Applications for 2027
ApPlications open Friday, September 11 at 9:00am PT
Applications Close Friday September 18 at 11:59 pm PT
The 30th Annual Ojai Playwrights Summer Conference & New Works Festival will take place July 18-August 1, 2027.
Check back here during the application window to submit your materials.
ABOUT THE SUMMER CONFERENCE & NEW WORKS FESTIVAL
The 30th Annual Ojai Playwrights Summer Conference & New Works Festival will take place July 18-August 1, 2027. Playwrights will spend the first week in community with other writers, directors, and dramaturgs, reading and discussing the plays, and a second week in workshop (with actors) to develop their new plays, culminating in a public reading of their work during the Festival Weekend. All participating playwrights are expected to attend and be a part of the artist community for the entire period.
As part of our commitment to making OPC’s new play development programs more accessible, we are thrilled to share that this will again be an open submission process. OPC continues to strengthen our commitment to helping new plays move from page to stage by limiting the barriers to consideration that emerging playwrights face. In reading more broadly, we hope to widen our knowledge about who is writing today, and to share more works with the field.
Week One: Summer Conference
OPC staff and resident playwrights, directors, and dramaturgs gather to read the plays out loud and offer feedback as a collective. Playwrights who have curiosity about process, generosity of spirit, and a genuine interest in community-building are ideal participants in the Conference portion of the residency.
Week Two: New Works Festival
We welcome actors to our collective and tuck into rehearsal rooms to prepare for public readings, which land on the Festival weekend. Since our rehearsal time is limited and our readings are open to the public, we are looking for plays that are in later stages of development. During this week, Writers in Residence receive writing time and dramaturgical support.
WHAT PLAY SHOULD I SEND?
Writers should send the play they are most excited about working on, and the most excited to learn from. The ideal play is one that is one or two steps away from being production-ready and could make good use of a 36 hour rehearsal week with actors and a public reading. Plays that have been submitted to OPC in previous years will not be accepted.
There is no monolith for “an ideal OPC play” – in content, form or style. To that end: the staff and selection committee are intentionally composed of working artists who approach new play development from a wide range of perspectives and lived experiences.
THE PROCESS:
OPC’s Application and Selection Process is curated in order to continue centering equitable access, transparency for applicants, and our capacity to thoughtfully consider the applications that come in. All submissions are read by a paid group of ~25 experienced readers from a diverse range of backgrounds and artistic practices. The submissions are read in the following manner:
10-page samples are evaluated. All applicants will receive communication about their application status by the end of December 2026.
Full scripts are read at this stage. Next-round applicants will receive communication about their application status by the end of February 2027.
Scripts are further narrowed down, with rolling status notifications sent between April and May.
Five plays will be selected as Workshop Writers for the Conference and Festival, which includes the Week One Conference and a workshop and public reading. Between one and three writers will be selected as Writers In Residence, who participate similarly in Week One the Conference. During Week Two - the Festival Week - Writers in Residence receive ample writing time with dramaturgical support, along with participating in a Playwrights Panel and an opportunity to share a short excerpt of the play with the public.
APPLICATION GUIDELINES:
The application form will be available on Friday, September 11th at 9:00am PT on this webpage and will close on Friday September 18th at 11:59 pm PT
Applications are open to all playwrights over the age of 18 who reside and have the legal right to work in the United States.
OPC only accepts full-length plays (60+ minute running time) that have not yet had a full professional production. We are not currently accepting musicals for this Conference.
OPC will accept only one play by each playwright for consideration. Plays that have been submitted to OPC in previous years will not be accepted, unless explicit permission is requested and provided to do so.
OPC will only accept for consideration plays submitted directly by the playwrights themselves - not as a nomination/recommendation from agent or other theater representatives or recommenders.
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS:
The application form will be submitted through our online portal, which will be live on this site on September 11, 2026.
Please prepare a 10-page PDF sample of your script, as well as the full PDF script of your full-length play. Please name your files in the following manner:
The 10-page sample should be named:
[YourLastName], [YourFirstName] 10-Page Selection, [TitleofPlay], [DateofDraft], OPC2027
The full draft should be named:
[YourLastName], [YourFirstName] [TitleofPlay], [DateofDraft], OPC2027
(Example: Parks, Suzan-Lori, THE AMERICA PLAY, 6.20.2023, OPC2027)
A 10-page sample from the same play submitted as a separate PDF (the sample can be from anywhere in the play, but do add a sentence to set up a scene if you chose from somewhere that isn’t the beginning). Your title and character pages do not count towards your sample limit.
Tell us about your play in 250 words or less. (We find a brief synopsis to be helpful, but you can also add in any information you think would help orient a reader when reading a sample from your play).
Where in the development process do you feel this play is in at this moment? What would success look like for your play during this Conference? (250 words or less).
Your cast size.
Please address any questions to [email protected] and we will get back to you as soon as we are able.
ABOUT THE SUMMER CONFERENCE & NEW WORKS FESTIVAL:
Founded in 1997, Ojai Playwrights Conference is one of America’s preeminent play development programs. Held annually in California’s Ojai Valley, our two week Summer Conference & New Works Festival brings together a creative community of playwrights and theater artists dedicated to mutually supportive inquiry, exploration, and experimentation.
In the first week, participating playwrights, directors, dramaturgs and OPC artistic staff gather to read and discuss the plays, and build a supportive and responsive community for the work and one another. In the second week, playwrights further develop their plays with a company of professional actors. The Conference culminates with our New Works Festival, a weekend of public workshop readings, discussions and community events.
Ojai Playwrights Conference is unique in its process of developing new plays for the American theater by offering a safe, productive, rigorous haven for playwrights and plays that are challenging, and to investigate and reimagine the values, beliefs and discourses that are fundamental to the ongoing experiment that is the United States of America.
We are housed in the generous community of Ojai. Artists stay in Ojai families' homes for both weeks, week one events are conducted at a family's residence, and week two is conducted at a school. We collaborate with a local education program, and all artists engage with young artists as part of an ongoing effort to learn from each other. Meals are provided, and seen as an opportunity to be in community.