When Jenny Beres, 25 moved to Sarasota from Cleveland three years ago she had worked as a journalist but had never tried to write a play. In the last year, inspired by Sarasota’s culture, she’s written three—the first of which, If the Devil Could Fall in Love, won the Players Theatre “The Play’s the Thing” contest and can be seen in performance there July 17–20. The play follows the Devil—a female character—after she “quits” her position to pursue love. Beres, who’s now studying psychology to help in creating future characters, instinctively writes dark comedy (her latest play, Hayday, pairs a stripper with an Alzheimer’s patient). But she believes humor allows her to address serious subject matter. “I like to think I am writing about dramatic things,” she says. “I’m just making them bearable by making people laugh.”