This year, our theme “Lost & Found” speaks to both the heartbreak and the hope that define our field right now.

Across the country, theatres have lost vital institutional and governmental support. The NEA’s shifting priorities and the lingering effects of the pandemic have shuttered or silenced many new play incubators. For us, that loss is deeply personal. It has meant cancelled grants, tighter budgets, and harder choices. It has reminded us how fragile (and how precious!) the ecosystem of new play development truly is.

And yet, look at what we’ve found:

We’ve found hope in the stories that still insist on being told.
We’ve found our voices in community, in laughter and risk, in gathering again around scripts that surprise us.
We’ve found connection in McCall: in classrooms, rehearsal rooms, and in audiences who remind us why theatre matters.
We’ve found that even when resources are scarce, creativity is not.

This December, as we look toward the 2026 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, we invite you to help us transform what’s been lost into what can be found. Every dollar raised sustains the playwrights, directors, actors, and students who will bring new stories to life next June, free and open to the public, as always.

In a time when so much has been taken from the arts, we choose to double down on what we’ve found: hope, voice, community, and creativity.

That’s the real treasure of Seven Devils, and, with your help, it’s one we’ll keep finding together.

Seven Devils New Play Foundry

Lost & Found!

Team Members