Jeremy Cohen on Discovering Great Plays & Playwrights

Every summer, something extraordinary happens in Ojai.Nearly 1,000 new plays arrive from writers across the country. After months of rigorous evaluation by dramaturgs, directors, and theater professionals, only six or seven are chosen for the Ojai Playwrights Conference — one of America's premier incubators for new theater.Those playwrights spend two intensive weeks rewriting, collaborating with acclaimed directors and dramaturgs, and hearing their words brought to life by professional actors before live audiences. It's where promising scripts become exceptional plays.Readings of these fresh works with professional actors takes place July 30 to August 2 this year on the Thacher School campus.In this episode of Ojai: Talk of the Town, host Bret Bradigan sits down with Jeremy B. Cohen, Producing Artistic Director of the Ojai Playwrights Conference, for a fascinating conversation about what separates good theater from great theater, why live performance remains unlike any other art form, and how the Conference discovers bold new voices whose stories may one day appear on stages across the country.They explore the creative workshop process, the elusive qualities of compelling dramatic writing, the importance of artistic risk, and why Ojai has become one of the nation's most important destinations for playwrights.Whether you're a theater lover, a writer, or simply someone fascinated by the creative process, this conversation offers a rare look inside the making of new American theater — before the curtain ever rises.We talked about the OPC's integral Youth Workshop run by Kim Maxwell and her daughter Lily Brown, Jeremy finding his people in the theater world in western Massachusetts, running the venerable Playwrights' Center in St. Paul, Mn. and Broadway legend George Abbott. We did not talk about Marie Kondo, Komodo dragons, or looksmaxxing.Check out OjaiPlays.org for schedule and much more.