Ojai is home to the annual Ojai Playwrights Conference, a two week playwrights festival that brings professional writers and actors from across the country to Ojai.
Over a period of just a few years, the Conference has become one of Southern California's most eagerly anticipated annual cultural events.
Each year, theater professionals and interested members of the general public converge in the beautiful Ojai Valley to participate in the development of previously unproduced, quality new plays for the American theater.
The Valley provides a retreat environment conducive to creative freedom, experimentation, and process.
The playwrights are brought to Ojai for intensive, in-residence work on their plays, culminating in public readings.
Terrence McNally, Bill Cain, Jon Robin Baitz, Lee Blessing, Charlayne Woodard, Joe Loya, Danny Hoch, Peter Morris, Luis Alfaro, Stephen Belber, Sarah Treem, Keith Bunin, Julia Cho and Chris Durang are previous attendees.
Many of the plays performed during the conference go on to have successful runs in New York, Seattle and Chicago.
Among the actors who have performed for the Conference are Dana Delany, Neil Patrick Harris, Minnie Driver, Victor Garber, Jane Kaczmarek, Ron Rifkin, William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman, David Hyde Pierce, Lily Tomlin, Linda Hunt, Peter Strauss, Peter Sarsgaard, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Meshach Taylor, Zac Quinto and Juanita Jennings.
The Conference includes public symposia featuring prominent artists who discuss topics that enrich the cultural and artistic life of the citizens of Ojai and the Southern California area. The Conference also features a Youth Workshop that nurtures teenage playwrights.
Under the guidance of adult theater professionals, the young playwrights develop their talents and perform their new works with professional artists.
The community is served by the Ojai Valley News and the Ojai Post.
