2024 PLAYWRIGHTS RESIDENCY
NOVEMBER 6-10

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our new Ojai Fall Residency program this November. The Residency is an exciting new partnership between OPC and Los Angeles theater companies; part of our commitment to help feed the CA theatrical ecosystem with new work, and create opportunities for some of the most inspiring theatrical story-tellers in America. OPC is dedicated to helping more new plays move from page to stage.

ANNOUNCING THE PLAYWRIGHTS!

Cris Eli Blak
developing ANONYMOUS SKIN  with LA Partner theater - Loft Ensemble

Prince Gomolvilas
developing PARANORMAL INSIDE with LA Partner theater - East West Players (in collaboration with Perseverance Theatre [Juneau, Alaska] & Theater Mu [St Paul, MN])

Roger Q. Mason
developing JUANA MARIA with LA Partner theaters - Outside In Theatre & Skylight Theatre

The artistic and creative hub of Ojai continues to host the incredible writers as part of this Residency from November 6-10, 2024, culminating in a Conversation with the Playwrights, including a sharing of excerpts of all three plays on November 10, 1pm  at The Thacher School in Ojai. All tickets to the event are pay-what-you-can. To reserve seats, please RSVP by Friday, November 8 to [email protected].

Following this Residency in Ojai, our partner theater companies will continue their support of these writers with a reading in Los Angeles over the course of the next year.

We couldn’t be more excited to offer dramaturgical support, a nurturing space and deep creative engagement with these amazing playwrights in partnership with the LA theater community. Stay tuned for more of our year-round programs, as we continue to build bridges between the creative sanctuary of Ojai and the theater community in Southern California!

LOCATION: Milligan Center for the Performing Arts at The Thacher School, 5025 Thacher Road, Ojai, CA

General parking is just past the school entry gates on your right.  The theater is a short walk up the hill on the left.

Accessible parking: There are several handicapped spaces across from the theater. If full, there are several reserved spaces just beyond the theater or guests can also be dropped off directly in front of the theater.

Box office: Please arrive with plenty of time to park and make the short walk to the theater.

PLAYWRIGHT BIOS

Cris Eli Blak is an emerging proud Black playwright whose work has been performed around the  world. He is the inaugural winner of the Black Broadway Men Playwriting Initiative, the 2024  Charles M. Getchell New Play Award, and the Atlanta Shakespeare Company's inaugural winner  of the Muse of Fire BIPOC Playwriting Festival. He is a staff writer on the fifth season of the hit  series Power Book III: Raising Kanan and is currently an artist-in-residence with Abingdon  Theatre Company and Liberation Theatre Company, and a 2024-2027 Core Writer with The  Playwrights Center. His work has been published by Smith & Kraus, Inc., Ghost Light  Publications, YOUTHPlays, Applause Books, New World Theatre, Breath of Fire Latina Theater  Ensemble, and in the Black Theatre Review.

Prince Gomolvilas is an internationally produced Thai American playwright and winner of a PEN  Center USA Literary Award for Drama. His critically acclaimed supernatural play, The Brothers  Paranormal, debuted Off-Broadway at the Beckett Theatre, in a production by Pan Asian Repertory  Theatre. It has since been published by Dramatic Publishing and performed across the country. He  received an unprecedented co-commission from East West Players, Perseverance Theatre, and Theater Mu to write Paranormal Inside, a standalone sequel to The Brothers Paranormal. He is also working on  Artificial, a comedy about AI technology, which was commissioned by SPARC Theater’s  Science@Play program and developed further at the BIPOC Playwrights Festival at Boise  Contemporary Theater.

Roger Q. Mason (they/them) is an acclaimed Black Filipinx playwright, Kilroys List honoree, and recent recipient of The Dramatists Guild Catalyst Fellowship. Last season Mason received critical acclaim for the World Premiere of their play Lavender Men with Skylight Theatre in Los Angeles and was acclaimed “a daring theatrical talent” by Charles McNulty of the Los Angeles Times and "a major voice in the theatrical vanguard” by TheaterMania. The Brooklyn Rail said they are “quickly becoming one of the most significant playwrights of the decade." American Theatre recently did an in-depth piece on Mason entitled, Has the World Finally Caught Up with Roger Q. Mason. Roger just concluded a three-production national tour featuring LGBTQ2S themes with theWorld Premiere of The Pride of Lions (Theatre Rhinoceros/ San Francisco, CA) in April,Lavender Men (About Face Theatre/ Chicago, IL) in May, and the World Premiere of The Duat(Philadelphia Theatre Company/ Philadelphia, PA) in June. They currently appear in the Netflixdocumentary, Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution.