Ojai Playwrights Conference Announces 2024 Playwrights
Playwrights receive a two-week workshop to develop their new plays, culminating in a public performance of their work at OPC's New Works Festival, August 1 - 4.
By: A.A. Cristi Jun. 10, 2024
Ojai Playwrights Conference has announced the playwrights selected for its 27th annual Conference and New Works Festival to be held August 1 - 4 in Ojai, CA.
Playwrights and their plays to be presented in the Festival include: Libby Carr, Calf Scramble; Lee Cataluna, Thursdays Come at Morning; Alex Lin, barren.; Christina Pumariega, ¡VOS!; and Mfoniso Udofia, The Ceremony.
Prior to sharing their new plays at the Festival, the playwrights participate in the Conference, a two-week workshop to develop their new work with directors, dramaturges, and OPC artistic staff. They are then joined by professional actors, stage managers, and production teams who help bring each playwright's vision to life for Festival audiences.
OPC's Writers-in-Residence also receive new play development support at the Conference, and participate in the Festival as part of the artist community. 2024 Writers-in-Residence will include celebrated playwrights Jaclyn Backhaus, Steve Yockey, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Stephen Adly Guirgis.
"I'm so genuinely excited and grateful to be back at the Ojai Playwrights Conference this year," said Guirgis. "No one can touch OPC when it comes to their generosity and whole-hearted focus on helping the writer realize their vision and then get to see it onstage."
2024 marks Jeremy B. Cohen's second year as OPC's Producing Artistic Director. He is joined by Senior Artistic Producer Hannah Wolf and Artistic Producer Jeff Liu. (Bios at ojaiplays.org/artisticproductionstaff.)
"I'm ecstatic about the eight writers who will be joining us in Ojai this year," said Cohen. "Summer of 2024 finds our world in an incredibly challenging time. It felt critical to meet the moment with new stories of individual journeys lifting up whole communities-plays that insist we look across the road and find new paths to forge together."
In addition to the five new plays, the Festival will include an evening celebrating new work by artists across the OPC community, including the 2024 Writers-in-Residence and students in the Youth Workshop and Intern programs. The weekend will also include a conversation with the playwrights, led by Cohen.
Festival passes are available now and range from $80 - $400; all passes include preferred seating and meal options. Single tickets will be general admission and donation-based (pay what you can), and available two weeks prior to the Festival. More information: ojaiplays.org/2024-new-works-festival.
ABOUT OJAI PLAYWRIGHTS CONFERENCE
OPC supports playwrights with unique resources and a nurturing environment to develop new stories for the American theater. Now in our 27th year, the summer Conference and New Works Festival is our primary new play development program. In 2023, we instituted open submissions for playwrights across the country and added "pay what you can'' tickets to increase access for artists and audiences. Our Intern and Youth Workshop programs provide opportunities for students to participate in the Conference and Festival and create and share their own work alongside professional artists. In 2024, we launched a partnership program with theaters in and around Los Angeles to develop new work, deepening our commitment to playwrights by connecting them directly with institutions and shortening a play's journey from page to stage.
Numerous plays developed at OPC have been produced on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in theaters across the country. Some have been nominated for and won prestigious awards. Both Fun Home by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori and Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz were Pulitzer Finalists. Fun Home won the Tony Award for Best Musical, and Danai Gurira's Eclipsed and Stephen Adly Guirgis' The Motherf**ker with the Hat were each nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. Learn more at www.ojaiplays.org.
PLAYWRIGHTS & PLAYS IN THE NEW WORKS FESTIVAL
Libby Carr
Calf Scramble | Saturday, August 2, 7:30 p.m. | In a barn outside Huntsville, Texas, five Future Farmers of America raise and ruin their prize-winning calves. But the casual brutality of the show cattle world heaves this herd of teenagers into an adolescent transformation of their own. Calf Scramble is a raucous rodeo of girls playing God-wrestling for power over their animals, their bodies, and each other.
BIO: Libby Carr is a writer and dance artist from Houston who uses rhythmic specificity, movement spectacle, and visual imagination to celebrate queer and trans communities. Recent plays include Calf Scramble (O'Neill NPC finalist, Playwrights Horizons New Works Lab, Workshop Theater Lab) and sad girl hours (Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights Workshop, Muhlenberg College Theater Association). Libby's a proud member of EST/Youngblood and has been an artist-in-residence with Invulnerable Nothings' Barn Lab and MOtiVE Brooklyn. They have a BA in Playwriting from UT Austin.
Lee Cataluna
Thursdays Come at Morning | Saturday, August 2, 3:00 p.m. | Two brokenhearted men meet and form a connection while visiting the graves of their loved ones. Howard has returned home to Honolulu from NYC to be caregiver to his dying father, a man who never accepted him. Sam has recently lost his husband. The two face the question of how to live fully when your best days seem to be behind you, but you realize you still have love to give. Original story by Les J.N. Mau.
BIO: Lee Cataluna's (she/her) plays include Heart Strings (Atlantic Theater), Flowers of Hawaii (Native Voices workshop, Chautauqua Institute, University of Hawaii), and Home of the Brave (La Jolla Playhouse, Honolulu Theatre for Youth). Current commissions include Emalani for Arena Stage, Super Aunty for the national BIPOC Superhero project, and Sons of Maui for San Francisco Playhouse, which was a Eugene O'Neill 2023 finalist. Her work has been supported by NEA grants and the ReImagine TYA/USA grant. She was part of the inaugural Oregon Shakespeare Festival Indigenous Playwrights Cohort. She is Native Hawaii, grew up on Maui, and now lives in Honolulu.
barren. | Friday, August 1, 7:30 p.m. | Yifei is an OB/GYN. Yifei wants a baby. Yifei is barren. What crueler irony is there for a baby doctor who can't have a baby? One that tasks her with ensuring a safe, happy, and healthy delivery for her formerly estranged younger sister, Max. barren is the story of two sisters navigating two entirely different fates in finding, creating, and embracing family.
BIO: Alex Lin is just a girl from Jersey. Plays developed at Roundabout, Second Stage, NYTW, MTC, the O'Neill, South Coast Rep, New Harmony, Two River, Playwrights Realm, Central Square Theatre, Amphibian Stage, Theater Mu, and Cape Cod Theater Project. Guest lectures at CMU, Rutgers, and Union College. As an actor, she has performed at Actors Theatre of Louisville, New Victory, Ensemble Studio Theater, HVSF, Ma-Yi, Jewish Plays Project, and Commonwealth Shakespeare. Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist and Weissberger Award nominee. Juilliard.
¡VOS! | Sunday, August 3, 11 a.m. | Annie returns to her estranged birthplace of Buenos Aires to undergo IVF treatments from the famed Dr. Cossi. But her motherhood journey brings to light the lives of two women lost to the Dirty War decades ago. ¡VOS! is an exhilarating hunt for home, family, and the Disappeared; inspired by Las Madres-past, present and hopeful-and told by two Latina actors spinning as fast as they can.
BIO: Christina Pumariega (she/her) acts and writes. She performs in her play ¡VOS! in its world premiere at Two River Theater in 2025. Other plays include Joan Dark (Colorado New Play Summit), Lei Chiede/She Asks and Her Math Play (EST/Sloan Grant). An O'Neill NPC finalist for the last three years, Christina's work has been developed at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater, the New Harmony Project, the Lark, New Georges, Hartford Stage and AMMO. She is currently under commission by the Denver Center and Two River Theater, and will attend Hedgebrook later this fall. TV writing credits include Turner & Hooch (Disney+) and Bluff City Law (NBC). Acting on and Off-Broadway and in television and film, Pumariega has cross examined Coach Taylor, made out with the Fly and set a Cuban pharmacy ablaze in a corset. MFA Acting, NYU.
The Ceremony | Sunday, August 3, 3:00 p.m. | Ekong Ufot, the youngest child of Abasiama and Disciple Ufot, has found the woman of his dreams but hasn't told his father. Urged by his fiancé, Ekong visits his father to ask for a marriage heirloom but leaves empty-handed. Discouraged, he decides to move forward without his father. As the wedding approaches, Disciple prepares to emerge with gifts, hoping that maybe he can be a better father than his own.
BIO: Mfoniso Udofia is a first-generation Nigerian-American storyteller and educator. Her plays Sojourners and The Grove will be produced by the Huntington Theatre, and Sojourners, Runboyrun, Her Portmanteau, and In Old Age have been seen at New York Theatre Workshop, American Conservatory Theater, Playwrights Realm, Magic Theater, National Black Theatre, Strand Theater, and Boston Court. Mfoniso served as staff writer on 13 REASONS WHY, executive story-editor on Pachinko, co-producer/consulting producer on Little America, supervising producer on A League Of Their Own, co-executive producer on Lessons In Chemistry, and co-executive producer on Let The Right One In. Education: BA Wellesley College, MFA American Conservatory Theater. Recipient of the 2017 Helen Merrill Award, 2017-18 McKnight National Residency/Commission, 2021 Horton Foote Award, and member of New Dramatists. www.mfonisoudofia.com.
OPC 2024 WRITERS-IN-RESIDENCE
Jaclyn Backhaus (she/her) is a playwright, screenwriter, and educator hailing from Phoenix, Arizona. Her Off-Broadway plays include Out Of Time (NAATCO and The Public Theater, dir. Les Waters), Wives (Playwrights Horizons, dir. Margot Bordelon), India Pale Ale (Winner, 2018 Horton Foote Prize, MTC, dir. Will Davis), Men On Boats (Clubbed Thumb, Playwrights Horizons, dir. Will Davis), Folk Wandering (dir. Andrew Neisler, Pipeline), and You On The Moors Now (TRE, dir. John Kurzynowski). Other plays include The Orchards, Dana During Tech Week, Oracle, and End-Of-Life. Her work for TV/film includes Doulas, a half-hour comedy pilot about birth workers in New York City, and Preeti Popped It (written with Mahira Kakkar and Purva Bedi), a Punjabi-American road trip comedy that was selected for last year's 1497 Features Lab. She is one the core members of The Kilroys, a professor of playwriting at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and a creative director at Fresh Ground Pepper, an artistic process lab in NYC. She was the 2016 Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence at Clubbed Thumb and is currently a New Dramatists resident playwright. jaclynbackhaus.com
Stephen Adly Guirgis is a writer and an actor and a member and former co-artistic director of NYC's LAByrinth Theater Company. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Between Riverside and Crazy. His award-winning plays have been produced on five continents and throughout the United States. They include Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven, Our Lady of 121st Street, Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train, In Arabia We'd All Be Kings, Den of Thieves, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, The Little Flower of East Orange and The Motherfucker with the Hat. His upcoming play Dog Day Afternoon was workshopped at OPC and will premiere on Broadway next year. As an actor, he has appeared on film, television, and the stage and most recently played Frank Mariani for two seasons on HBO's Winning Time.
Steve Yockey (he/him) is a Los Angeles-based writer. His plays Bellwether, Pluto, Afterlife, Octopus, Large Animal Games, Subculture, Cartoon, Very Still & Hard to See, Blackberry Winter, The Thrush & The Woodpecker, The Fisherman's Wife, Wolves, Disassembly, and Niagara Falls are published and licensed by Concord Theatricals. He holds an MFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Steve recently adapted the New York Times Bestseller The Maid by Nita Prost into a film for Universal Studios and is working on the horror comedy Violent Shimizu Wants Revenge for Sister Studio. In television, he was a Co-Executive Producer on the series Supernatural and is the Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated creator/showrunner of HBO Max's darkly comedic thriller The Flight Attendant. He is also the creator/showrunner of Netflix's Dead Boy Detectives, adapted from the cult Vertigo/DC comic books.
EVENT SUMMARY & CALENDAR LISTING
The OPC 2024 New Works Festival will take place August 1 - 4 in Ojai, CA. This celebration of new plays for the American theater will include five performances of brand new work and special events celebrating artists in the OPC community. Prior to the Festival, the playwrights spend two weeks developing their plays with artistic teams and preparing them for public audiences at the Festival.
Playwrights participating in this year's Festival include Libby Carr, Lee Cataluna, Alex Lin, Christina Pumariega, and Mfoniso Udofia. Writers-in-Residence Jaclyn Backhaus, Stephen Adly Guirgis, and Steve Yockey will also develop plays at the Conference and participate in Festival events.
SCHEDULE
Thurs, August 1 7:30 p.m. - IN CELEBRATION: An evening highlighting new work from
across the OPC artist community, including the 2024 Writers-in-Residence and participants in the Youth Workshop and Intern programs.
Fri, August 2 7:30 p.m. - barren. by Alex Lin
Sat, August 3 3:00 p.m. - Thursdays Come at Morning by Lee Cataluna
7:30 p.m. - Calf Scramble by Libby Carr
Sun, August 4 11:00 a.m. - ¡VOS! by Christina Pumariega
1:30 p.m. - IN CONVERSATION: a discussion with the playwrights led by OPC Producing Artistic Director Jeremy B. Cohen
3:00 p.m. - The Ceremony by Mfoniso Udofia
LOCATION
Milligan Center for the Performing Arts, The Thacher School, 5025 Thacher Road, Ojai, CA
TICKETS
Festival passes are available now and range from $80 - $400; all passes include preferred seating and meal options. Single tickets will be general admission and donation-based (pay what you can), and available two weeks prior to the Festival. More information at ojaiplays.org/2024-new-works-festival.
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