The Playwrights
The OC-Centric New Play Festival strives to showcase the talent of both budding and seasoned playwrights.
Take a look at our impressive roster for our 11th Annual OC-Centric New Play Festival.
Robert Riemer
Author of Kate
Robert Riemer’s Grace Note was produced in the OC-centric New Play Festival in 2015 and named “Orange County’s Best Original Show” of 2015 by the Orange Curtain Review. His other plays, many of them produced by ZJU Theater Group in North Hollywood, include Sotto Voce and Hosea Nova: A Jealous and Violent Man (both LA WEEKLY Picks of the Week), The Fainting Couch, A Memory of What Might Have Been, Redhead, Whore’s Bath (ZJU Theatre Group) and Splendid Misery (produced at both ZJU and the Actors Temple Theatre in NYC). Also a distinguished painter, he is a graduate of the College of Fine Arts at UCLA.
Baylee Shlichtman
Author of The House of Flightless Birds
Baylee Shlichtman is a writer local to Orange County. She has had her work read or developed with Long Beach Playhouse, AlterTheater Ensemble, Nelson Hall at Elim Park, The Curtis Theatre, The Playground Experiment, Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative, and the Orange County Playwrights Alliance. Baylee has been a winner of the inaugural Curtis Theatre Amplify Initiative, a winner and a finalist for the OC-Centric New Works Festival, and a finalist for Spectrum Theatre Ensemble’s Neurodivergent New Play Initiative. She graduated from USC in May 2020 with a B.A. in Journalism.
Gillian Gonzales
Author of Marcello & Musetta Break up For Good
Gillian Gonzales is both a playwright and actor. She has multiple stage acting credits from around Orange County, as well as a recurring role on actual-play tabletop RPG podcast APON Plays: Vaesen. She has a degree in theatre arts from Orange Coast College, and has written for the OCC Student Repertory for many of their original work festivals. She plans to continue her theatrical education, studying both acting and writing for the stage. (And, she sends a special thank you to her mother, her friends, and her two cats for their endless support.)
Craig Holland
Author of LOL
Craig Holland is thrilled to have his comedy LOL selected for OC-Centric. This OC playwright is also a member of North Hollywood's Group Repertory Theatre, and his one-act You Only Live Once was recently in Group Rep's current outdoor production, Motel 66.. His previous productions include the one-acts Class Project and Phubbing (Group Rep) and A Cheesy Christmas (Group Rep, Lubbock Community Theatre), and Love Is A Crocodile, a full-length romantic comedy produced at Grand Central Arts Center by the Misfits Theatre Company. More information about Craig is featured on NewPlayExchange.org and his official website: www.craigbholland.com.
Jordan R. Young
Author of Kvetcher In The Wry
Jordan is a writer and performing arts historian and whose work has appeared in newspapers, magazines, travel guides, and online media. He is a native of Los Angeles whose plays have been produced Off Off Broadway (by Ticket 2 Eternity), in Hollywood for radio broadcast (California Artists Radio Theatre) and the Hollywood Fringe Festival, as well as the Kauai Shorts Festival, and the Melbourne Fringe Festival. The opening monologue from Kvetcher In the Wry is slated for publication in The Best Men's Monologues of 2021 (Smith & Kraus). His books include Acting Solo, The Beckett Actor, and Spike Jones Off the Record; his non-fiction has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other publications. A CSUF graduate Jordan is a former travel writer for AAA and a board member of Orange County Playwrights Alliance. www.jordanryoung.com
