Seven Devils New Play Foundry Welcomes New Leadership Team: Paula Marchiel, Mallory Metoxen, And Adrian Centeno

The Board of Seven Devils New Play Foundry will welcome the Artistic Leadership Team of Paula Marchiel, Mallory Metoxen, and Adrian Centeno, who will take the reins of the company's mission to develop and present new work that embraces the diversity of the American experience following the departure of Producing Artistic Director Jeni Mahoney who is stepping down in September, following 23 years of service.

"The choice to move forward with a team leadership model, rather than a single artistic leader, was made in close consultation with staff," says Board President Tira Palmquist. "We couldn't be more pleased with the three extraordinary artistic leaders whose vision and dedication will shape the future of Seven Devils."

Best known for its annual Playwrights Conference, Seven Devils has developed and presented more than 260 new American plays since its launch in 2001, including works by Samuel D. Hunter, Jen Silverman, Robert Schenkkan, Hansol Jung, Caridad Svich, Elaine Romero, Yilong Liu, Noah Diaz, Kara Lee Corthron, Lee Blessing, and Eric Coble. More than 50% of the plays developed with Seven Devils have gone on to production on Broadway and at venues around the country, including Actors Theater of Louisville, Roundabout Theatre, Denver Center For The Performing Arts, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Chicago's Gift Theater, and Boise Contemporary Theater, among many others.

"We've always functioned as a team," says Paula Marchiel, who has served as a stage manager, company manager, and managing director during her 23 years with the organization. "Each of us brings different, and very necessary, skills to the table. Freeing ourselves from more traditional hierarchical roles recognizes this and feels very organic for us."

In addition to bringing a wealth of institutional knowledge to the team, Marchiel's extensive managerial and production experience includes the National Playwrights Conference at the O'Neill Center, TheatreworksUSA, and The National Theatre Conference, among others.

Chicago-based director Mallory Metoxen has been with Seven Devils Playwrights Conference since 2017. She joined as staff in 2019 and was named Associate Artistic Director in 2022. She recently facilitated CLUSTERF**K Vol. III with The COOP, was formerly Renaissance

Theaterworks' Artistic Associate and Director of New Play Development, where she founded Br!NK; a play development festival for Midwestern women playwrights. With Seven Devils, she has mentored high school playwrights and directed readings of Madame Euphoria Reveals Your Future by Jenny Sternling (2020), Atoms for Arco by Robert McAndrew (2021 special event), Feast of the Flying Cow... and Other Stories of War by Jeni Mahoney (2022), I Carry Your Heart With Me by Jennifer Blackmer (2022), and The Storyteller by Sara Jean Accuardi (2022).

"As new works artists, we thrive in a collaborative process." says Mallory; "it feels natural for us to decentralize our leadership model so a collection of viewpoints, connections, and ideas can bring more to the table in service of the playwright. I love the bold, caring, exciting, thoughtful artists that we connect each year for the two-week Conference and beyond. I'm thrilled to be a part of this new season in the life of Seven Devils with Paula and Adrian."

The newest member of the team, Los Angeles-based Adrian Centeno, is a dramaturg, arts educator, and the current Literary Manager of Boston Court Pasadena. He first joined Seven Devils as a dramaturg in 2022. He's developed new works at South Coast Repertory, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Play House, and Ojai Playwrights Conference, among others. Past Seven Devils dramaturgy credits include Anya Pearson's Without a Formal Declaration of War (2022), Jonathan Yukich's Old People (2022), and Gloria Oladipo's The Care and Keeping of Schizophrenia (and Other Demons) (2023).

"McCall, Idaho holds a special place in my heart. The community here is unique, and the engagement between artist and audience is among the strongest I've seen in the American theatre. I'm deeply honored to join my friends, Paula and Mallory, in carrying forward the incredible legacy Jeni built," says Adrian. "I'm most happy in workshop settings. I'm a collaborator at heart and thrive off a sense of community. The artists I've met through Seven Devils are incredible, and their artistic, intellectual, and emotional generosity has been such a gift. I'm grateful and ready to jump back into the process as we look to 2024 and beyond."

"This team really speaks to the Seven Devils spirit," says outgoing Producing Artistic Director Jeni Mahoney. "Working with the Board throughout this process has been an amazingly positive and affirming experience, and I couldn't be more enthusiastic about the outcome. Together, Paula, Mallory, and Adrian offer an exciting, and unique, blend of institutional knowledge, artistic vision, and new ideas and ambitions."

Mission: Seven Devils supports the development of plays that embrace the diverse landscape of the American experience. By offering work for free and asking audiences to participate in the development process, Seven Devils empowers artists and audiences to have a greater stake in each other's success; creates opportunities for dialogue that broadens our understanding of ourselves and others; and fuels the creation of work that reflects, challenges, and celebrates us.

History: The Seven Devils New Play Foundry is a 26-year-old play development organization that has developed 260+ new plays, by Pulitzer Prize-winners, emerging writers, high school students and everything in between, through a variety of programs aimed at supporting and empowering playwrights to do their best work free from the pressures and concerns of full production.

Founded in 1997 by Sheila McDevitt as id Theatre, the company began to shift its focus from production to play development in 2001 when it joined forces with Jeni Mahoney and Paula Marchiel to launch Seven Devils Playwrights Conference. For more than a decade, Mahoney, McDevitt and Marchiel led the company which expanded to include a number of projects in support of new work, including: the Sit In NYC! reading series at Jimmy's No. 43 in New York City, Bridgeworks (direct support to playwrights producing their own work), the idIOTS-at-Play writers group, and Private Idaho and Private New Hampshire retreats.

In 2020, id started doing business as Seven Devils New Play Foundry; a name that is in clearer alignment with its efforts.

More than 50% of the plays developed as Seven Devils have gone on to full production on Broadway and at venues around the country and overseas, and its high school program has developed and presented the work of over 100 McCall, Idaho high school students. More at: SevenDevils.org

Adrian Centeno (he/him) is a dramaturg and arts educator based in Los Angeles. He's helped develop and support new works at South Coast Repertory, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Play House, Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Ojai Playwrights Conference, New York Stage & Film, Teatro Bravo, Childsplay Theatre Company, foolsFURY Theater Company, and Playwrights' Arena, among others. A fierce advocate for new plays, Adrian has proudly served by invitation on new play development grant panels and festival selection committees for the National Endowment for the Arts, Page 73, Signature Theatre, The Public Theatre, The Playwrights' Center, Athena Project, and the Latinx New Play Festival. He's also a proud affiliate dramaturg with Beehive Dramaturgy Studio in New York City. He holds a master's degree from UC Santa Cruz and was recently honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award. He is currently a lecturer in the Department of Theatre Arts at Cal State Long Beach and the Literary Manager at Boston Court Pasadena. Website: Luchaturgy.com

Paula Marchiel (she/her) has been with Seven Devils since the first Conference in 2001. She has almost 30 years experience working as a professional theater manager. She was Company Manager for HBMG Foundation's National Winter Playwrights Retreat 2018. She is a long-time company member of Synaesthetic Theater, where she produced The Empires New Clothes on NYC's Theater Row and was Company Manager for The Trial of K at The Culture Project (NYC) and the International Arts Festival in Salamanca, Spain. For 12 years she worked at TheatreworksUSA as Assistant Company Manager, Marketing Associate and Technology Officer. Other past work includes the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, New York University, Playwrights Horizons Theater School, the Really Useful Management Company, short films for the comedy troupe BOOBY HATCH, and Stage Management jobs too numerous to mention. She is a graduate of Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.

Mallory Metoxen (she/her) is a director dedicated to nurturing new works, reinvigorating classics with a feminist lens, and demolishing the gender parity gap in the theatre industry. She recently facilitated CLUSTERF**K Vol. III with The COOP and was formerly Renaissance Theaterworks' Artistic Associate and Director of New Play Development where she founded Br!NK; a play development festival for Midwestern women playwrights.

Select directing credits: Anne of Green Gables (Constellation Stage & Screen), All of the Everything, Lucky Numbers (Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival), Sex with Strangers, The Understudy (Renaissance Theaterworks), The Effect of Gamma Rays... (Splinter Group), Fefu and Her Friends, The Thanksgiving Play, Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom (The Theatre School), These Shining Lives (Umbrella Group), and new works at the arc theatre, Forward Theater, Milwaukee Chamber Theater, Milwaukee Metropolitan Voices, Renaissance Theaterworks, Seven Devils New Play Foundry, and Third Avenue PlayWorks. She has her MFA in Directing from The Theatre School at DePaul University. Website: MalloryMetoxen.com

 

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