with Ojai Playwrights Conference’s new Producing Artistic Director Jeremy B. Cohen

by GREGG STEWART photos RENEE FAIA

Bringing this civic mindset, and carrying it through storytelling, is at the heart of Cohen’s artistic approach. He tells us that if after the conference, he couldn’t walk down the street and chat with a vendor at the farmers’ market, meet with a bike shop owner, or run into yoga teachers and artists at one of the local co ee shops, it would be a sign he wasn’t taking the right approach. For him, the theater experience and OPC cannot work as an exclusive entity within the community. “I want to know how your kids and grandkids are doing,” he says. “I want to know what’s happening. We want to find ways to connect people through the conference. We want to know: Are there other opportunities for artists coming into this community, and artists already in our community, to have more exchange throughout the two-week conference and festival? Especially for small businesses, is there a way to lift each other? That civic practice, being part of a community, is meaningful to me.”

Seeing the things Cohen has spearheaded and brought to other communities, we ask him about his vision for OPC. What’s the impact he’s hoping to have, and what is he looking forward to discovering?

He tells us big changes are already underway for OPC. First, Besant Hill School, which had historically hosted OPC, chose to step away this year. The news came on Cohen’s third day in his new role. “That was a significant moment,” he says, “and I knew the only way through this was to connect with people and get into the community.”

As a director, he’s constantly in challenging situations. A play, in many ways, is an intricately timed event. Things are supposed to happen, people are supposed to show up, then all too often, nothing goes quite as planned. So now what are you going to do? “This is where I live!” Cohen says with a laugh. “That’s my sweet spot.” He says the best way through a challenge is first to do a lot of asking and listening. So he called playwrights who have been part of the conference for many years. He asked what was impactful for them and what they got from the conference that they don’t get in other places.

“Uniformly, the thing that everyone came back with was ‘Ojai,’” he says. “That’s what makes the conference unique and special—

Ojai. Because it allows playwrights to step out of their lives and deeply invest, not only in their work but in the work of their colleagues. And they do it for a finite period in a meaningful way. The organization has done a beautiful job of doing that for a long time. So I’m excited that we’re getting to reinvent ourselves in some ways and think about what that means in 2023, because to be a working playwright in 2023 is di erent

“Grace Lowe, head of theater at Thacher, is so awesome. If you haven’t met her, you need to!” Cohen says. “The place where she and I have connected is this idea of equitable access. It goes back to how learning and mentorship get integrated. I think the holistic piece for me is care and feeding. We’re bringing in professional artists, and they’re receiving care and feeding, and then they give back, mentoring, like giving a masterclass for high school and college students. The idea of equitable access means that anybody can have access to these opportunities. This means access for folks who might have said, ‘Oh, I never thought I could have that opportunity. That’s for someone else.’ than in 2019 or 2015, as you can imagine. So for me, I think about things like wellness. I’m curious about yoga, biking, and hiking because I would love to o er attendees the opportunity to eat healthy, good food when they come. I would like them to have the opportunity to experience the amazingness of Ojai and the surrounding areas. We believe that artists have value and that their wellness is a priority. With playwrights, they are literally looking at a blank piece of paper and saying, ‘What am I gonna do?’ So, in what ways can OPC be a place where we can meet writers where they are?”

This holistic approach to generating creativity and community is what Ojai is all about. Integrating wellness and connection within the conference aligns with Ojai’s ethos and its future. And it’s exciting to think about theater in those terms.

With these changes come new possibilities. Visiting playwrights will now be partially housed at Ojai Valley School, with more housed at The Thacher School. Also, all the performances in week 2 will now be at Thacher’s theater, which has more than 400 seats.

“I often feel that Art and Theater (with a capital A and capital T) can be elitist. It’s clear when you see the cost of ticket prices. So, we must hold ourselves accountable to the community. We can’t bring in a few artists, hide them on a hill, and you’re lucky if you can get a ticket. That won’t work. So one of the things I’m most excited about — to bring this holistic piece full circle — is that all tickets at The Thacher School theater will be free. Free tickets create a new access point for folks in Ojai and throughout Ventura County. It’s a fantastic opportunity to look behind the scenes to see how theatrical stories get made. It’s less exclusive and more like we are creating opportunities for people to find themselves however they want — as an audience member, a student, an actor, whatever.”

After getting the news he was named the new producing artistic director for OPC, Cohen drove into Ojai to meet with the team. “I was by myself in the car, and I just ... I know people talk about it, but I had a very bodily, somatic experience of coming into town and feeling like I had found the home I had been looking for — that I didn’t know I was looking for — for a very long time. I don’t know how else to put it, but I thought, ‘Oh yeah, this is it. This is my next place.’”

We discuss the works that OPC plans to bring in — is it based on the playwrights themselves, or is OPC focusing on specific kinds of work?

“We’re still deep in the selection process now, taking over 300 applications, but I want stories that can only happen on stage and that cannot happen on Netflix,” Cohen says. “And I want stories that somehow challenge and/or reflect the di erent questions of our world right now. That’s why we’re in Ojai, because this is a place where we ask those questions every day. It’s less thematic and more about a story that will shift the room when all 400 of us are together. I want to feel what happens in that room.

“Years ago, Yale did a study that tracked the biorhythms of people watching theater together, and they discovered that everyone’s heartbeats synced throughout

“My instinct has always been, How am I creating communal experiences for people on stage, with storytelling at its center.”

Ojai Playwrights Conference will run for two weeks this summer: the performance. That blew my mind. It takes me back to my first moment, standing in the back of the theater, watching this beautiful play, From the Mississippi Delta, by Dr. Endesha Ida Mae Holland. It’s a play about three black women of di erent generations telling stories about their lives, and I felt all 520 people in that theater together, and I thought, ‘Yes, this is what I want to do.’ That experience is what I hope to bring to Ojai. It’s what OPC has been doing, and as our world continues to change, let’s get those artists and those stories here.’”

July 30 – Aug. 5: Conference Week includes play readings and early development for the stage.

Aug. 6 – 13: Festival Week includes rehearsals and continued play development, culminating in public workshops and artists’ receptions.

If you would like to support the Ojai Playwrights Conference by attending, donating, or getting involved, please visit ojaiplays.org for more information.