Foundry Talks: Samuel D. Hunter & Gideon Jeph Wabvuta
OPC Foundry Project playwrights and plays (top, L to R): Anna Ziegler Antigones”| Bill Cain “The Patriots”| Gideon Jeph Wabvuta “One More Sunday”| Samuel D. Hunter “A Case for the Existence of God| Jon Robin Baitz “I’ll Be Seein’ Ya”| Liza Powel O’Brien “Apostrophe”| Luis Alfaro ”My Father’s House” | Franky D. Gonzalez “Even Flowers Bloom in Hell, Sometimes
OPC ARTISTS CREATE NEW WORKS IN THESE CHALLENGING TIMES
It has been more than three months since we launched the Foundry Project, OPC's inaugural online program developing eight visionary plays responding to this most extraordinary moment in our history.
What we learned during the challenges of pandemic life is that the OPC creative community could not be deterred. Playwrights, directors, dramaturges and production staff overcame the boundaries of isolation and thrived together online -- artists from all corners of our country and beyond to Zimbabwe. All of these artists came together to confront the immense challenges of imagining a better world.
Playwriting tends to be a solitary and lonely process, but the Ojai Playwrights Conference developmental process is decidedly about creating community. We have been able to successfully replicate our "city of joy" in the virtual world. We have successfully resurrected the spirit of OPC artistic collaboration in these daunting times.
As we approach the conclusion of the Foundry journey this month, we want to share with you the fourth and final installment of The Foundry Talks series, featuring interviews with OPC playwrights Sam Hunter and Gideon Wabvuta. They bear witness to the value of the Foundry Project and its essential importance in these troubled times both here and abroad.
SAMUEL D. HUNTER
A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
Currently a Signature Theatre, NYC Residency 5 playwright, Sam’s many acclaimed plays include The Whale (Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, GLAAD Media Award), A Bright New Boise (Obie Award), and most recently, Greater Clements Outer Critics Circle Honoree), which was developed at the Ojai Playwrights Conference. His plays have been produced at major theatres across the country from Lincoln Center Theater to Seattle Rep and his many honors include a MacArthur Fellowship. This is Sam's fourth time working with OPC, where he also developed Greater Clements (2017), Rest (2013) and I Am Montana (2008) in Ojai.
A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD is set in a cubicle in a small office in southeastern Idaho, where two men struggle to secure terms on a loan.
GIDEON JEPH WABVUTA
ONE MORE SUNDAY
Playwright, actor, director and international activist, Gideon studied Theatre Arts at the University of Zimbabwe and has starred in a number of professional productions including The Father (Strindberg) and The Convert (Danai Gurira). His playwriting credits include The Master's Shoe, developed at the Almasi African Playwrights Festival; and Mbare Dreams, developed at OPC and performed at Revolutions 2017 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is an MFA Dramatic Writing graduate from USC.
ONE MORE SUNDAY is a tender, loving, humorous and troubling look at a family adapting to reality when religion and spirituality come into stark and stunning conflict.