Jeni Mahoney

Jeni Mahoney

Jeni is a playwright, director, dramaturg, 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, MERCY FALLS, THE MARTYRDOM OF WASHINGTON BOOTH, SCATTER, AMERICAN EYES and LIGHT have been presented at the National Playwrights Conference at...
Jeni is a playwright, director, dramaturg, 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, MERCY FALLS, THE MARTYRDOM OF WASHINGTON BOOTH, SCATTER, AMERICAN EYES and LIGHT have been presented at the National Playwrights Conference at the O'Neill Center, InterAct (Philadelphia), Greenwich Playhouse (London), And Toto Too Theater Company, L.A. Theater Center, MidWest New Play Festival (Chicago), Lark Theater's Playwrights Week, Rattlestick, NYU's hotINK Festival, Circus Theatricals, Key City Public Theater, Boston Theater Marathon and Boise Contemporary Theater, among others.

The World Premier of FATA MORGANA, at Boise Contemporary Theater, was awarded an Artworks Grant by the National Endowment of the Arts, and selected as an Honorable Mention for the Kilroy List. THE FEAST OF THE FLYING COW... AND OTHER STORIES OF WAR was an Honorable Mention on the Kilroy List.

As Producing Artistic Director of Seven Devils New Play Foundry, and Founder of Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Jeni has supported the development of over 260 new American plays that have gone on production around the country, on Broadway, and around the world. The Conference is featured in Michael Wright's book Playwriting: At Work and Play and has been featured in American Theatre, The Dramatists, Howlround, Stage Directions, and Idaho Arts Quarterly.

She has directed numerous developmental workshops and readings from New York City, to Durango, CO, to Port Townsend, WA including: WAR STORIES by Richard Dresser, THE DIZZINESS OF FREEDOM by Stephen Nathan (featuring Mike Ferrell), THE GARDEN OF MONSTERS by Mara Lathrop, Optimism Or... by A.P. Andrews, HOW TO HIDE YOUR MONSTERS by Heidi Kraay, CRAZYSKINNYSMALL by Sylvie Mae Baldwin and HOLD STEADY by Tira Palmquist.

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 where she served on the Board for 6 years. Currently she serve on the Board of Fleischer Studios and OpenSky (an acting program working in NH prison system.)

As a human, Jeni is an artist living with Multiple Sclerosis. She when not doing all this theater stuff, she is also a web designer, video editor, certified nursing assistant and mom to a very special (and special needs) teenager and Special Olympics enthusiast.

Plays

  • Fata Morgana
    For Tori and Jack, life off the grid offers a welcome alternative to the turmoil of life back home… until Tori's niece Morgan shows up, pregnant, 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?
  • Kandahar
    Against a suburban backdrop of suicide, lawn darts and affairs of heart, Ginger and Freddie Hofsteadler discover that the most dangerous game may be their seeming settled life, and the most lethal opponent… their own hearts. Inspired by, and in conversation with, Arthur Schnitzler’s 1910 masterpiece DAS WEITE LAND, KANDAHAR tackles the enticing peaks and the unknowable depths of our daily, often chaotic, struggle to just be human.
  • Running in Circles Screaming
    Louise and Heather watch their kids on the playground sharing stories of mommy-hood joys but when Heather shares her disappointment, Louise turns out not to be the soul-sister she was looking for. Heather doesn't know how right she is.
  • Mercy Falls
    Marcy Wuggelson is a jinx, she’s always known it, so when she decides to visit her favorite self-help author, Wanda Moore, in the hospital on Christmas Eve, the scene is ripe for disaster. But Wanda discovers something priceless in Marcy – the subject for her new book. With the help of Santa’s Reindeer, the Ghost of Christmas Future, a Nun, and phenomenologist Martin Heidegger, Marcy performs a true Christmas miracle.
  • The Feast of the Flying Cow... and Other Stories of War
    Audrey, a socialite turned relief worker, finds herself in a war-torn nation awarding a free feast and celebrity-style photo shoot to the besieged family of Anya Andonov. Trapped in a world that is as absurd and laughable, as it is brutal, Anya and Audrey struggle to salvage their feast as the world around them spirals into collapse.
  • The Martyrdom of Washington Booth
    Virgilia’s plan to impress a local militia hero is thrown into jeopardy when the lethal virus they’ve arranged to purchase from a mysterious African nationalist is accidentally unleashed… on her own father. As she struggles to find a way out of her dilemma she is forced to ask herself: who hears the voice of God? And who is qualified to decipher it?
  • Come Rain or Come Shine
    Mom doesn't know why it's taken Luke so long to break the news, she's liberal after all, but she's thrilled that after years away Luke finally coming home to tell her he's gay. He's even bringing his new boyfriend Chris! Chris is his boyfriend… right? Available in Best Short American Plays 2005-2006 (Applause)
  • Light
    A spiritual rebirth, under the guidance of a mysterious, self-proclaimed guru, is Helena’s motivation for re-connecting with her childhood friend, and recent divorcee, Abby. But the joyous reunion is short-lived when Abby discovers out that Helena’s new path requires her to forget her past… including Abby. Available in: Best Short American Plays 2007-2008 (Applause) & Great Short Plays, Volume 6 (Playscripts)
  • Scatter
    Randi struggles to hold her fractured family together just long enough to scatter her grandmother’s ashes with some dignity… but these folks aren't not going make it easy.
  • Bad Water Juju
    The Bad Water Juju Circus has hit hard times. Luckily, the clowns have a plan... but watch out because the jokers are willing to do whatever it takes to push their extreme, and very final, solution all the way to it's dramatic, and not so funny, end.