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ojaiplays

@ojaiplays

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A nationally acclaimed #newplay program committed to developing compelling new works for American #theatre.

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Thoughts from the Ojai Playwrights Conference, where I had the great pleasure of working on a new play by Keith Bunin with director Jennifer Chang.

Feels fun to imagine that the play is a “good enough” parent, whose wisdom is greater than ours, and that we can relax into its gentle, but fierce, embrace, trusting it to nourish, comfort, love, and guide us in accordance with our individuated needs.

Feels fun to imagine that the play knows what we are here to learn from it - we, particularly, right now, like it knows us - even if it was written before we were born.

Feels fun to imagine that the play has orchestrated our discovery of it at this moment, which is the perfect moment for us to discover it.

Feels fun to imagine that the play takes its superpowers lightly and with a sense of humor, even though its superpowers are in fact deadly serious.

Feels fun to imagine that the journey each audience takes through each performance of the play parallels both the journey of the characters in the play and the personal journey of the playwright as they wrote.

Feels fun to imagine that every play is an invitation to everyone who experiences it - in the audience, on the stage, around a table, or alone at home - to travel the same road that the playwright traveled - but like faster and smoother, like a hyperspeed maglev - to arrive in a new state of consciousness.

Feels fun to imagine that the play is a portal and that we are reborn every time we get sucked through it.

It may be that the playwright’s actual job is to hold fire in their hands - to actually burn - while tempering the play until it can hold the fire itself.

Like how the bread maker’s job is to work dough into a structure that can cradle the shooting sparks between the acids and the sugars in the yeast. (IYKYK #theloyalopposition)

Thanks to all of you maglev engineers and conductors from this year’s conference: @keithbunin @iamzoladee @juliette_carrillo @gregorymoss @queenofseltzer @mat_with1t_smart @harrisondavidrivers #gracemcleod @iamtherealchanginator @andrewjscoville @hannahjwolf @iirvinmason #jaimecastañeda @lovearmyboulevard @sarahroseleonard @laurbernhard #carterhudson @ojaiplays

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Lately

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Little pieces of summer, finally making it out of my camera roll 🍒

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keeping ojai local one dutchess catan game at a time

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Thank you @jackalopetc , @goodmantheatre ,and @ojaiplays for indulging me in your artistic community this summer 🌞

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OPC ‘26 or Should we kiss in the chapel? Or by the fridge? Or in the open concept living room? Or by the oven? Or at Sunday rehearsal? Or by the stolen traffic cones in the cleaned out storage unit?
Read and Produce these plays!

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July 2026 (or LA to ORLANDO to NYC to RED BANK to LA to OJAI to LA to ORLANDO)

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fell into the vortex (positive, life-changing) at @ojaiplays

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I got to spend last week with these beautiful and talented artists to work on a gorgeous @harrisondavidrivers play! So grateful to have been a part of the Ojai Playwrights Conference. I was reminded of the kind of stamina you need to be a theater actor. 😮‍💨 Running a play that pulls on you emotionally sometimes twice a day so that the piece is fully in your body before the performance. Constantly being on your toes and thinking on your feet when you’re in front of an audience: there is no CUT! Since it was only a week of rehearsal and a single performance, you only get one chance to showcase everything you’ve worked on. Then you have to let it go. It’s a BEAST! It’s only been two years since I’ve performed on a stage but it feels like a lifetime and man oh man did I miss it! Once a theater girl, always a theater girl! 🎭❤️

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Nothing like amazing theater in your own backyard! Ojai Playwrights Conference strikes again! And that’s a wrap!

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Summer internship with @ojaiplays = maximizing whimsy and artistic joy!!

Thank you to all the artists I’ve been able to talk to and workshop pieces with— I’ve learned more than I ever thought I could in two weeks and being able to pick your brains was truly a privilege!

Thank you to the amazing team of CLOSING COSTS for being one of the most magical rehearsal rooms I’ve seen yet— I feel so lucky to have shared a space with such talented, driven and inspiring artists and you’ve given me a beautiful image of what to look forward to!

Thank you to my intern cohort for being the divas I needed in life, I can’t wait to see all the work we’re about to do and I miss you all already!

and a HUGE thank you to @thedarkagez for being the best intern manager in the land, we couldn’t have done it without you!!

May everyone’s pillows be cold on both sides!!

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