PLAYWRIGHTS TO CONVENE IN OJAI.

Byline: P. CATHERINE SHANKS Community Columnist

Fans of summer theater will enjoy a comfortable country retreat when an assembly of leading contemporary playwrights breezes into the valley for the second annual Ojai Playwrights Conference.

The three-day conference provides visitors with a rare glimpse into the private world of the playwright. Audience members actively participate in reviewing the developing works by contributing their comments, reviews and suggestions. At the conclusion of each reading, the playwright, actors and production staff all invite input from audience members in attendance. According to conference artistic director Chris Fields, this active participation on the part of unbiased theatergoers is essential to the playwright process.

``The litmus of truth lies in the audience responses,'' Fields said. The director referred to the audience as ``the great leveler.''

The event will begin Friday and is to feature six works by 11 accomplished writers.

Fields designed the Ojai event using the acclaimed Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and the Marbolo Music Festival as models. He established the conference, mounted by the Los Angeles-based Echo Theater Company and Theater 150 in Ojai, to assist emerging playwrights in their creative process and to showcase the works of some of the finest writers in the country.

``We are edging up on accomplishing more of the mission of the conference,'' said the director. Fields said that four of the plays will be staged to allow for more accurate rendering and fine-tuning of the scripts, as well as to treat the audience to a more theatrical experience.

Playwright Heather Dundas looks upon the conference as a way to be seen and heard, and as a way to commune with writers, actors and directors in a collegial way. Her contribution to the event is a humorous and insightful treatment of love, marriage, forgiveness and betrayal titled ``Rules for Cheaters.''

``The whole idea of having rules comes into question,'' Dundas said of her work, which challenges social mores and takes a solid whack at the play-writing establishment.

``This is my attack on old-fashioned, male-dominated play-writing,'' Dundas said. ``The accepted norm that we've been given isn't necessarily all the art form can be.''

Dundas applauded the Ojai Playwrights Conference for bridging the gaps in the Southern California theater scene. ``I cut my teeth on small theater,'' she said, adding that she looks upon the event as a vehicle to help her step into midsize theater.

New York-based playwright Quincy Long said the conference lends geographical focus to the widespread Southern California theater community. Long said his work takes him to unique and unusual locales as he spends a great deal of time following his plays from production to production and state to state.

His latest play, ``The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite,'' was commissioned by the Mark Taper Forum and won a 1996 Fund for New American Plays award. The production, which originally began as a film pitch, saw a long, circuitous journey to its eventual stage production in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.

Describing himself as an intuitive writer, Long said he has composed about a dozen plays and a few screenplays. ``If the powers that be like the play, you go from there,'' he said.

At the conference, Long's ``Year of the Baby'' is to be read. A tale of baby thievery and life on the lam, the play is described as a whimsical folk play about some of life's simple miracles. The author refers to his work as a Samuel Beckett-style piece in which he has incorporated spontaneous bursts of song.

Rounding out the readings will be works by Adam Rapp, Neena Beeber and Kira Obolensky, and a combined effort written by Bernardo Solano, Cybele May, Deborah Pearl, Heather Dundas, Kevin Crowley and Rick Cleveland. A contingent of experienced actors from across Southern California will play the roles.

Readings will take place at the Zalk Theater and amphitheater complex on the grounds of Happy Valley School, located at 8585 Highway 150 in Ojai. Afternoon and evening readings are scheduled. Some of the plays contain adult material.

Seating is festival style, and tickets are $10 per seat, per reading. A limited number of rehearsal passes offering unlimited rehearsal attendance are also available at $10 each. To reserve seats and for additional information, call [phone].

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PHOTO Director Peter Birkenhead, standing at left, takes part in the first Ojai Playwrights Conference. The second conference will begin Friday.