(writer & performer)

Rain Perry’s “Beautiful Tree” was the theme for the CW Network’s Life Unexpected, on which she also had the surreal pleasure of appearing as herself.

She has released six albums on her own Precipitous Records, as well as writing and touring a solo play called Cinderblock Bookshelves about her hippie childhood.

In 2016 she directed The Shopkeeper, a documentary about the impact of the streaming economy on the longest continuously operating recording studio in Austin.

A longtime activist, Rain has managed field offices and hotlines, conducted zoom trainings, knocked thousands of doors, and made aproximately a jillion phone calls.

Visit Rain’s website

(director)

Co-Founder of the Ojai Playwrights Conference, serving as Board Member and Director of its Youth Program. Founder/Artistic Director/Creator of The Townies, Inc., Kim Maxwell Studio, and The Townies Podcast. Co-Founder and co-Artistic Director of Theater 150.

In 30 years of serving her community, Kim Maxwell has produced three successful theater companies, 32 stage productions, 28 fundraisers, 82 readings, 12 educational outreach programs, and more than 3,500 individual pieces of original material produced in over 150 workshop productions. Kim received a Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award from the City of Ojai and was named Visionary of the Year by the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO).

Visit Kim’s website

(keyboards)

A Southern California native, Karen maintains an active schedule as a performer, teacher, composer, multi-genre keyboardist, recording artist, and is the founder of ValleyGirlBeats, a music production studio.

Karen is a versatile keyboardist who has performed and recorded with some of the most respected artists in the music scene including  Dee Dee Bridgewater, Diane Schuur, Madeline Eastman, Vinnie Colaiuta, Scott Colley, Cathy Segal-Garcia, Chris Conner, Dick Weller, Steve Cardenas,  Kenny Wollesen, Mariane McSweeny, Eric Marienthal, Putter Smith, Bob Shepherd, Ron Stout, Dawn Bishop, Gina Saputo,  Melissa Manchester, Tierney Sutton, Kate McGarry, Michael McDonald, Larry Koonse, Judy Wexler, Julie Christensen, Cris Barber, Janiva Magness, Sweet Baby Jai, and Cynthia Jones.

Visit Karen’s website

(bass & guitar)

Reputed for providing the sort of bedrock musical accompaniment that makes his employers sound their best, Turmes has supplied formidable support for the legendary likes of Mavis Staples, Tom Waits, Richard Thompson, R.L. Burnside, Gatemouth Brown and more.

His influences include composer Kurt Weill as well as such blues and R & B artists as Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and Percy Mayfield.

Jeff is also a talented painter.

Visit Jeff’s Instagram

(music director)

Producer, songwriter, engineer and multi-instrumentalist — Mark has worked with Carole King (appearing on six of her albums as a performer and producer), Ani DiFranco, Eliza Gilkyson, Slaid Cleaves, Sean Taylor, Will Sexton, Iain Matthews, Tom Russell and many more. 

His experience as a record producer has allowed him to develop mixing and mastering skills in all areas of the musical spectrum. This skill set is backed by 40 years of experience working in studios and mastering houses throughout the US, and 2 decades spent honing his own mastering environment and techniques.

Mark Hallman Mixing & Mastering

(AV Designer)

Anthony Storniolo is a video & audio worldbuilder, 3D generalist and percussionist-composer creating and collaborating in the liminal space between live performance and immersive technology.

He crafts audio/video landscapes that oscillate between control and chaos, weaving analog & digital video, sound, and live performance into experiences both gorgeous and grotesque.
Recent credits include: Prague Quadrennial, Stanford Arts, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, REDCAT, Casa 0101, Coaxial Arts, and CalArts.

Anthony is Co-Founder/Director of Creative Technology of Center for Unclassifiable Technologies and Experiences (C.U.T.E.), a creative studio shaping the future of live performance and immersive technology.

Visit Anthony’s website

(stage manager)

Vicky Yvonne is an arts fanatic who found her passion in multiple fields of this beautiful industry. From the young age of 11, she found her first passion onstage in Atlanta, Georgia and have relished every acting opportunity she has been blessed to experience ever since. She is currently living in Los Angeles as an actress and teaching artist. She hopes that she will always find the joy and freedom she found the night she first performed. 

Utilizing her craft and skills to create an artistically rich environment drives her mission to cultivate innovative creativity around the arts through teaching and administration. Dekalb School of the Arts, where she graduated from high school, created this ball of passion, talent, and dedication. North Carolina A&T, where she obtained her BFA in professional theatre with a concentration in acting gave that ball maturation and momentum. Carnegie Mellon University, where she completed her Master of Arts Management degree, polished that ball with tangibility, certainty, and drive. 

Whether she is onstage, behind/on the screen, or being a driving force in her community through teaching, she hopes that she continues to be inspired, become an inspiration, and change the quality of life, all on this world’s stage.

Visit Vicky’s website

(dramaturgy)

A culture consultant, dramaturg, producer and educator based in Southern California, LJ has extensive experience working one-on-one with artists across mediums on the development of new work. As a culture consultant and researcher, she specializes in Black Performance Heritage, connecting past performances to contemporary experiences. As a dramaturg, she believes it is critical to listen to the artist in order to understand and execute their vision. As a producer, she is invested in the future of Black theatre and Black art in Los Angeles and beyond.

She believes in the power of storytelling to both name and claim a history, while simultaneously contributing to culture. Her strong theatre background has served her well as she expands into podcasts, film and television. As an educator, she loves facilitating conversations with students of all ages.

Visit LJ’s website

(publicist)

Bertha hasbeen involved in theater production since 1998 starting in San Francisco and then in Los Angeles. She and Matthew Quinn created Combined Artform Entertainment in 1998 and later changed the name to Combined Artform, a theater production company. Together they have produced original works as well as adaptations. Bertha has worn many hats throughout the years from producer, writer, costumer, to publicist.

Some of the theater projects that Bertha has been a producer on are Revocable Trust, Campfire Stories, and Letters from Young Gay Men, directed by John Coppola; Yes, Virginia, directed by Stan Zimmerman; and Tolstoy in Suffolk, directed by Robert Ackerman. Tolstoy In Suffolk was picked by Huffington Post as one of the Los Angeles 2017 Top Ten Theater Productions. 

Visit Combined Artform’s website

(graphic designer)

Kayleigh “Bob” Morrison is a graphic designer and graduate student in Instructional Science and Technology at CSU Monterey Bay. Born and raised in Ojai, she grew up surrounded by creativity and nature.

Her work is inspired by a love for the outdoors and a passion for thoughtful, engaging design.

(advisor)

Corwin Evans is a designer of video and sound. After receiving an MFA in Sound Design from UCLA, he's worked with Center Theatre Group, Watts Village Theatre Company, and the Hollywood Fringe Festival. He spent several years as the resident Sound Designer at Ojai Playwrights Conference. Selected theatre credits include: Four Chords and a Gun (Bootleg Theater), A Bright New Boise (Rogue Machine, LA Weekly Nomination for Best Video Design), TRACERS (US Veterans' Artist Alliance/RM), The Art Couple (Sacred Fools, Ovation Nomination for Best Video Design), The Word Begins (Hip Hop Theatre Festival/RM), 4.48 Psychosis (Video, Son of Semele Ensemble). He won the Ovation Award for Best Video Design for the Los Angeles production of Plasticity.

(advisor)

In addition to being a regular contributor on the History channel, Dr. Williams has appeared on a variety of local and national radio and television programs including ABC, CNN, MSNBC, Almanac, BET, and NPR. He was featured in the Ken Burns PBS Documentary, "Jackie Robinson" and the Stanley Nelson PBS Documentary, "The Black Panthers,” as well as the new series “Kevin Costner’s The West.”

Dr. Williams' scholarly articles have appeared in the American Bar Association’s Insights on Law and Society, The Organization of American Historians Magazine of History, The Black Scholar, The Journal of Black Studies, Pennsylvania History, Delaware History, the Journal of Civil and Human Rights and the Black History Bulletin.

Visit Yohuru’s website

(advisor)

Caryn Bosson is a nonprofit expert with an entrepreneurial flair who is sharing her wisdom with a growing number of organizations, currently serving as a Senior Faculty member at California Lutheran University’s Center for Nonprofit Leadership.

In 1996 she led a year-long, community-wide planning process that laid the groundwork for the innovative Ojai Valley Youth Foundation, which she led as Executive Director for a decade, impacting thousands of young people. In 2007, Caryn joined the staff of the Los Angeles organization TreePeople, which is responsible for planting more than 2 million trees and educating more than 2 million school children since 1973. There, over the course of 9 years, Caryn played senior leadership roles including Director of Strategy and Interim Executive Director.

Caryn is a graduate of the University of California's College of Creative Studies (Literature, 1981), and of the Radcliffe Publishing Procedures Course. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including being named an Ojai Living Treasure.

Visit Caryn’s website