THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST IN SUBMITTING YOUR WORK TO OPC.
The 28th Annual Ojai Playwrights Conference & New Works Festival will take place July 20-August 3, 2025, where playwrights will spend the first week in community with other writers, directors, and dramaturgs, reading and discussing the work and a second week in workshop (with actors) to develop their new plays, culminating in a public performance of their work during the Festival. 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 more new plays move from page to stage.
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:
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.
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.
Writers should send the play they are most excited about working on, and the most excited to learn from. The ideal OPC play for the Summer Conference and New Works Festival is a step or two away from production ready and could make good use of time in conversation during the Conference (week one) and a rehearsal week with a public reading (week two).
OPC is rolling-out a brand new Application and Selection process this year in order to continue centering equitable access, transparency for applicants, and our capacity to thoughtfully consider the applications that come in. Please take time to read carefully below.
The application window will be open from November 11 - 18, 2024.
The application form will be available on November 11, 2024, at 9 am PT on this webpage and will close on November 18 at 11:59 pm PT. Please prepare a 10-page PDF sample of your script, as well as the full PDF script for our review. Please name your files in the following manner:
[YourLastName], [YourFirstName] [TitleofPlay], [DateofDraft], OPC2025
(Example: Parks, Suzan-Lori, THE AMERICA PLAY, 6.20.2023, OPC2025)
The application will also ask you to tell us about your play in 500 words or less. We will narrow down the submissions based on the 10-page sample to a semi-finalist group of approximately 200 plays. We will then read the full play from the semi-finalist group. Applicants will be notified if they’ve been selected for the semi-finalist group by the end of January 2025.
All semi-finalists will be notified of their selection status by the end of April 2025.
Please address any questions to literary@ojaiplays.org and we will get back to you as soon as we’re able.
About the Summer Conference & 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, week one is 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.
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. The ideal play is one that is one step or two away from production ready and could make good use of time in a room for a week and a public reading.