OJAI PLAYWRIGHTS CONFERENCE Announces its 2011 Line-up
By: Gabrielle Sierra Jun. 29, 2011
THE OJAI PLAYWRIGHTS CONFERENCE (OPC) is thrilled to announce its 2011 Season - 14th Annual program of playwrights, readings and special performances featuring some of the most talented, established and up-and-coming playwrights writing today. This year's Conference includes new works by Bill Cain, Stephen Belber & Adam Duritz, Rick Cleveland, Sarah Treem, Ken Lin, Don Nguyen and Danai Gurira. There are two special performance events called "Intersections"-- the first will feature a special theatrical presentation by Greg Boyle and his national best selling book of urban parables, Tattoos of the Heart, the second will feature a reading of a new musical - Black Sun, a collaboration between Stephen Belber and the Counting Crows front-man Adam Duritz! The Conference begins on Tuesday, August 2 with just the playwrights and then culminates with public presentations - the OPC "Summer New Works Festival" from August 9 through August 14. Tickets available online at www.ojaiplays.org. See page three for festival schedule and ticket info.
THE OJAI PLAYWRIGHTS CONFERENCE is an annual event fully centered around 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 and creative focus can lead to a collaborative process that enables these artists to qualitatively rework and refine their dramatic vision.Every summer, theatre professionals and enthusiastic audiences from Southern California converge in the magical Ojai Valley to participate in the development of new plays for the American theatre. Under the direction of Artistic Director/Producer Robert Egan, carefully selected playwrights from diverse backgrounds join together for an intensive two-week, in-residence workshop/ This process culminates in OPC's popular public performance series - now known as the OPC Summer New Works Festival.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." The Ojai Playwrights Conference is also committed to nurturing the writing talents of Southern California youth. Through its Youth Workshop, junior high and high school students participate in a mentoring program with visiting theatre professionals and create their own dramatic works, which are performed during the Festival.
7:30 PM, Matilija Auditorium, 703 El Paseo Rd., Downtown Ojai
Intersections #1: Special Performance Event
TATTOOS ON THE HEART by Greg Boyle
Ticket Price: $20 Thursday, August 11
7:30 PM, Matilija Auditorium, 703 El Paseo Rd., Downtown Ojai
Intersections #2: Special Performance Event
BLACK SUN by Stephen Belber and Adam Duritz
Tickets: $20Friday, August 12
7:00 PM, Zalk Theatre at Besant Hill, 8585 Ojai Santa Paula Rd., Ojai
New Play Workshop #1: THE ZIMBABWE PROJECT by Danai Gurira
Tickets: $259:00 PM, Zalk Theatre at Besant Hill, 8585 Ojai Santa Paula Rd., Ojai
New Play Workshop #2: RED FLAMBOYANT by Don Nguyen
Tickets: $25Saturday, August 13
10:00 AM, Zalk Theatre at Besant Hill, 8585 Ojai Santa Paula Rd., Ojai
FAMILY DAY EVENT
Tickets: $20 Adults; $10 Children 17 & under# # #1:00 PM, Zalk Theatre at Besant Hill, 8585 Ojai Santa Paula Rd., Ojai
OPC YOUTH WORKSHOP PERFORMANCE
Tickets: $20 Adults; $10 Children 17 & under# # #4:00 PM, Zalk Theatre at Besant Hill, 8585 Ojai Santa Paula Rd., Ojai
New Play Workshop #3: FALLOW by Ken Lin
Ticket Price: $25# # #8:00 PM, Zalk Theatre at Besant Hill, 8585 Ojai Santa Paula Rd., Ojai
New Play Workshop #6: 30.3. thirty. three. a play for three actors in their 30's by Bill Cain
Ticket Price: $25 Sunday, August 14
1:00 PM, Zalk Theatre at Besant Hill, 8585 Ojai Santa Paula Rd., Ojai
New Play Workshop #5 - WHEN WE WERE YOUNG AND UNAFRAID by Sarah Treem
Ticket Price: $25# # #4:00 PM, Zalk Theatre at Besant Hill, 8585 Ojai Santa Paula Rd., Ojai
New Play Workshop #4: RICK AND DICK by Rick Cleveland
Ticket Price: $25OPC 2011: THE PLAYS AND PLAYWRIGHTSINTERSECTION #1 - TATTOOS ON THE HEART by GREG BOYLE
A series of dramatic, breathtaking parables distilled from a pastor's twenty years working in a neighborhood with the highest concentration of murderous gang activity in Los Angeles. Father Greg Boyle created Homeboy Industries to provide jobs, job training and encouragement so that young people could learn mutual respect. Filled with sparkling humor and glowing generosity, this evening offers a stirring look at the power of loving joyfully and unconditionally. Meet tattooed, giant Cesar and little 10-year-old Lula both learning the importance of being known and acknowledged and feeling worthy through love. Father Greg Boyle was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1982. He has been the pastor of Dolores Mission in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. The church sits between two large public housing projects, Pico Gardens and Aliso Village, known for decades as the gang capital of the world. There are 1,100 gangs encompassing 86,000 members in Los Angeles, and Boyle Heights has the highest concentration of violent gang activity in the city. Affectionately known as G-dog, Father Greg started Homeboy Industries nearly twenty years ago. It has served members of more than half the gangs in Los Angeles. In Homeboy Industries' various businesses - baking, silk-screening, landscaping - gang affiliations are left outside as young people work together, side by side, learning mutual respect.INTERSECTION #2 - A NEW MUSICAL!
BLACK SUN by Stephen Belber and Adam Duritz
Eight New Yorkers - some new, some old, some just returning after having given up - confront perplexing questions and surprising answers in the wake of a world where the sun has disappeared. At first the Black Sun lasts only 23 seconds, creating havoc and moments of solace. But this upside down world eventually becomes permanent. Everything turns into something totally strange and revelatory. Adam Duritz, Counting Crows lead singer, turns his inimitable and searing songwriting skills to theater for the first time in a collaboration with acclaimed playwright and OPC alum, Stephen Belber. Together they will create music and words that cut to the heart of what it means to live life anew.
Stephen Belber has produced on Broadway and in over 25 countries. His plays include Match (Tony nomination for Frank Langella); Dusk Rings a Bell, (Atlantic Theater Company); Tape (Naked Angels NY/LA/London); McReele (Roundabout Theater); A Small, Melodramatic Story (LAByrinth Theater Company); Geometry of Fire (Rattlestick); Fault Lines (Cherry Lane); One Million Butterflies (Primary Stages); and Carol Mulroney (Huntington Theater Company). He was an Associate Writer on The Laramie Project (Drama Desk/Lortel nominations), and co-writer on the recent Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. Movies include Tape, directed by Richard Linklater; The Laramie Project (Associate Writer/Emmy Nomination for screenwriting); Drifting Elegant, and Management, which he also directed, starring Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn.Adam Duritz is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and film producer. Best known for his role as principal composer, front-man and vocalist for the rock band Counting Crows, Duritz has recorded solo material of his own, and collaborated with other musical acts, leading him to branch out as the owner of at least two record labels. THE ZIMBABWE PROJECT by Danai GuriraAward winning playwright and performer, Danai Gurira develops the final compelling, contemporary chapter of her Zimbabwe Trilogy. The new play explores the complex and captivating history of that African nation from 1895 to the present day - from a woman's perspective. For this workshop Danai will collaborate with OPC Artistic Director Robert Egan. The trilogy's opening play, The Convert, is scheduled for productions at the McCarter, Goodman and Kirk Douglas Theatres in the spring of 2012.Born in the U.S. and raised in Zimbabwe, Danai Gurira's previous plays developed at OPC include the 2010 Helen Hayes and NAACP Award winning Eclipsed (Wooly Mammoth, Kirk Douglas, Yale Rep) and the internationally acclaimed two-woman play, In the Continuum, written and performed with Nikkole Salter for which Danai received the Obie Award and a Helen Hayes Award. Danai starred in the acclaimed film, The Visitor, and in Lincoln Center Theater's production of Joe Turner's Come and Gone. RED FLAMBOYANT by Don NguyenMrs. Hue lives in present day Viet Nam with a small group of women who all suffer from a mysterious health condition. It affects their minds, their emotions and their dreams. When bricks smash the windows of her small house, the locals fear they will be infected by this mystery condition. Mrs. Hue is forced to seek help from a stubborn government official to protect and support her group. Unlikely heroes emerge both in this world and the next as these poor women reach new heights of courage.Don Nguyen was born in Saigon, Vietnam, grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, and currently resides in New York City. Don served as the Artistic Director of the Shelterbelt Theatre in Omaha from 1999-2003. Don's full-length plays include Red Flamboyant, Sound: A Sign Language Play, The Man from Saigon, and Three to Beam Up (The Shelterbelt Theatre, Nebraska Arts Grant recipient). His play The Harlequin Maneuvre was published in "The Best of the Strawberry One-Act Festival" and subsequently produced in New York and Canada. Don writes for "The Living Newspaper" and is a member of the New York Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group, The Civilians R&D Group, and Ma-Yi Writer's Lab. FALLOW by Ken LinThis deeply moving drama tells the story of Aaron Hayes, a well-heeled young American man who drops out of his Ivy-League education when matters of the heart become too overwhelming. He takes a job as a beekeeper which turns into a journey through the heartland of America as a migrant farm worker. His epic journey ends in the fields of California where he is mistaken as a Mexican laborer. Tracing a path of discovery, longing, hope, and grief, the play reveals both Aaron's transformation as he travels from farm to farm and that of his mother as she journeys in a gypsy cab to find her son.Kenneth Lin's plays include Fallow, Intelligence-Slave, Po Boy Tango (TCG Edgerton New Play Prize), said Saïd (Kendeda Winner, L. Arnold Weissberger Award, Princess Grace Award), Warrior Class, Life On Paper, Agency and Genius in Love. They have been seen at theaters throughout the country, including the Alliance Theatre, Northlight Theatre Company, Alley Theatre, People's Light and Theatre Company, South Coast Rep, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Marin Theater Company and East West Players. 30.3. thirty, three. a play for three actors in their 30's by Bill CainTo become a great actor, you need a great role. Only 30-years-old, Colin feels his time for greatness running out. He finally gets his shot at starring in a major movie. It's a role that has ended the career of every actor who has tried it - the 33-year-old carpenter from Galilee. Colin can salvage his career if he can discover - before shooting starts - a trick no other actor has ever brought to the part - the secret of rising from the dead. The mysterious Magdalene and the carpenter himself join Colin on an amazing journey to break the bonds of death, learn how to play God and maybe win an Oscar.Award-winning playwright Bill Cain has developed four previous plays at the Ojai Playwrights Conference, most recently, How To Write a New Book for the Bible, scheduled for productions at Berkeley Rep and Seattle Rep. His other Ojai plays include Equivocation (Geffen Playhouse, Manhattan Theater Club, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival) and 9 Circles (Marin Theatre Company); both plays won the American Theater Critics Association's Steinberg New Play Award, making Bill the only author to ever receive the award in consecutive years. WHEN WE WERE YOUNG AND UNAFRAID by Sarah Treem1971 - a bed and breakfast off the coast of Seattle. A mother raises her brilliant daughter with values of independence and self-respect while also providing shelter to battered women. Mother's attention has recently been absorbed by a mysterious woman visitor who's on the run from an abusive relationship - passing through this establishment on her way to freedom. Charming, but deeply self-destructive, the visitor begins to influence the daughter. Mom is forced to confront all the assumptions she's made about what it means to be a victim. The play explores the true cost of desire and dependence.Sarah Treem is the only writer to have written and produced all three seasons of the HBO series In Treatment. She won a WGA Award and was nominated for a Humanitas Award. She is a writer/producer for the Mark Wahlberg/Stephen Levinson produced HBO series How to Make It in America. Her plays include Empty Sky, Against the Wall, Mirror, A Feminine Ending, Human Voices and The How and the Why. A Feminine Ending received its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons in 2007 and went on to south Coast Rep and Portland Center Stage. Sarah developed her play The How and the Why at the Ojai Playwrights Conference and it premiered at McCarter Theatre in 2011.RICK AND DICK by Rick ClevelandThis wildly humorous play chronicles the author's childhood friendship and fixation with one of America's most notorious commanders-in-chief, Richard M. Nixon. From his first letter written as a 7th grade class assignment to the President in November of 1972 through the darkest days of Watergate, this surprising collection of revealing letters between a young mid-western boy and the 37th President of the United States tells the story of an unlikely friendship during the funky and turbulent 1970s. Emmy winning writer/producer, Rick Cleveland's credits include The West Wing, Six Feet Under, Mad Men, and most recently Nurse Jackie. He adapted his play Jerry and Tom into a film, and it was an official selection at the Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals. Rick performed his show My Buddy Bill at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Goodman Theatre, Victory Gardens Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, and won the Best Solo Performance Award at the HBO Comedy Festival in Aspen in 2006. He is a proud Founding Member of the Ojai Playwrights Conference.FOR TICKETSAn All Access Pass, that includes admission to all performances in the OPC Summer New Works Festival, is $190. Tickets are available online at www.ojaiplays.org.
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