Design Meeting at Seven Devils

One of the great parts of the Seven Devils script development process is the design meeting. I got to spend part of an afternoon meeting with design fellow Sabrina Reed, my director Christy Montour-Larson, dramaturg Gay Smith, and Seven Devils artistic director, Jeni Mahoney, talking about the physical world of my play, Drift, and how it might be realized on stage. I talked about where the play came from, and about farming, and they asked all kinds of questions about colors and texture, and realism v. non-reality, my best imagined production and my worst.

It's a helpful way to remind a writer who's been living in his head for a while about some of the physical and visual possibilities of the staging of this piece, as it all starts to feel more real. And in the ends, we had a cool drawing of how one designer might set the play.

A rendering of a set design by Seven Devils Design Fellow, Sabrina Reed

Great experience at the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference

Table work on Drift. Photo by Maggie Rosenthal

I'm finally getting a chance to catch my breath a little, after an extremely busy start to the year. It was all capped off with a 17-day stay at the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference in McCall, Idaho, where I workshopped my play, Drift.  I'd had the good fortune to be selected to work on my play, Flight, back in 2011, but had to leave after only a few days, due to a death in our family.  I'd been working and hoping to get back to McCall ever since.

Sheila McDevitt in the reading of Drift. PHoto by Sarah Jessup.

Jonathan Bangs in Drift. Photo by Sarah Jessup

Mirirai Sithole in Drift. Photo by Sarah Jessup.

Danette Baker in Drift. Photo by Sarah Jessup.

It's a gorgeous place, and the first week I was there, I spent every possible moment working on the play with my director, Christy Montour Larson, dramaturg Gay Smith, stage manager Dana Reiland, and our fabulous cast of Sheila McDevitt, Mirirai Sithole, Jonathan Bangs, and Danette Baker.  I'd get up early and write, then rehearse all day, then come back and write some more. On Saturday night, we had a fully staged reading for a sold-out house. And the audiences there, after 17 seasons of the conference, are very smart and sophisticated when it comes to discussing new plays.

For the second week, I helped dramaturg a new play by Dayna Smith, which had a sit-down reading as part of its development. And I got to see readings of all the other plays by my fellow writers, attend a writer's workshop from Elaine Romero, and go to a bunch of other fun events. And spend some time at the Burgdorf hot springs (super rustic, super relaxing) chilling out after a long week.

Seven Devils is the kind of experience that I'd want to give to every playwright at some point in their career. There's an entire artistic community that forms with an intense focus on helping the playwrights explore, change, and refine their scripts. And they've also engaged the greater community--so local businesses donate space and material and money to help make it all work. Local residents help provide housing for almost 50 visiting artists who are coming in from all across the country.

I stayed in a cozy apartment above a garage about five miles out of McCall, surrounded by miles of pastureland, ringed by snow tinged mountains. It's hard to imagine a more perfect spot to work on this particular play.

Now I'm back to my regular life. Excited to see my family, settling into summer . Working on a new play, with Blood on the Snow still running at the Old State House, and Both/And still at the MIT Museum.

But behind it all, I've still got the afterglow my time at Seven Devils. I made solid strides on Drift, and I got to work with some really great people. I hope to work with them again, and to find a way to get back to McCall someday. We'll see what the future holds for Drift.

Seven Devils 2017! photo by Sarah Jessup