The Ojai Playwrights Conference Goes Big, with Robert Egan

The Ojai Playwrights Conference, which takes over two weeks in August, is one the foremost cultural occasions in the country. Typically, the OPC selects eight plays for intensive workshops with experienced dramaturges, theater directors and producers, culminating in stage reads for the public in  highly anticipated shows. Sadly, this year the in-person OPC was another victim of the pandemic. But Robert Egan, for 20 years the OPC's artistic director - along with the rest of the staff and board - was not deterred. Instead of moving past this fraught era, they went straight at it, with a lineup of 15 plays from a mix of first-time selections and established playwrights like Luis Alfaro, Jon Robin Baitz and Aziza Barnes. The new OPC Foundry Project will collaborate with eight playwrights developing seven new works, which will form the core of next year's conference.  We talk with Egan about the central role the OPC has developed in the creation of new works for the theater, including a number of works that went straight from Ojai to Broadway, including "The Motherf**cker with the Hat," by Stephen Aidly Guirgus and "Other Desert Cities," by Robby Baitz, which was the longest running non-musical in Broadway history.  Egan also talks about growing up tough in the Washington, D.C. area, where he made the school's Hall of Fame for two areas - football and theater - and where a brutal beatdown led to a memorable encounter with a police officer that changed the trajectory of his life.  We did not talk about the infield fly rule, whether Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was an overrated general, or Boccacio's "Decameron." You can, however, learn more about the OPC's bold new initiatives at ojaiplays.org.