Ojai Playwrights Conference
(View the whole set)*
So, tonight was pretty awesome. Elaina, Gen and I went to the Ojai Playwrights Conference, which was held in a junior high auditorium in Ojai (which happens to be about as rural as I've encountered so far in California). The participants were, in no particular order: Steven Weber, Neil Patrick Harris, David Burtka, Zachary Quinto, Tyne Daly, Dana Delany, Jane Leeves, and Dick Van Dyke.
The theme of the night was Money, and all the scenes they read from had to do with, well, money. It started with a David Mamet scene on the outgoing president, which was hilarious (NPH as the president without a clue). There was one on waitresses, one about a playwright-gone-Hollywood (by the writer of Doubt?), one from Death of a Salesman, a really funny piece about Medea, one about a $200,000 modern white painting, a stockholders meeting, a mother/daughter chat about prostitution, and it ended with a hysterical scene from Moliere's The Miser, complete with really terrible French accents (which everyone except Dick Van Dyke sported; he said one line without an accent, turned to the audience and said, "I'm not doing a French accent. I'm from Illinois!").
Everyone looked like they were having an absolute ball up there, the audience was great, and it was an excellent way to spend an evening. In fact, next year I might even go to the dinner and auction afterward.
Way cool. WAY cool. All of it!
*About the pictures... you would think that after taking photos every day for two years straight, I'd have learned how to use my camera properly. Apparently I have not quite figured out the setting to maximize clarity without a flash. Oh well.