“When I was invited to Ojai, I couldn't believe it. The play that I'd submitted was so weird -- I was sure that it would be rejected. I thought perhaps the committee had seen something in it that I hadn't intended, and that when I arrived in Ojai I would be discovered as a fraud and expelled. By the end of my time at Ojai, I realized that I had been chosen because of my voice, that my work was being engaged on its own level -- that it was precisely its weirdness & uniqueness which was being celebrated. I left the conference with a renewed confidence in my work -- something I didn't know I needed … From the library readings, to the week with incredible actors, directors, dramaturges, stage managers, designers, and interns -- it was the best play development experience I've had so far.”
– WILL ARBERY, PLAYWRIGHT
Evanston Salt Costs Climbing (OPC 2017)
"Ojai has been of lasting value to me, it is where I go to stand up a play on its own for the first time. I so value the support afforded by the program at OPC. It makes me eager to write a new play."
– JON ROBIN BAITZ, PLAYWRIGHT
I’ll be Seein’ Ya (OPC 2020), Faraway Friends (OPC 2018), Vicuña: The Epilogue (OPC 2017), Vicuña (OPC 2016), Other Desert Cities (OPC 2010), Chinese Friends (OPC 2003), The Paris Letter (OPC 2002)
"Thank you so much for helping me to get to this exquisite place with my work. Everything feels wild surreal and I cannot be more thankful to you and the Ojai community. So wild, so good."
– Aziza Barnes, playwright
BLKS (OPC 2016)
“Bringing a new musical to life in this fiercely creative residency environment forced me to examine and re-examine not only my vision for the piece, but also allowed me to confirm my own artistic mission as a writer and performer.”
– Perla Batalla, PLAYWRIGHT/PERFORMER
Blue House, developed with David Batteau and Oliver Mayer (OPC 2016)
"My experience at Ojai this past year was absofuckinglutely rewarding, fulfilling and invaluable… The first week was, as always, a time for rumination AND for listening to the other plays being read in the library by "unadorned" casts consisting of writers, dramaturgs, directors and apprentices. Of the many play development workshops in the country, there is simply NONE OTHER that provide this type of reflective, communal, encapsulated time in which all that is expected of the writer is to listen, think, discuss, walk, exercise and eat magnificently well.”
– STEPHEN BELBER, playwright
Joan (OPC 2018), Black Sun (OPC 2011) developed with Adam Duritz, Dusk Rings a Bell (OPC 2009), Muscles in Our Toes (OPC 2006), For Reele (OPC 2004)
“Every playwriting conference or gathering I’ve attended has always been a mixed bag — of plays, of people, of productivity. But my experience at Ojai was exactly the opposite. Every play was a masterpiece that I will think about for the rest of my life, that will challenge me and excite me and remind me of what I’m striving to do and be. The people, from the other playwrights to the interns and staff, were kind and genuine, generous and rigorous — and a hell of a lot of fun.”
– KIMBERLY BELFLOWER, PLAYWRIGHT
John Proctor is the Villain (OPC 2019)
“The OPC was a savior for both my play, and my life. I work in TV and rarely get to disconnect from that world. Just 90 minutes outside of LA, I was able to truly shut that part of my brain down, and open my heart back up to my play. OPC truly nurture the writers, and provides infinite wisdom / space / time / pasta / wine to facilitate whatever the writer needs . . . Hands down my new favorite play development conference! ”
– Bekah Brunstetter, playwright
The Cake (OPC 2016)
"This was my first time at the Ojai Playwrights Conference in over 10 years, and I was thrilled with how much OPC has grown and deepened in the past decade, while remaining true to its deep and rigorous ideals and standards. There’s a real artistic and world vision behind OPC - a commitment to passionately engaged theatre that’s unashamedly sociopolitical without ever being didactic, and a deep faith in the underlying humanity of all the artists involved.”
– KEITH BUNIN, playwright
The Coast Starlight (OPC 2018), The Busy World is Hushed (OPC 2005), White Bicycles (OPC 2004) developed with Peter Parnell
“OPC deliberately chooses work that is provocative and risky. And it has created an environment and a method that makes the risk worth taking - an environment in which the individual writer comes to see himself/herself as a part of a shared human project.”
- Bill Cain, playwright
The Patriots (OPC 2020), The Last White Man (OPC 2017), Hasty Pudding (OPC 2014), 30.3 thirty three (OPC 2011), How to Write a New Book for the Bible (OPC 2019), Nine Circles (OPC 2008), Equivocation (OPC 2007), The Laying On of Hands (OPC 2005)
"For me, Ojai isn't just about nurturing the play, it's about nurturing the writer. It's a safe haven for writers struggling to bring their plays to shore."
– Julia Cho, PLAYWRIGHT
Durango (OPC 2005)
"What is unique about OPC that sets it apart from all the rest is the spirit, energy and zeal that is evident in everyone there. There is a palpable force that binds everyone together in a spirit of creation, and in that spirit people seem to commune and create without ego."
– Steve Connell, playwright
The Word Begins, developed with Sekou "The Misfit” and Robert Egan (OPC 2005)
"Getting the caliber of actors, director, and dramaturg that OPC provides was huge for this stage of my play. Their insight and willingness to play and explore as I continued to refine, rewrite, add, delete -- it was so great to have such a talented team with me during this development of the play. It's also huge for my personal, professional development as a playwright. At this early stage of my career, my work is being taken seriously. I'm considered a legit playwright. Sometimes I don't feel that way, especially when rejections or doubt or early-career fears creep in. But being a playwright whose work was selected for OPC gave me a sense of belonging.”
– INDA CRAIG-GALVAN, PLAYWRIGHT
Welcome to Matteson! (OPC 2019)
"The beauty of Ojai is how it remains an institution I can return to time after time and know it will retain its excellent level of artistic collaboration and grounded sense of community. I am thrilled to be a part of the Ojai family and have no desire to lay my hat anywhere else when it comes to play development."
– Danai Gurira, PLAYWRIGHT
Eclipsed (OPC 2009), In the Continuum, developed with Nikkole Salter (OPC 2004)
“The Ojai Playwrights Conference assembled one of the sharpest and most collectively ambitious cohorts of playwrights, directors, actors, dramaturges, and interns of any development conference I've seen. The resources of the conference allowed us to put on a reading that fully embraced and served the text, and I am excited to continue to be a part of all of these artists' exciting work.”
– DAVE HARRIS, playwright
Tambo & Bones (OPC 2019)
"For me, writing a play always feels like taking a running leap into a void from the very furthest edge of what I currently know. What a gift to spend those two weeks in close conversation with my fellow playwrights, makers of new work, and that absolutely stunning cohort of theatre making interns, all of us standing at the edge of that void of not knowing, all of us breathing together, getting ready to leap. It's been said a lot and it's true: writing can be so solitary, but at Ojai you leap into the unknown with the support of a community at your back like a strong wind.”
– KIMBER LEE, PLAYWRIGHT
“untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play” (OPC 2019)
"Thanks to Ojai, I found my playwright's grit, joy and sense of community again at a time when I was running precious low on all three. I love the Ojai experience, Robert Egan and all the wonderful people he has gathered around him to make Ojai the Garden of Eden for playwrights."
– Terrence McNally, playwright
And Away We Go (OPC 2012), Unusual Acts of Devotion (OPC 2008)
"I came to OPC with the most fertile thing one can bring to an environment like the Ojai Playwrights Conference—a play that scared the shit out of me. And through the mentorship and support that OPC provides I left with the greatest thing a playwright can hope for after a development process—a sharper piece of writing and a greater sense of clarity on what it is I was trying to accomplish. To bring a play that scares you out into public is an immensely vulnerable thing and a playwright can only do that if the space is willing to meet that vulnerability with love, support, and rigor, which is what OPC always provides.”
– Christopher gabriel Nunez, playwright
Locusts (OPC 2019), The Surgeon and her Daughters (OPC 2015)
"It was humbling to be in the presence of the crazy range of art and humanity that is OPC. Thank you for creating a rare kind of space and place and time."
– Jiehae Park, PLAYWRIGHT
Peerless (OPC 2015), Hannah and the Dread Gazebo (OPC 2013)
"There was a trueness to the work that never allowed one to disassociate. It was transcending to be among all of that realness and dedication, all the challenging perspectives, and be allowed to stand in any room simply as who I am. No pandering, no games to play."
– Ren DARA Santiago, PLAYWRIGHT
The Siblings Play (OPC 2017)
"My experience with OPC helped me reinterpret my place in the world, not only as an actor, new playwright, but son, brother, and friend. OPC not only benefits individual artists but communities as well."
– Trieu Tran, playwright
Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam (OPC 2010)
"A profoundly transformative experience for me... In addition to leaving with a script I'm proud of, I'm excited to have a new community of dynamic theatre artists with whom I can coalition-build and create."
– Korde Tuttle, playwright
graveyard shift (OPC 2017)
"The inspired and inspiring community of artists at OPC gave me the extraordinary support, constructive feedback and creative freedom I needed to take invaluable steps forward in the life of my new play and in my own path as a playwright."
– Bess Wohl, PLAYWRIGHT
Barcelona (OPC 2010)
"THE GARDEN is the third play I’ve written, that took its first breath at the Ojai Playwrights Conference. To create in the beauty and serenity of the Ojai Valley, as part of a community of extraordinary, generous artists from all over the country, to rehearse all day, then to write and rewrite all night, to finally present the work, for the very first time, before a knowledgeable, eager audience and to leave the valley - spent but full, with a first draft of a new play…it just doesn’t get any better than that."
– CHARLAYNE WOODDARD, PLAYWRIGHT
The Garden (OPC 2018), The Night Watcher (OPC 2007), Flight (2003)