On the Boards Over in Ojai

Audiences will once again have the chance to witness staged readings of potential future classics at the Ojai Playwrights Conference’s 27th annual New Works Festival from August 1-4. The readings are the culmination of a two-week workshop immersion for the five selected playwrights to develop their creations, with the writers joined by professional actors and production teams to bring their vision to life in front of live audiences. 

Over its long history, OPC has been a breeding ground for such plays as Other Desert Cities, which opened on Broadway in 2011 and was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize, as well as the musicals Fun Home, which won five Tony Awards including Best Musical in 2015, and Caroline, or Change, which won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 2007. 

This year’s readings include Alex Lin’s barren, about an OB/GYN who wants a baby but can’t conceive yet helps her younger sister through her delivery. Thursdays Come at Morning, by Lee Cataluna, is about the connection formed between two brokenhearted men visiting the graves of their loved ones, and grappling with how to live fully when their best days seem to be behind them. Libby Carr’s Calf Scramble finds five Future Farmers of America undergoing an adolescent transformation while confronting the casual brutality of the show cattle world as they wrestle for power over their animals, their bodies, and each other. ¡VOS! by Christina Pumariega also concerns fertility in the very different setting of Buenos Aires and coping with lives lost to Argentina’s Dirty War decades earlier. Mfoniso Udofia’s The Ceremony concerns generational tension between a father and son over a pending marriage. 

Visit www.ojaiplays.org/2024-new-works-festival for more information, tickets and festival passes. \