Playwrights

OPC is known for developing the work of emerging and seasoned writers since the annual conference began in 1998. Many plays developed at OPC have gone on to prominent productions at theatres throughout the United States and the world, from the Mark Taper Forum, Goodman Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Broadway, London’s West End and theaters in Asia and Africa. Christopher Durang's "Betty's Summer Vacation," Lisa Loomer's "Living Out" and Julia Cho's "Durango" are notable examples.

Bill Cain, who developed Equivocation and 9 Circles at the Ojai Playwrights Conference, is the first playwright ever to win two consecutive Steinberg/ATCA Best New Play Awards, first for Equivocation in 2010 and now for 9 Circles in 2011. Cain said that ‘OPC is an extraordinary experience of creative community.” Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Motherf*cker With A Hat, also developed at OPC, was honored this year with numerous Tony Award wins and nominations, including Best Play. And Jon Robin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities finished a critically-acclaimed run at Lincoln Center in New York and opens on Broadway in fall 2011.

The Ojai Playwrights Conference is one of the few developmental groups left that values the reading and workshop process as an important avenue through which playwrights can more fully realize their intentions with a play. Ours is a conference centered around playwrights and their new plays. We believe the theatre can be a vital and essential forum for the exchange of new and challenging ideas about the world in which we live. We seek out plays and playwrights who share this vision.