Moving Boldly Forward . . .
OPC Artistic Staff (top, l to r): Jeff Liu, Resident Dramaturge, Casey Stangl, Associate Artistic Director, Jose Delgado, Producing Director, Hal Brooks, Associate Artistic Director, Logan Vaughn, Associate Artistic Director, Robert Egan, Artistic Director/Producer; (bottom, l to r): Kim Maxwell, Youth Workshop Program Director, J. Holtham, Resident Dramaturge, Sasha Emerson, Associate Artistic Producer, Luis Alfaro, Associate Producer, Tiffany Moon, Literary Manager, Christopher Breyer, Literary Director
Faced with the immense and immediate challenges of the world today, the Ojai Playwrights Conference is moving boldly forward in its mission to develop plays and artists committed to building a better, more just, more equitable future. Central and critical to the OPC mission is to assemble a leadership team that is in touch with the profound pulse of our time.
Therefore, we are thrilled to announce four new members to the OPC leadership team who join us in our passionate mission to create the most compelling stories of our historical moment that reflect the complex and challenging realities of our American communities.
Please join us in welcoming Luis Alfaro, J. Holtham and Jeff Liu to the OPC Artistic Staff and Olga Garay-English to our OPC Board of Directors (photos and bios below). Each of them have significant ongoing relationships with OPC and bring invaluable professional experiences and unique personal perspectives that will undoubtedly make OPC's work stronger and more relevant in the years to come.
Our OPC artistic teams will be meeting ONLINE this summer due to the ongoing viral pandemic. But we will have expanded programming to support our extraordinary playwrights in these extraordinary times.
Robert Egan
OPC Artistic Director/Producer
July 1, 2020
Luis Alfaro
OPC Associate Producer
Luis is a Los Angeles born and raised Chicano writer known for his work in poetry, theatre, short fiction, performance and journalism. Luis spent six seasons as the Playwright-in-Residence at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival from 2013-2019. He was a member of the Playwrights Ensemble at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theatre from 2013-2020. He has had multiple productions at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, The Public Theater in New York and Playwrights’ Arena in LA. Luis is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. Last year he was awarded the PEN America/Laura Pels International Foundation Theater Award for a Master Dramatist, the United States Artist Fellowship and the Ford Foundation’s Art of Change fellowship. His plays and performances include Electricidad, Oedipus el Rey, Mojada, Delano and Body of Faith. Luis spent over two decades in the LA poetry community, and toured North and Latin America as a Performance Artist. He is a professor at the University of Southern California. Luis has been associated with the Ojai Playwrights Conference since 2002, as a playwright and dramaturge, and was selected as the 2020/21 OPC Honoree for his profound artistic contributions to the creative life of OPC, for his mentorship of generations of young artists, and for the excellence of his dramatic explorations of American life.
Olga Garay-English
OPC Board Member
An independent arts consultant, Olga is Senior Advisor for International Affairs to Fundación Teatro a Mil in Santiago, Chile, the producer of the three-week Festival Internacional Santiago a Mil. In 2016, she became Executive Director of the historic Ford's Theatre, a 1,200-seat amphitheatre in the Hollywood Hills for a three-year period. From 2007 to 2014, Olga was Executive Director of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. As founding Program Director for the Arts for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (1998-2005), she awarded $145 million to U.S.-based and international arts organizations. The Western Arts Alliance named her one of 2013's Fifty Most Powerful and Influential People in the Nonprofit Arts and one of the top five Local Arts Agency Leaders. Olga was named a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 2012. The LA Weekly Theater Award for Special Achievement, the Queen of the Angels, was granted to Olga in 2013 for her contributions to LA's theatre sector and as co-founder of RADAR LA Festival of International Theater. She is the widow of Dr. Kerry English, a developmental pediatrician who dedicated his life to serving abused and foster children in South LA. Olga and Kerry have been long-time OPC supporters and pass holders.
J. Holtham
OPC Resident Dramaturge
J. is a screenwriter, semi-retired playwright and blogger. His TV credits include Pitch (Fox), Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger (Freeform), Marvel’s Jessica Jones (Netflix) and Supergirl (CW). He was a 2016 Humanitas New Voices Fellow. His screenplay Killers Anonymous was a finalist for the 2014 PAGE Screenwriting Award and the 2014 Final Draft Big Break Contest, as well as a finalist for the Writers Store’s Industry Insider Contest. His screenplay Hunter Lake was featured on The Black List website and was a semi-finalist for the 2015 Blue Cat Screenplay Contest. His writing on theatre, film, TV and culture has appeared in American Theatre, Thrillist and Slate, as well as the culture blog Parabasis. J. is a member of the OPC Artistic Reading Committee. He is a proud product of public education.
Jeff Liu
OPC Resident Dramaturge
A writer and director for theatre, film and web, Jeff was the former Literary Manager for East West Players, and is a member of the O’Neill National Directing Fellowship cohort of 2016. His theatrical productions include the LA premiere of Chinglish by David Henry Hwang, as well as the world premieres of The Brothers Paranormal by Prince Gomolvilas, Two Mile Hollow by Leah Nanako Winkler, Mexican Day and The Chinese Massacre (Annotated) by Tom Jacobson, Texas and Solve For X by Judy Soo Hoo, Murderobilia and Terminus Americana (Ovation Award nominee for Best World Premiere) by Matt Pelfrey, The Golden Hour and Grace Kim and the Spiders From Mars by Philip W. Chung. Jeff also adapted and directed the Pulitzer nominated play Yellow Face by David Henry Hwang for the YOMYOMF Network on YouTube. Jeff is a member of the OPC Artistic Reading Committee.