Lee Blessing Returns for id Theater's 13th Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Now thru 6/22

id Theater returns to McCall, Idaho for the 13th Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, tonight, June 10- 22, sponsored by the Alpine Playhouse. Playwrights, actors and directors from across the country will travel to McCall and, working with local artists and students, develop eleven new plays that will be presented to the public free of charge. Since 2001, the Conference has developed more than 100 new plays by some of the most exciting voices in American Theater.

Renowned playwright Lee Blessing will be returning to McCall for the first time since he served as the Conference's first guest artist in 2001. A reading of Mr. Blessing's new play For the Loyal will launch the Conference's reading series on Wednesday, June 12th at 7:30pm. Mr. Blessing will also host a free playwriting workshop on Saturday, June 15th. A Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award-nominee, Mr. Blessing's work has earned two Steinberg/American Theater Critics Association awards, as well as Obie, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, and L.A. Critics Association awards among others.

"Lee was instrumental in the birth and development of the Conference," says id co-Artistic Director Sheila McDevitt, "so we're quite thrilled that he is finally able to make a return visit and see all the Conference has become."

Six other writers, selected from more than 470 submissions from all over the country will have their work developed and presented at the Conference: A.P. Andrews (Burning Barn), Kimber Lee (brownsville song (b-side for tray)), Joshua Rollins (Concealed Carry) and S.L. Daniels (Emerald's First Life) will be presented as fully staged readings; and Rita Kniess Barkey (The Humming) and Jeni Mahoney (Fata Morgana) will have their work presented as seated readings. Four plays by students at McCall-Donnelly High School will also be presented as staged readings.

Plays developed at Seven Devils have gone on to theaters all over the country including the Playwrights Horizons, Actors Theater of Louisville, South Coast Rep, Roundabout Underground, Trinity Rep, Barrington Stage Company, Chicago's Gift Theater, Montana Rep and Boise Contemporary Theater among others; have garnered awards such as The John Gassner Playwriting Award (Faith by James McLindon), The Woodward/Newman Drama Award (Lemonade by Mark Krause), and the ACTF/Kennedy Center National Student Playwriting Award (In the Sawtooths by Dano Madden); and are published by Samuel French, Smith & Kraus, Applause, Original Works and Indie Theater Now which offers a collection of 11 plays developed through the Conference.

All Conference events are free and open to the public at all times. More information about schedules, events and travel can be found at: www.idtheater.org/this-years-conference.html. All events are free and start at 7:30pm at the Alpine Playhouse unless otherwise noted

Wednesday, June 12th - FOR THE LOYAL by Lee Blessing

Toby and Mia are on the fast track to the future: graduate students with a baby on the way and a college coaching job on the horizon. But Toby stumbles on a secret that threatens to throw their entire future into jeopardy. Caught between honesty and loyalty, Toby finds himself holding the fate of hundreds in his hands, while Mia embarks on a journey to discover who she really is and- -given the world she's in--whether doing wrong is the only way left to do right.

Thursday, June 13th - PLAYS FROM McCALL-DONNELLY HIGH SCHOOL

Friday, June 14th - BURNING BARN by A.P. Andrews

Ethel Hawkins has worked too hard to let the fire that destroyed her home destroy her family as well; but getting everyone to pull together is proving to be much more difficult than she expected. Determined to put the past behind her, Ethel soon discovers that even after a fire, the spark that ignited it remains.

Saturday, June 15th - CONCEALED CARRY by Joshua Rollins

When seven students die in a campus shooting, a Colorado campus becomes ground zero for the concealed carry debate. But as Ben, a young graduate professor caught in the crossfire, struggles to make sense of his own actions, he discovers that the most harrowing ground zero is the one within.

Wednesday, June 19 - THE HUMMING by Rita Kniess Barkey

Sarah has no interest in stopping her ailing father Roj from killing himself; in fact, she'd love to see him thrown in an unmarked grave. But when she discovers that Roj's weapon of choice is her Winchester rifle, the past she thought she'd be burying is resurrected and she finds herself face-to-face with the loss she'd been so determined to survive.

Thursday, June 20 - PLAYS FROM McCALL-DONNELLY HIGH SCHOOL

Friday, June 21 - EMERALD'S FIRST LIFE by S. L. Daniels

Em's life is miserable. Miserable job, miserable home life, miserable love life. Em finds the perfect escape from her woes in the fantastical Cumberland Castle, a virtual realm where she vies to become royal ruler over wenches and kangaroos. But when her actual life threatens to disrupt her online life, Em must call upon her royal powers to help her survive ... in both worlds.

Saturday, June 22 at 2:00 pm - FATA MORGANA by Jeni Mahoney

For Tori and Jack, life off the grid offers a welcome alternative to the turmoil of life back home... until Morgan shows up seeking sanctuary and offering the promise of long lost hopes for happiness. Having already walked away once, can Jack and Tori hold on to their separate peace, or will they risk it all for a shot at their dreams? (location: TBA)

Saturday, June 22 - BROWNSVILLE SONG (B-SIDE FOR TRAY) by Kimber Lee

In the aftermath of loss, a Brooklyn family struggles to navigate the shifting landscape of grief, to find each other and face the past, and fight their way toward hope.

Saturday, June 15th from 11:00am - 2:00pm: SPECIAL EVENT

Playwriting Workshop with Guest Playwright Lee Blessing (location: TBA)

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS

Lee Blessing has written over thirty plays, including A Walk in the Woods (nominated for Tony and Olivier Awards and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), Going to St. Ives, A Body of Water, Thief River, Two Rooms, Eleemosynary and Cobb. Two of his plays have opened recently-the world premiere of Courting Harry at History Theatre in St. Paul, MN and Great Falls-which had its south-of-the-Equator debut at the Ensemble Theatre in Sydney, Australia. Blessing's plays have earned two Steinberg/American Theater Critics Association awards, as well as Obie, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk and L.A. Critics Association awards among others. His TNT movie "Cooperstown" won the Humanitas Award. For more than a decade he has headed the Graduate Playwriting Program at Rutgers University. Blessing is married to the award-winning playwright and TV writer-producer Melanie Marnich.

A.P. Andrews is a New York City based playwright who was born and raised in the small town of Superior, Nebraska. His Nebraska Cycle is a series of ten plays about life in the rural Midwest, and includes Abby in the Summer, Burning Barn, The Girl with the Red Balloon, Tailgates, Three More Sundays, Meth and Kisses, Cecil and Marie, Homesteads, Christian Barone Comes Home, and Winter Visits. Other works include Constantin, Higher, Tommy and His Stars and Stripes, Jolly the Christmas Walrus, This Might Hurt a Little, and a collection of six one-act plays entitled Awake and Dreaming. His plays have been performed and developed in Nebraska at the Superior Community Theater, the Red Cloud Opera House, and the Hastings Community Theater; in New York City at Playwrights Horizons Theater School, the Gene Frankel Theater, and The Tank; in Idaho at the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference; and in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. A.P. is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where he studied at Playwrights Horizons Theater School and in London with the Writers Guild of Great Britain.

Rita Kniess Barkey has had more than a dozen plays produced around the country. Recent works include Firewall, selected for the 2011 Pandora Festival in Phoenix; Techno Tango, a 2012 finalist for the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference; and Very F.B., a 2012 finalist at the Double (XX) Festival in Seattle. She has had staged readings at Chicago Dramatists, Indiana Theater Works, and Missoula Colony, among others. Accolades include a Basile Emerging Playwright award, an Indiana Arts Commission fellowship, as well as a Community Outreach Award from the Mary Anderson Center. She did her graduate work in theater and playwriting at Indiana University and earned an MFA in English from The Ohio State University. Rita currently resides in Missoula, Montana, where she is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the International Centre for Women Playwrights, and a founding member of Zoola Playwrights, a collective dedicated to producing new plays.

S. L. Daniels' work has been produced in theatres around the world, including Victory Gardens, American Blues, Rivendell, and Mary-Arrchie Theatre in Chicago, New York Theatre Workshop, the West End Theatre, Vortex Theatre, Kraine Theatre, Gene Frankel Theatre, The Beckett Theatre in New York, and in Australia at Newtown Theatre (Sydney) and Defector Art Theatre (Melbourne). Credits also include: Winner of the Hurricane Season Award (Los Angeles), Oxford Short Play Competition, Serling Award (Playwriting - New York), Samuel French One-Act Competition, Illinois Arts Award, and finalist for the Cunningham Prize, the

O'Neill Conference, and Actors Theatre of Louisville's Heidemann Award. Night Vision, a short play, was published in "StageTHIS: Volume III." Television and film work include: Writer for the animated sit- com, "Committed", Co-Writer for "Nightmares on Emerson Street" (HBO IND/FOX TV), and Executive Script Consultant on "Workout", a pilot for NBC. A film based on her play Lie for Me is currently in production in Los Angeles.

Kimber Lee was born in South Korea and raised in southwestern Idaho, and she is thoroughly delighted to participate in the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference this year. Plays include fight, different words for the same thing, and brownsville song (b-side for tray), and her work has been produced and developed by Page 73 Productions (Page 2 Workshop), Hedgebrook Women Playwrights Festival, Dramatists Guild Fellows Program, Represent Playwrights Festival at ACT/Seattle, Playwrights' Center Core Apprentice Program, Theatre of the 1st Amendment/1st Light Program, Great Plains Theatre Conference (Mainstage), Southern Rep, and Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company. Her play fight received the 2010 Holland New Voices Award, and she has been a Finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, the Ruby Prize, and Premiere Stages Play Festival. Kimber was recently invited to the 2013 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and she is currently a 2012-2013 Playwrights' Workshop Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center, a member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, and the 2013-2014 recipient of the PoNY Fellowship. MFA: UT Austin.

Jeni Mahoney's plays including The Feast of the Flying Cow... and Other Stories of War, Mercy Falls, The Martyrdom of Washington Booth, Running in Circles Screaming, Come Rain or Come Shine, Kandahar, Light, American Eyes and Gogli Mogli have been presented at the National Playwrights Conference at the O'Neill Center, InterAct Theater (Philly), Source Theater Festival (D.C.), L.A. Theater Center, MidWest New Play Festival (Chicago), Lark Theater's Playwrights Week, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, NYU's hotINK Festival, And Toto Too (Denver), Circus Theatricals (L.A.) and London's Greenwich Playhouse among others. Her plays are published Applause, IndieTheaterNow.com, Playscripts and NYTE. Jeni writes and speaks on the subject of play development whenever she can find a platform to do so, and has been featured in articles in Stage Directions Magazine, The Dramatists Magazine and The Loop. She is a member of Dramatists Guild of America.

Joshua Rollins' play A Girl With the Sun in Her Eyes debuted in Chicago last summer with Pine Box Theater Company to great acclaim and a sold-out run. It is in development for production in Los Angeles, New Orleans, and New York City later this year. Other works include American Rex, which just had its world premiere with Chicago Street Theatre and was a finalist for the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference; 25 Saints, which recently completed a successful run in Chicago at Victory Garden's Greenhouse Theatre and will be produced in Seattle later this year; and Darlin' which is being developed in Los Angeles. His one acts have been produced by Pine Box, American Theatre Company, American Blues Theatre, the Artistic Home, and many others. Joshua is also an actor and has appeared with many acclaimed companies including The Blue Man Group, Steppenwolf Theatre, The Gift Theatre, About Face, Commonwealth Shakespeare, and the Huntington Theatre. Film credits include Batman: The Dark Knight, Contagion, Living Hell, Killshot, Awake, and The Lake House, among others. He is a graduate of the School at Steppenwolf

 

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