NEW PLAY WORKSHOP

Director: Hal Brooks

Dramaturge: J Holtham

What do you write after you have written the world’s greatest play? Hopefully, not another Timon of Athens. Fortunately for Shakespeare, he is caught in the middle of the pandemic of 1603 and theatres are closed for a year. The plague opens his eyes to the mysteries of life and death when he is quarantined with a young Puritan lawyer and a mature streetwise prostitute. Will Shakespeare thrive creatively? Will his follow up play be as disappointing as his last? Or will he write his masterpiece?

BIO: The author of Equivocation (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage, Geffen Playhouse and Manhattan Theatre Club), 9 Circles (Marin Theatre, Bootleg and Sheen Center), How to Write a New Book for the Bible (Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep and South Coast Rep) and Stand-Up Tragedy (Mark Taper Forum, Arena Stage, Hartford Stage and ultimately Broadway). Bill received the 2009 and 2010 Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award. Bill has spent eight summers at OPC developing his plays.

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NEW PLAY WORKSHOP

Director: Taylor Reynolds

Dramaturge: Sasha Emerson

Nicole is an unmarried, nearly 30-year-old Black Creative living in Brooklyn, New York in 2019. How does she stay grounded? She runs. The play follows one Black woman's journey to becoming a consistent, recreational jogger and the circumstances that drove her to that point. The consequences of thirty years' worth of coping mechanisms begin manifesting uncontrollably, as Nicole is finally overwhelmed by the one thing she can't outrun: change.

BIO: Jahna Ferron-Smith is a recent graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellowship at the Juilliard School, and current member of the Obie Award-winning playwrights collective, Youngblood (EST) as well as Page 73. Her plays have been performed at Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival. Her plays include The Woods (Venturous Playwright Fellowship winner; support from SPACE on Ryder Farm), Running While Black (Ojai Playwrights Conference Foundry Project) and SIR (published by Samuel French).

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NEW PLAY WORKSHOP

Director: May Adrales

Dramaturge: Jeff Liu

We still don’t know how to talk about what happened in Los Angeles on April 29, 1992, and it’s a problem. A group of semi-professional young actors (all engaged in some side-hustle to survive) come together briefly to re-enact ‘primal scenes’ from the Los Angeles unrest in 1992 using elements of group psychotherapy. Why don't liberals acknowledge American empire? How do the unseens of empire structure what is visible? We’re just trying to live. To Red Tendons deals with seething anger turned inward, and a desire for reconciliation. 

BIO: California born and New York based, Peter Kim George is a Korean diaspora playwright. He did his PhD at Brown University on the 19thcentury novel before writing for theatre. His plays include Men Accumulate (Bay Area Playwrights Festival finalist, Princess Grace Award semi-finalist, NormalAve NAPseries) and Protest (Rhino Festival). Alumni of Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood. B.A.: University of California Berkeley.

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NEW PLAY WORKSHOP

Director: Logan Vaughn

Dramaturge: Jenni Werner

Choreographer: Kevin Boseman

The Sea Mink-ettes are the best dance team around and Homecoming is their time to shine. As the big day creeps closer, petty infighting and the quest for excellence threaten to tear the group apart. And then, things glitch. And the world keeps going and going and going.

BIO: Vivian Barnes is a Los Angeles-based writer. She is a Playwrights Center Venturous Fellow (formerly at The Lark) and a member of the Geffen Playhouse’s 2021-22 Writers’ Room. Her work has been produced at Actors Theatre of Louisville's 44th Humana Festival and in Steppenwolf Theatre's digital NOW series. She has developed plays with Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage Theater, Clubbed Thumb, Montana Repertory Theatre and Ojai Playwrights Conference. In television, she has staffed on shows at Amazon and UCP/Peacock.

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NEW PLAY WORKSHOP

Director: Rebecca Wear

Dramaturge: Luis Alfaro

After the Vargas Family is displaced from their home, the parents try to live off the land, but the fear of the outside is like a never-ending nightmare. Meanwhile, their daughter attempts to fight their fight legally, against the gears of progress. Inspired by the communities of Chavez Ravine.

BIO: Three-time Sundance Institute Fellow/Resident, Humana Festival, Ojai Playwrights Conference Foundry Project playwright, New Dramatists Resident, Arizona Theatre Company's National Latinx Awardee, Center Theatre Group’s L.A. Writers’ Workshop and Geffen Writers’ Room playwright, Ingram New Works at Nashville Repertory and Oregon Shakespeare Festival Black Swan playwright; Princess Grace awardee, Repertorio Español Nuestra Voces awardee, La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Awardee (selected by Sam Shepard). Mentored by Ruth Maleczech (Mabou Mines/SUITE) and Taylor Mac (Cherry Lane Mentor Project). Former Fellow/resident: Baryshnikov Arts Center, INTAR, Latinx Theatre Commons, New York Theatre Workshop, Primary Stages; Ensemble Studio Theater lifetime member; Echo Theatre Resident Playwright; Kilroys nominator.

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NEW PLAY WORKSHOP

Director: Casey Stangl

Dramaturge: Tiffany Moon

In The Odyssey, Penelope’s long wait is eventually rewarded when Odysseus returns 20 years after leaving to fight the Trojan War. Will the same be true for Jane in Brooklyn in 2021, 20 years after her husband left for work one fateful September morning? A play about longing and hope as well as the myths we tell ourselves in order to get through the day, The Janeiad is a wry contemplation of the power, and slipperiness, of storytelling.

BIO: Anna Ziegler’s plays include the widely produced Photograph 51 (West End, directed by Michael Grandage and starring Nicole Kidman; named the number one play of 2019 by the Chicago Tribune; winner of London’s WhatsOnStage Award for Best New Play; published in Bloomsbury’s Modern Classics series), The Last Match (Roundabout; Old Globe; Writers Theatre), The Wanderers (Old Globe; upcoming at the Roundabout in 2023) and Actually (Geffen Playhouse; Williamstown; Manhattan Theatre Club; Trafalgar Studios and many more; L.A. Ovation Award winner). 

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NEW PLAY WORKSHOP

Director: Moritz von Stuelpnagel

Dramaturges: Luis Alfaro and Sasha Emerson

It’s Nowruz — the Iranian New Year — and who better to spend it with than our fabulous hostess, Roya? She’ll teach you how to celebrate in style. They say that on Nowruz, the souls of ancestors come alive and visit. Perhaps that’s what’s happening here tonight. Or maybe it’s just the strong Persian chai. 

BIO: Michael Shayan is a queer Iranian-American writer and performer from “Tehran-geles,” California. He received the inaugural Sundance Institute Uprise Grant. Recent playwriting credits include Ojai Playwrights Conference, Audible, The Geffen Playhouse, SPACE on Ryder Farm, South Coast Repertory, La MaMa, New York Stage & Film, Rattlestick, The Lark, Dixon Place and Stillwright, among others. He’s received honors from The Kennedy Center & Lambda Literary as an LGBTQ Voices Fellow in Playwriting. TV projects include “Book of Queer” (Discovery+) and “We’re Here” (HBO). At 13, he was the youngest performer at the Hollywood Magic Castle.

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NEW PLAY WORKSHOP

Director: Khanisha Foster

Dramaturge: Zharia O’Neal

Zakiya Young: poster child for racial reconciliation. She code switches with lightning speed. White sorority? Like, no prob. A Black and Latino church with a White pastor? She’ll praise God in Spanish! Broadway? Is it color blind casting or an all-Black show? Doesn’t matter because this suburban Black girl has mastered the art of being ‘non-threatening.’ But when COVID lockdowns put a spotlight on police killing unarmed Black people, everything she suppressed begins seeping out like an infected wound.

BIO: Zakiya Young was an OPC Foundry Project playwright in 2021 and is honored to have this opportunity to continue her exploration of Black suburban life in this autobiographical play. Favorite acting credits include: Broadway: Stick Fly, The Little Mermaid and Radio City Christmas Spectacular.  Off-Broadway: Storyville (Audelco Award nomination) Regional: Familiar, Spamilton, Disgraced and It’s a Bird...It’s a Plane...It’s Superman. Watch her this summer in Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin on HBO Max.

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SPECIAL 25TH ANNIVERSARY EVENT

Directors: Kim Maxwell and Gideon Jeph Wabvuta

What happens when the brave and talented young writers of this year’s OPC International Youth Workshop collide with the brave and talented Alumni from previous years? An evening of breathtaking live performances, film shorts and music from across the globe, worthy of our 25 year commitment to the voices, courage and activism of the next generation. This is a one-night only event you won't want to miss.

FEATURING THESE INCREDIBLE OPC YOUTH WORKSHOP ALUM:

Ryan Beaghler (Actor, Professional Drag Artist & Special Education Teacher)

Lily Brown (Writer, Director, Actor, Filmmaker)

Nora Crawford (Writer/Performer)

Kelly del Manzano (2022 Intern & Senior Care Facilitator))

Noah Lashly (Writer/ProducerFilmmaker)

Fabio Lauretta (Writer/Performer & Singer/Songwriter)

pictured: 2019 OPC Youth Workshop participant Kelly del Manzano

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