Who is Jeni Mahoney?
Jeni is a playwright, director, dramaturg, teacher, artistic director and all around play development geek. Her plays including Fata Morgana, Kandahar, The Feast of the Flying Cow… and Other Stories of War, Come Rain or Come Shine, Running in Circles Screaming, The Martyrdom of Washington Booth, Mercy Falls, American Eyes, Scatter and Light have been presented at the National Playwrights Conference at the O'Neill Center, InterAct Theater (Philadelphia), Greenwich Playhouse (London), Denver's Old Vic (And Toto Too Theater Company), L.A. Theater Center, MidWest New Play Festival (Chicago), Lark Theater's Playwrights Week, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, NYU's hotINK Festival, Circus Theatricals, Fresh Ground Pepper, Key City Public Theater, Boston Theater Marathon and Boise Contemporary Theater, among others. Fata Morgana was awarded a 2015 Artworks Grant by the National Endowment of the Arts, and was selected as an Honorable Mention on the 2015 Kilroy List. The Feast of the Flying Cow... and Other Stories of War was an Honorable Mention on the Kilroy's 2014 List. She is also the recipient is the recipient of an Independent Artists Challenge Grant from The Field and a Woolrich Postgraduate Fellowship from Columbia University. 
As Producing Artistic Director of id Theater, and Founding Artistic Director of Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Jeni has supported the development of over 200 new American plays since 2001 including works by Samuel D. Hunter, Robert Schenkkan, Lee Blessing, Jennifer Haley, Caridad Svich, Jen Silverman and Andrew Hinderaker. The Conference's development process is featured in Michael Wright's 2005 book Playwriting: At Work and Play and has been featured in The Dramatists Magazine, Stage Directions, The Loop and Idaho Arts Quarterly.
She has directed numerous developmental workshops and readings from New York City, to Creede, CO, to Port Townsend, WA including: The Garden of Monsters by Mara Lathrop, Optimism Or... by A.P. Andrews, CrazySkinnySmall by Sylvie Mae Baldwin and upcoming workshops of Escorting Tom by Duane Kelly and War Stories by Richard Dresser. Her development geek credits include articles on Howlround; two stints as a panelist for the Dramatists Guild's popular "Art of the Synopsis" seminar; serving as guest artist/mentor for the Seabury Quinn, Jr. Playwriting Festival at Ohio University; and numerous dramaturgical assignments. From 2008-2015 Jeni served as Head of Playwriting at Playwrights Horizons Theater School/NYU Tisch for School for the Arts. Other teaching assignments have included Rattlestick Playwrights' Theater, online courses for Primary Stages Einhorn Performing Arts School and various guest teaching and mentoring positions around the country. Jeni is an inductee in the Indie Theater Hall of Fame where she was named one of the 2014 People of the Year. Jeni is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and the National Theatre Conference (for which she is also serves as Secretary of the Board of Trustees.) |
Jeni is not afraid to take on our most serious concerns and challenge us to examine where we have failed to be a courageous people. Her command of political satire is something so rarely seen in our theater that it literally feels foreign to us. Jeni Mahoney's play, Fata Morgana, is a fantastic example of the challenging, intelligent, and emotionally powerful writing that BCT audiences have embraced here over the years... it has an innovative style. It feels like a new American magic realism. ...surprising, challenging, often troubling and sometimes hilarious, she asks audiences to bear witness to the truth of the messy, complicated human condition and to the idea that our beliefs will ultimately bind us together or tear us to pieces. |