OPC BENEFIT CONCERT & FILM SCREENING PROGRAM
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH OJAI PLAYHOUSE
WHAT THIS NIGHT SUPPORTS
“Thank you so much for being part of the Ojai Playwrights Conference family and our nearly three decades of supporting Storytelling and Storytellers for the Theater.
This is our 3rd year of centering Equitable Access in all of our work, which means that all tickets to public programming are Pay What You Can. In the time since we’ve refocused our efforts on the Ojai community, nearly 450 new Ojai audience members have opted to join us for the first time ever, without any financial barrier.
Additionally, all of our programs have correlative Education and Mentorship arms so that young artists in Ojai have access to professional training - during the summer and throughout the year. These programs are either paid or have scholarships available to ensure there are no barriers to participating.
The community of Ojai has been the cradle for so much creativity pouring from OPC over the past 28 years - artists, audiences, students alike have all been a deep part of our organization. All dollars raised at tonight’s Fundraiser will ensure that Equitable Access remains at the center of all we do here IN Ojai and FOR Ojai.”
ABOUT OPC
Ojai Playwrights Conference mission is to build a body of extraordinary new plays that reflect this vibrant and ever-changing world. We provide unique resources and a nurturing environment for theater artists to develop new work and realize new stories for the American theater. Our vision is to ignite human empathy by filling theaters with the most astonishing stories we’ve never heard.
OPC’s unique model of new play development challenges the artist while nurturing the person, creating a safe environment for artistic risk. We work to meet each playwright where they are in their work and provide the resources they need to realize their vision. We welcome the public into the process to not only benefit the play, but also to develop new audiences for new work.
Now in our 28th 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.
THE FUTURE OF OPC
Holding this year's Fundraiser in partnership with Ojai Playhouse marks a pivotal moment in OPC's exciting new path of expanding our partnerships, and investing in the Ojai community year round. In the past year, OPC has expanded into year-round programming, with a key focus on partnerships within the Southern California theater community, and particular efforts oriented toward supporting the artist communities of Ojai:
We have launched a workshop featuring renowned playwright Young Jean Lee in partnership with Center Theatre Group and The Thacher School, which included a free reading of their new play, open to the public of Ojai. Last spring, we began offering Taco Tuesday Write Nights - a writing workshop for Ojai-based high school students with professional guest artists from the OPC community, now in its second year. Our inaugural Fall Playwrights Residency was a tremendous success, bringing playwrights with support from Los Angeles theaters to Ojai, culminating in a free public reading. This March, we launched our first ever Spring Gathering - which is an invitation to local playwrights, actors, directors, other theater-artists and community members in Ojai to connect with Ojai Playwrights Conference staff at various local events over the course of several days, to meet, share their work and open pathways of collaboration and connection. As we significantly expand our program offerings throughout the year, we continue to make our Summer Conference and New Works Festival accessible to the community of Ojai with Pay What You Can tickets.
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: Primary Trust by Eboni Booth won the Pulitzer Prize, John Proctor is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower premiered on Broadway, currently nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play (most Tony-nominated play in 2025), 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.
FILM SCREENING
11 am: Film Screening — It's Only Life After All & Post-Screening Conversation with Emily Saliers (of Indigo Girls)
BENEFIT CONCERT
7:30 pm: Benefit Concert — Hosted by Emmy & Grammy Award-nominated Tig Notaro.
Featuring an award-winning lineup, showcasing songs from original musicals and beloved fan favorites:
Emily Saliers (Indigo Girls)
Jonatha Brooke (My Mother Has 4 Noses)
Beth Malone (Fun Home)
Kirsten Vangsness (Criminal Minds)
Mfoniso Udofia (Lessons in Chemistry)
SET LIST
Wood Song (from Starstruck by Beth Malone, Emily Saliers, and Mary Ann Stratton), performed by Jonatha Brooke, Beth Malone, Emily Saliers
Wildflowers (by Dolly Parton; Dolly Parton/Emmylou Harris/Linda Ronstadt version), performed by Jonatha Brooke, Beth Malone, Emily Saliers
Differently (from Starstruck by Beth Malone, Emily Saliers, and Mary Ann Stratton), performed by Beth Malone, with Dr. Daniel Gary Busby on piano
Are You Getting This Down (from My Mother Has 4 Noses by Jonatha Brooke), performed by Jonatha Brooke
Supermodel (by David Baerwald, David Kitay, Brian MacLeod, and Kristen Vigard; Jill Sobule version), performed by Full Company, in loving memory of Jill Sobule
Look Long (by Indigo Girls), performed by Jonatha Brooke, Beth Malone, Emily Saliers
Ring of Keys (from Fun Home by Lisa Kron and music by Jeanine Tesori, based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel), performed by Beth Malone with Dr. Daniel Gary Busby on piano
So Much Mine (by Jonatha Brooke; also from Switched by Geoffrey Nauffts and Jonatha Brooke), performed by Jonatha Brooke and Beth Malone
What Lies Between (from Starstruck by Beth Malone, Emily Saliers, and Mary Ann Stratton), performed by Beth Malone and Emily Saliers with Dr. Daniel Gary Busby on piano
Who Am I Supposed to Be Now (from Switched by Geoffrey Nauffts and Jonatha Brooke), performed by Jonatha Brooke and Beth Malone
Time (from My Mother Has 4 Noses by Jonatha Brooke), performed by Jonatha Brooke
Galileo (by Indigo Girls), performed by Full Company
FINALE - Closer to Fine (by Indigo Girls) performed by Full Company and the Ojai Pixies
THE ARTISTS
photo credit: Linda Hansen
JONATHA BROOKE — is a singer-songwriter who has released four albums with major labels and ten albums on her independent label, Bad Dog Records. She has co-written songs for artists such as Katy Perry and Jessica Simpson and has composed music for Disney.
In 2014, her one-woman Off-Broadway show My Mother Has Four Noses, directed by OPC’s Jeremy Cohen, ran for three months at the Duke Theater in NYC and was a critic’s pick in the New York Times. She has performed “..Four Noses” at various theaters, including People’s Light in Malvern, PA; The Cleveland Playhouse; and The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, to name just a few.
Jonatha has written two musicals with Anton Dudley - Hopper and Death and Venice - and is currently reviving Quadroon, written with the late jazz pianist/composer Joe Sample. She is also working on Switched with playwright Geoffrey Nauffts and TEMPUS with playwright Jaclyn Backhaus.
In late 2024, Jonatha, along with Laurie Flannagan Hegge (Prick), was commissioned by the History Theater in Minneapolis to adapt Sheila O’Connor’s memoir Evidence of V for the stage.
She continues to perform live in concert across the U.S. and Europe and is working on her 15th album, scheduled for release in 2025.
BETH MALONE — Tony nomination, Alison in Fun Home. Other Broadway/Off; Angels in America, Ring of Fire, The Marvelous Wonderettes and Bingo! and The Unsinkable Molly Brown for which she received Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Outer Critics Circle nominations. TV; City On Fire, Gaslight, Five Days At Memorial, Braindead, The Baker and The Beauty, Chicago Med, Chicago PD, Bluff City Law, Bull, Law and Order: SVU, The Blacklist, All Rise and The Good Wife. Film; Brittany Runs A Marathon, God Committee, Hick, Alma and the Wolf, Glitter and Doom, Denim and Diamonds,The Comedian,Tick, Tick,...Boom!
photo credit: Robyn Beck
TIG NOTARO — is an Emmy, Grammy, WGA, and SAG Award-nominated comedian, actor, writer, director, producer, and podcast host, named one of Rolling Stone’s 50 best stand-up comics of all time. She appears in Apple TV+’s The Morning Show and Paramount+’s Star Trek: Discovery, and starred in Netflix films Your Place or Mine, We Have a Ghost, and Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead. Tig wrote, produced, and starred in Amazon’s critically acclaimed One Mississippi, and her HBO special Drawn made history as the first ever animated comedy special, earning numerous award nominations. Her memoir I’m Just a Person is a New York Times Bestseller, and her album LIVE, recorded days after her breast cancer diagnosis, became the top-selling comedy album of 2013. Tig co-directed the HBO film Am I OK? with her wife Stephanie Allynne and produced the Sundance-winning documentary
Come See Me in the Good Light. She co-hosts the popular podcast Handsome with fellow comedians Fortune Feimster and Mae Martin, and Tig's latest special Hello Again is now available on Prime Video.
photo credit: @grasshoppervisuals
EMILY SALIERS — is a founding member and one-half of the Grammy award-winning duo Indigo Girls.
Indigo Girls have sold over 15 million albums worldwide since being signed to Epic Records (Sony) in 1989 and were inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. Emily holds a BA in English from Emory University. In addition to her work with Indigo Girls, Emily co-owned the restaurant Watershed in Decatur, Georgia whose chef won the James Beard award for Best Chef, Southeast U.S.A. Emily is co-author of the book A Song to Sing a Life to Live: Music as Spiritual Practice written with her father, Professor Don Saliers. She has written soundtrack music for films, including the Sundance short film One Weekend a Month, among others. Her first full-length solo album, Murmuration Nation, was released in 2017. Emily is currently working on a musical with Broadway’s Beth Malone and Mary Ann Stratton, as well as a musical with the Elliot/Larsen Musicals team and one based on The Gospel of Eureka with director Jeremy Cohen and writer Mfoniso Udofia. Her newfound love of musical theatre has become an obsession. Emily adores her family, dogs, good food, and the sea.
2024 OPC PLAYWRIGHT
photo credit: Wellesley Magazine
MFONISO UDOFIA — is a first-generation Nigerian-American storyteller and educator. From 2024-2026, a consortium of theatre companies and activation partners across Boston will produce all of Mfoniso’s 9-play UFOT FAMILY CYCLE, which follows three generations of a Nigerian-American family. SOJOURNERS, RUNBOYRUN, HER PORTMANTEAU and IN OLD AGE have been seen at the Huntington Theatre, Round House Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, American Conservatory Theater, Playwrights Realm, Magic Theater, National Black Theatre, Strand Theater, and Boston Court. Mfoniso has written on acclaimed shows like 13 Reasons Why on Netflix, A League of Their Own on Amazon, Let the Right One In on Showtime, and Pachinko (Peabody Award), Little America, and Lessons in Chemistry (WGA Nomination) on Apple TV+. She has also developed films for HBO, Legendary, and Amazon. Education: BA Wellesley College, MFA American Conservatory Theater. Recipient of the 2024 Steinberg Playwright Award, 2017 Helen Merrill Award, 2017-18 McKnight National Residency/Commission, and member of New Dramatists. www.mfonisoudofia.com.
KIRSTEN VANGSNESS — a passionate believer we make the world better by making art, is the creator and host of “Bits!” An art salon at Hollywood’s Theatre of NOTE which you can come to (and participate in!) every month. She has been published in the anthology “Women of Letters”, the Los Angeles Times , and Roxane Gay chose her as a “Feminist as F***” writer for the 2024 Vulture Fest. Currently, Kirsten plays Penelope Garcia on “Criminal Minds” and Bigelow McFigglehorn on “Wizards Beyond Waverly Place”. “Curtains” her solo animated short that Kirsten wrote, stars and directed is on Vimeo and she wants you to go watch it as well as the last season of “Kirsten’s Agenda” on YouTube. She is the recipient of the Open Fist Excellence in the Arts Award, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Natalie Schafer Award, the HRC Visibility Award and she has a monkey enclosure named after her at the Wildlife Learning Center. This summer, Kirsten will be premiering her new solo play “Outdated” at the L.A. LGBT Center for the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
With a special performance by the Ojai Pixies Courtesy of Smitty West & Julija Zonic’s Ojai Music Academy
GRATITUDE
Special Thanks to the Liza and Conan O’Brien Foundation for your continued support of OPC.
Congratulations on The Mark Twain Award for American Humor!
We’re deeply grateful to Ojai Playhouse, our generous partner for OPC’s 2025 Fundraiser.
The Ojai Playhouse, opened in 1914, is a historic 200 seat single screen movie theater located in Ojai, CA. The Ojai Playhouse screens digital and 35mm films, curates music, comedy, variety and more.
THANK YOU TO OUR EVENT SPONSORS
THANK YOU TO OUR AUCTION DONORS
Barbara Bowman
Blanche & Sylvia
Blooming Rubies
Blue Iguana Inn
Blue Sky Center
Carly Home
Chris Bakes
Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation
Don Lalo's
The Dutchess
Erik Andersen Photography
Farmer & The Cook
Feel Good Ojai
Four Paws Grooming
Hey Bingo
Highly Likely
Lark Ellen Farm
Light and Space Yoga
O-Hi Home
Ojai Ice Cream
Ojai Music Festival
Ojai Noodle House
Ojai Olive Oil
Ojai Valley Museum
Papa Lennons
Pinholita Coffee Van
Poppies Gift/ Ren D'Angelo
Revel Kombucha
Rory's
Studio Sauvageau
Sonya Oooten
Soul Tonic
Susan Cummings
Taft Gardens
Talon Salon
Veritas Theatre
Woodwork- Josiah Guzik
Thank you to Our Housing Hosts who continue to open their homes to us every year.
2025 Gala Housing Hosts:
Kim & Clay Barnes
Pamela Grau
Gabriele & Jim Lashly
Claudia Miller
Carol Munter
Lee Sher
Peter Strauss & Rachel Ticotin
Michaela Watkins & Fred Kramer
Thank you to our Restaurant Partners for keeping the artists nourished so creativity can flourish.
Artist Meals provided by:
Ojai Rotie
Afterparty Meals provided by:
The Dutchess
Special Thanks
Creative Artists Agency
Klein Epstein Parker
Smitty West & Julija Zonic
Envizion Group
The Dutchess
Pinhole Coffee
Theatre Veritas
Robin Gerber
Lila & Dines Francese
STAFF & BOARD
OPC Staff
Jeremy B. Cohen, Producing Artistic Director
Tahnee Freda, Managing Director
Agyeiwaa Asante, Artistic / Literary Assistant & Intern Manager
Ciara Auten, Company Manager
Thalia Buitron-Halleen, Development Director
Tova Katz, Communications Director
Sarah Rose Leonard, Senior Dramaturg
Jeff Liu, Artistic Producer
Kim Maxwell, Youth Workshop Program Director
Tiffany Moon, Literary Manager
Angela Tsai, Financial Consultant
Hannah Wolf, Senior Artistic Producer
Board of Directors
Mark Helm, President
Sasha Gifford, Vice-President
Laurie Bernhard, Treasurer
Olga Garay-English, Secretary
Yvonne Bell, At Large
Patrick J. Adams
Barbara Chiodo
Dana Delany
Jose Delgado
Helene Gordon
Jason Grode
Marg Helgenberger
Malcolm Kutner
Kim Maxwell
Carla Melson
Jessica Queller
Gary Ungar
Patty Waltcher
Susan Grode, Emeritus
Judy Ovitz, Emeritus
Advisory Board
Stephen Belber
Bret Bradigan
Rick Cleveland
Samuel Hunter
Liza Powel O’Brien
Zachary Quinto
Andre Royo
Sarah Treem
Mfoniso Udofia
Steve Yockey
