Day 23 -- Thank You, Intensive Playwrights!

Today's Blog Takeover is by playwright Heidi Kraay
(New Eden, 2014; Kilgore, 2011). Thanks, Heidi!!
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The first time I was invited to be a playwright at Seven Devils, I was floored seeing my work at the center of attention. As a Seven Devils playwright, I learned that if I wanted something to be done in a certain way on stage I could write it with audacious specificity and IT WOULD THEN BE DONE THAT WAY. I'd been under the impression that the director, actors and designers could change or ignore what I had on the page -- showing fundamental unlearning I needed right quick.

​As a playwright who tries to help others understand that their writer's voice matters and that they have rights, this changed perspective -- no longer shying away from being as direct as I want -- has been essential for me. While I'm grateful to this company for a number of reasons, like being better able to ask intentional questions about my own play before taking it through a development process with others, or being able to lock a draft safe and then play to my imagination's content, learning to trust my words on the page helps me stand stronger as a playwright -- and keeps me working in this art form.

A note from the blog authors!

As Jeni says, every play comes to the conference at a different stage in its development, and every play leaves at a different stage in its development.

At Seven Devils, there are different programs designed for different kinds of processes -- like the Playwright's Intensives, a week of work that focuses on writing rather than staging, which gives the playwrights the opportunity to explore a play on their terms.

​We have such admiration for these playwrights -- and so today's Thank You is to them, for being brave, for being ambitious, for being audacious! You inspire us!