Schizophrenia (and Other Demons) asks: can Charity take control of the pressures bearing down on her or will a desperate attempt to get her family "well" tear her life apart?

Thursday, June 15: HOW TO SAY GOODBYE by Wolfgang Jones

Life. It's a nightmare. It's a trainwreck. It's uncomfortable, hilarious, exhausting, littered with moments of crying, cringing, laughing, snorting, sneering, squirming, puking, whatever - and that's okay. Because that is not the hard part. For Chris, Everett, and Jordan it's just another day in a life full of loss, poverty, mental health, failed ambition, and surviving when you really hate yourself.

Friday, June 16: A SERIES OF MEETINGS by Savannah Reich (*at McCall-Donnelly High School)

Why are there so many meetings? And why are they all terrible? Are we just not trying hard enough? Our facilitators have spent the past year meeting once a week to figure out what is wrong with all our meetings and now, they are ready to share their findings with you at a one-time only, very special meeting- so well planned, so thoughtful, so perfect that it will heal everything that divides us.

Saturday, June 17: RYAN'S PUB MONDAY TRIVIA NIGHT by Alec Silberblatt

Marci and Richie have a story to tell. A story about trivia night at Ryan's Pub in Pittsburgh where they're the best trivia team this side of the Monongahela. A story about cheaters in billowy khakis, bosses with big watches, and bartenders in tight t-shirts. A story about coming face to face with demons, and betting against them. So, grab a seat, pop a can of Iron City, and get to know these two.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS

AZ Espinoza is a transmasculine feminist who makes magic through theatre. Their play All My Mothers Dream in Spanish had its world premiere at Azuka Theatre in 2023, and their play Homeridae has been developed in Philadelphia and around the nation, including at the Seven Devils New Play Foundry, and was an Honorable Mention finalist for the Terrance McNally Award. Their adaptation of Anne Carson's The Bakkai took place in a BIPOC only mutual aid zoom room in 2020 (commissioned by Villanova Theatre); and their adaptation of Pericles, Peril's Island was performed outdoors while observing social distancing in 2021 (commissioned by Shakespeare in Clark Park). Directing credits include Alice Childress's Wine in the Wilderness (Philadelphia Artists Collective and theBlackBestFriend), the world premiere of R. Eric Thomas's Backing Track at the Arden Theatre (Associate Director) and the Philadelphia premiere of Angelina Weld Grimke's 1915 anti-lynching play Rachel at Quintessence Theatre Company. They are the co-founder of theBlackBestFriend, a producing collective that uplifts Black multiplicities. They have been a theater educator at the Wilma Theater, Temple University, Haverford College, and the University of the Arts, and they are a student of liberation everywhere, and for everyone.

Susan Kathryn Hefti is a NYSCA-NYFA Artist Fellow in Playwriting/Screenwriting, Susan Kathryn Hefti's plays have been developed or presented at Lark Play Development Center; New York Theatre Workshop; The Playwrights Center; Rattlestick Playwrights Theater; The William Inge Theatre Festival New Play Lab; The Bechdel Group; Capital Stage Company; The Harold Clurman Playwrights Division, Stella Adler Studio; The Bridge Initiative; St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery Theatre; Long Beach Playhouse Theatre; North Park Vaudeville Theatre; Topanga Actors Company; The Hidden Theatre Company & Wonderbox UK in London and in Paris at Théâtre Mélo d'Amelie & La Comédie Bastille.

Wolfgang Jones is a New Orleans playwright/actor/theatremaker. His plays tend to reflect the world he has grown up in: intense, disjointed, and a little violent - all tied together with some class consciousness and dark humor because, as they say, laissez les bons temps rouler. He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.

Gloria Oladipo is a playwright based in New York, NY (but proudly hailing from Chicago, IL). She is so excited to be a 2023 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference resident, where her play The Care and Keeping of Schizophrenia (and Other Demons) is in development. Gloria is also a 2022-2023 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow, a Velvetpark Writers Residency finalist, and a 2023 Speakers' Corner fellow with the Gingold Theatrical Group. Her plays also include The Good Victim (Cornell University reading/development), The Forever War (Heermans-McCalmon Competition for Dramatic Writing 2nd Place), and other works. Her work has also been developed at the Curious Theatre Company, Lifelong, and other institutions. In addition to playwriting, Gloria is also an award-winning cultural critic and journalist. She is a 2022 National Critics Institute fellow as well as a Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Institute for Theatre Journalism and Advocacy fellow. Gloria's work has appeared in Teen Vogue, the Guardian, Bitch Media, and other publications. BA: Cornell University. Website: gloriaoladipo.com

Savannah Reich is a playwright and screenwriter based in West Philadelphia. She holds an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University, where she studied with Rob Handel. Her plays have been produced at theaters across the country, commissioned or developed by Walking Shadow Theater Company, the University of Minnesota, SuperGroup, and the Playwrights Center, and supported by residencies at Tofte Lake Art Center and MassMoCA. Her feature-length screenplay "Beebe and Barton" was the winner of the national Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize in 2015, and her short film "Men Among Men" was the winner of the Bill Murray Comedy Award at the Twin Cities Film Festival (judged by Bill Murray himself!). She was a 2020/21 McKnight Fellow at the Playwrights Center, and her play Oedipus in Seattle was the winner of the audience choice award at the 2022 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. She currently teaches playwriting and screenwriting at the University of the Arts.

Alec Silberblatt is a playwright and actor originally from Pittsburgh, PA. His plays include A Tell-Tale Heart (Pittsburgh Public Theater), The Mon Valley Medium (The Studios of Key West, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Emerging Artists Theater, Carnegie Stage), The Angel of Allegheny County (New Wave Theater Collective), and others. His work has been produced/developed by The Studios of Key West, The Pittsburgh Public Theater, Playhouse on Park, New Wave Theater Collective, Middle Voice Theater Company, The Barrington Collective, Harridan Productions, and the NYU Steinhardt School. As an actor, he's worked with George Street Playhouse, Ivoryton Playhouse, Off the Wall Theater, Hatch Arts Collective, Quantum Theater, PICT Classic Theater, Lake Dillon Theater Company, City Theatre Company, Pittsburgh Public Theater, and Hartford TheaterWorks. TV/Film: American Rust (Showtime). Member: Pittsburgh Public Theater's Writers' Collective. Training: BFA, Acting CCM.

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