OJAI Playwrights Conference Announces Plays & Playwrights for 16th Season, Now thru 8/11

The Ojai Playwrights Conference (OPC), one of the most acclaimed new play developmental programs in the country, announces its 16th season with an extraordinary program of playwrights, new play workshops and special performance events from today, August 7 through 11, in Ojai, California. The OPC Summer New Works Festival will feature eleven events over five days with established and up-and-coming playwrights.

Participating in this year's conference with new works are Luis Alfaro, Lucy Alibar, Richard Cabral, Samuel D. Hunter, Sean Lewis, Jiehae Park, Laura Schellhardt and David Wiener. Alice Tuan will be this year's "Writer-In-Residence," and as always, there will be two unforgettable "Intersection Series" events: one featuring a first-ever musical theatre collaboration with Walt Disney Imagineering, Creative Entertainment, and the other showcasing the talents of actors, writers, songwriters and storytellers in an evening of profound solo performances.

Tickets may be purchased online at www.ojaiplays.org or by calling (805) 640-0400. An All Access Festival Pass ($219) includes admission to all eleven Festival events. Single tickets are $20 to $25. Student tickets ($10) are available to select performances. New this year, festival goers may enjoy a BBQ with the OPC Company on the campus of Besant Hill prior to the final shows on both Saturday and Sunday evenings.

The Ojai Playwrights Conference is a non-profit organization focused on playwrights and the development of their new plays. The OPC was founded on the belief that gathering a community of world-class theatre artists together in a place of extraordinary beauty can lead to a collaborative process that enables these artists to qualitatively rework and refine their dramatic vision.

Every summer for the past 15 years, theatre professionals and enthusiastic audiences from Southern California have converged in Ojai Valley to participate in the new play development process. Under the direction of Artistic Director/Producer Robert Egan, playwrights from all backgrounds join together for an intensive two-week, in-residence workshop. This process culminates in OPC's popular public performance series - the Ojai Playwrights Conference Summer New Works Festival.

Egan comments, "It is our mission to help nurture playwrights and plays that speak with integrity, intelligence and imagination to the burning social, ethical & political issues of our time. We are thrilled to announce that for the first time in our 16 year history, OPC was recognized for its work with funding for new program development from the National Endowment for the Arts." With this grant, OPC will present 8 new play workshops this year, instead of just six.

In addition to the presentation of new play workshops, prominent artists from the theatre community appear in engaging public performances for an exchange of ideas on a range of cultural and artistic subjects in the "Intersection Series." On opening night, August 7, MILESTONES #2: THE MEN offers an evening of male writers, singers, actors and storytellers presenting work about profound "milestones" in their lives. Talent includes Robert Askins, Bill Cain, Stephen Adly Guirgis and other OPC writers to be announced.

On August 8, BREATHING LIFE INTO MUSICAL THEATRE: An Evening of Performance and Exploration, offers a first-ever collaboration with Walt Disney Imagineering, Creative Entertainment. Featured talent includes composer/lyricist Georgia Stitt, electric violinist/vocalist Valerie Vigoda, composer Brendan Milburn, Tony-nominated composer Laurence O'Keefe, and Academy Award-winning songwriter, Dean Pitchford. The evening will be moderated by OPC Artistic Director/Producer Robert Egan and Chris Montan, President, Walt Disney Music.

The Ojai Playwrights Conference is also committed to nurturing the writing talents of Southern California youth. Through its Youth Workshop, high school students participate in a mentoring program with visiting theatre professionals and create their own dramatic works, which are performed during the Festival.

OPC SUMMER NEW WORKS FESTIVAL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS 2013:

Wednesday, August 7
Intersections #1: Special Performance Event
MILESTONES #2: THE MEN
7:30 PM, Matilija Auditorium, 703 El Paseo Rd., Ojai
Tickets: $20 adults; $10 students (21 & under)

Thursday, August 8
Intersections #2: Special Performance Event
BREATHING LIFE INTO MUSICAL THEATRE:
An Evening of Performance and Exploration
In collaboration with Walt Disney Imagineering, Creative Entertainment
7:30 PM, Matilija Auditorium, 703 El Paseo Rd., Ojai
Tickets: $20 adults/$10 students (21 & under)

Friday, August 9

New Play Workshop #1
DOGS OF RWANDA by Sean Lewis
7:00 pm - Zalk Theater at Besant Hill, 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Rd., Ojai
Tickets: $25

New Play Workshop #2
FIGHTING SHADOWS by Richard Cabral
9:00 pm - Zalk Theater at Besant Hill, 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Rd., Ojai
Tickets: $25

Saturday, August 10

OPC YOUTH WORKSHOP PERFORMANCE
10:00 am - Zalk Theater at Besant Hill, 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Rd., Ojai
Tickets: $20/$10 student (21 & under)

New Play Workshop #3
THE COMPARABLES by Laura Shellhardt
1:00 pm - Zalk Theater at Besant Hill, 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Rd., Ojai
Tickets: $25
New Play Workshop #4
CARL THE RAPING GOAT SAVES CHRISTMAS by Lucy Alibar
4:00 pm - Zalk Theater at Besant Hill, 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Rd., Ojai
Tickets: $25

New Play Workshop #5
GOLIATH by David Wiener
8:00 pm - Zalk Theater at Besant Hill, 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Rd., Ojai
Tickets: $25

Sunday, August 11

New Play Workshop #6
HANNAH AND THE DREAD GAZEBO by Jiehae Park
12:00 pm - Zalk Theater at Besant Hill, 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Rd., Ojai
Tickets: $25

New Play Workshop #7
REST by Sam Hunter
3:00 pm - Zalk Theater at Besant Hill, 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Rd., Ojai
Tickets: $25

New Play Workshop #8
ST. JUDE - PART 2 by Luis Alfaro
6:30 pm - Zalk Theater at Besant Hill, 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Rd., Ojai
Tickets: $25

OPC 2013: PLAYS AND PLAYWRIGHTS

ST. JUDE - PART TWO
By LUIS ALFARO

OPC welcomes back Luis to finish this remarkable one-man show. An aging patriarch is hospitalized with a serious illness. His family and son rally around him to support his fight for life. Follow Luis' humorous, passionate and deeply moving account of the doctors, nurses, caregivers, patients and family members who populate the American health care system. Song, testimony and fierce poetry support a son's need to bring truth to his ailing dad. A chronicle of hope and courage.

Luis Alfaro is a renowned Chicano performance artist, writer, director, social activist and alumni of OPC. Winner of numerous awards including the MacArthur "Genius" Award and the National Hispanic Playwriting Prize, his plays include Oedipus El Rey produced at the Magic Theatre; Electricidad at the Mark Taper Forum;Downtown at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London; Straight As A Line at Goodman Theatre; Bitter Homes and Gardens at La Jolla Playhouse; and Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner at Hartford Stage.

CARL THE RAPING GOAT SAVES CHRISTMAS
By LUCY ALIBAR

A father enlists his daughter's help in his criminal law practice in the Florida Panhandle. Pentecostalism, murder, lots of animals, revenge, and, of course, great love in the Bible Belt. Written and performed by the amazing new talent who was nominated for an Academy Award for writing the internationally acclaimed Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Lucy Alibar is a writer who grew up in Florida. Her essays and stories have been published in Zoetrope, BODY, and the Wall Street Journal. Her plays have been performed in New York and around the world. Her first movie, Beasts of the Southern Wild (adaptation of her stage play, Juicy and Delicious) received the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and the Cannes Film Festival Camera D'Or Awards. Nominated for a BAFTA, an Oscar, and a Scripter Award, Lucy won a Humanitas Prize and Sundance Fellowship. Lucy is a member of EST/Youngblood and founder of the New Georges Writer/Director lab.

FIGHTING SHADOWS
By RICHARD CABRAL

Born and raised by a single mother in East Los Angeles, falling victim to the cycle his family was born into -- gangs and drug addiction -- Richard commenced a life of crime his early teens. By the age of 14 he started a career in incarceration. By age 20 he was accused of shooting a rival gang member and fought a 35-year to life sentence. Through his art as actor and storyteller he would turn his past life of pain into a thing of beauty. Richard now helps others who still struggle with a life they were born into -- to see the light as he did. This one man show is his story.

Richard Cabral is a professional actor who grew up in the gang world of East L.A. He was recently awarded Homeboy Industries "Lo Maximo Award" for the gang member who has most profoundly transformed his life. Richard has been in five feature films, numerous television shows and now his first major theatre piece.

REST
By Samuel D. Hunter

At a retirement home in northern Idaho, only three elderly residents and skeletal staff remain just days before the home is to be shut down by the state. But when a record-breaking blizzard blows into town, and an elderly resident disappears into the storm, everyone is brought face-to-face with their own mortality.

Samuel D. Hunter's plays include The Whale (winner of the 2013 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play and a Drama Desk Special Award), A Bright New Boise (2011 Obie Award for Playwriting, 2011 Drama Desk Nomination for Best Play), Jack's Precious Moment (Page 73 Productions), Five Genocides (Clubbed Thumb) andA Permanent Image (LiveWire Chicago, Boise Contemporary Theater). In the 2013-2014 season he will see world premieres of three of his new plays, The Few, A Great Wilderness, and Rest. Awards: 2012 Whiting Writers Award, 2013 Otis Guernsey New Voices Award, 2011 Sky Cooper Prize, 2008-2009 PONY Fellowship.

DOGS OF RWANDA
By SEAN LEWIS

David can still not forget what he saw as a young missionary in Rwanda twenty years ago. He writes a book on his experiences and he's thrust back into the spring of 1994 and his fateful meeting with a young boy on the run from genocide. That boy's name was and still is -- God's Blessing. In 2013, David now sits in a hotel room in Rwanda, traversing time, literature, memory and regret to make sense of what he's seen and done. Hopefully he can forgive himself for what he could and could not do for God's Blessing.

Sean Lewis' work has been produced at Baltimore Centerstage, Salt Lake Acting Company, Interact Theatre, Cleveland Public Theatre, Riverside Theatre and many more. He has received the Kennedy Center's Rosa Parks Award, the National New Play Network's Smith Prize, the Barrymore Award, two Central Ohio Critic Circle Awards, the William Inge Fellowship and the NNPN Emerging Playwright Residency. Sean can be heard from time to time on NPR'S This American Life. He is the Artistic Director of Working Group Theatre.

HANNAH AND THE DREAD GAZEBO
By Jiehae Park

Inside the FedEx box are two things: (1) a 100% bona-fide-heart's-desire-level wish and (2) a suicide note. Hannah tracks the package back to Seoul, where her grandmother recently jumped from the roof of her retirement home into the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea. She'll need North Korea's permission to retrieve the body. But Kim Jong II just kicked the bucket. Now things in the DMZ are even stranger than they usually seem.

Jiehae Park is the winner of the 2013 Leah Ryan Prize for Emerging Women Writers and the Abingdon's Chris Wolk Award. She is a proud member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab and served two years as co-artistic director of title3 (LA). As an actor she has performed at NYTW, La Jolla Playhouse, Collection of Shiny Objects, Studio Theatre (D.C.), and REDCAT (L.A.). MFA (acting) UCSD; BA (general theater shenanigans) Amherst College.

THE COMPARABLES
By LAURA SCHELLHARDT

Three women vie for power in the cut-throat world of high-end real estate. Bette runs her own female-dominated agency. Monica is her loyal second-in-command. Iris is the savvy new hire. When Bette's reputation falls under attack, the future of the agency is at stake. Who, if anyone, will survive the ordeal, and to what lengths will they go to ensure success? A dark comedy that begs the question: for women in the competitive world -- are they as savage as men?

Laura Schellhardt's original works include Upright Grand, Air Guitar High, Auctioning the Ainsleys, How to Remove Blood from a Carpet, The K of D, Courting Vampires, and Shapeshifter. Adaptations include The Phantom Tollbooth, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick and The Outfit. She is also the author of Screenwriting for Dummies. Laura is a recipient of the TCG National Playwriting Residency, the Jerome Fellowship, ACT's New Play Award, an AATE Distinguished Play Award, and a Dramatist Guild Playwriting Fellowship.

GOLIATH
By David Wiener

When a woman is murdered following a contentious town-hall debate in rural Pennsylvania, prominent conservative pundit, Dennis Kahane, finds himself accused of inciting her killer. A play about the price of free speech, Goliath explores the relationship between political violence and loneliness in America.

David Wiener's recent play, Extraordinary Chambers, is the recipient of the 2010 ACT New Play Award and the 2011 LA Drama Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Play (Geffen Playhouse, Dir. Pam MacKinnon). He is the author of ten other plays including Blood Orange and System Wonderland. His work has been developed and produced at theaters including The Cherry Lane, The Etcetera Theatre (UK), Atlantic Theater Company, The Almeida (UK), The New Group, South Coast Repertory, the Ojai Playwrights Conference, ACT, Manhattan Theater Club, Lincoln Center, and Soho Rep. David currently writes for AMC's The Killing.

WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE: ALICE TUAN

Alice will be working on her new play, COCK'S CROW, a geo-strategic drama exploring the shifting superpower status of the U.S. Americans attempt to navigate the slippery waters of Chinese business practices for their environmental start-up, Clean Tech Corp. How does a company co-partner with a foreign entity when they cannot trust their own team members? COCK'S CROW portrays inflated egos chasing the disappearing entitlements of the 20th century.

Alice Tuan emerged in 2000 with recognition from LA's Richard E. Sherwood Award as well as NY's Colbert Award for Excellence. Ajax (por nobody) premiered at New York's Flea Theater, and performed at the Melbourne Fringe (2001) and last summer at Toronto's SummerWorks Festival. Last of the Suns premiered at Berkeley Rep and is published in Version 3.0: Contemporary Asian American Plays. Alice has held one-year teaching posts in both Guangzhou and Shanghai, China. She has a commission from Yale Rep and is currently the Head of Writing for Performance at Cal Arts.

To post a comment, you must register and login.