SHE'S NOT THERE Comes to Theatre West This Month

She's Not There is about Rob and Anna. When Rob meets Anna, he thinks she is the one. When Anna meets Rob, she thinks she can finally be happy. But there is a third party in the relationship that may destroy their union. Every night a shadowy monster called The Form seeps from the walls of Anna's apartment and tries to kill her. This play anthropomorphizes depression and explores how mental illness can devastate a person and the lives of those around them.

She's Not There is the winner of the John Gassner Playwrighting prize and She NYC Arts Best Play. It was also a finalist for the Kitchen Dog Theatre Festival, the Pegasus PlayLabs, The New American Voices Contest, the Ross Foundation Playwrights Program, the 2019 Scribe Marsha A. Croyle Award, and a semi-finalist for the Gary Marshall Theatre New Works Festival, and Screencraft Best Stage Play Competition. The play was part of the She NYC Arts Festival where it was performed at the Zephyr Theater where it garnered MacLean a Broadway World Best Directing Award nomination. After the show, representatives from NAMI Foundation and Didi Hirsch Mental Health Facility were on hand to answer questions and give advice. Maclean's goal for the show is to foster empathy and create a dialogue about something that is all too often stigmatized and swept under the rug.

Ali MacLean, an award-winning writer, actor, director, and mental health advocate in Los Angeles, is a graduate of the Miami University actor's program and the LaJolla Playhouse Conservatory. Her play She's Not There received the John Gassner Playwriting Award and the She NYC Arts Best Play Award, as well as a Broadway World Best Director nod. Her play Wolves At The Door won the Julie Harris Playwright Award and was a finalist for the O'Neill National Playwright's Conference, New American Voices, and Creed Repertory's Festival. In 2020 she participated in the 24-Hour Plays Viral Monologues alongside Kenneth Lonergan and Matthew Broderick. Her play This Will Be Our Year was showcased at the Zephyr Theater and she is workshopping a new version with music by Craig Finn. She has also worked with ANDTheatre, the Playwrights Realm, The Tank NYC, White Bear Theatre (UK), The Road Theatre, and Summer Salt, among others. Ali is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre's Playwrights Unit, Antaeus Theatre's Playwrights Lab, The Honor Roll, The Cloud Factory, Citadel of Playwrights, Greenlight Women, and the Dramatists Guild. Her work is published by Nation Books, Applause Books, and Smith & Kraus.

Ali has written for networks such as MTV, VH-1, FOX, and the POP Network. Her award-winning short films have screened at Atlanta, Toronto, Gen Art, and Palm Springs, to name a few. She was selected and received an honorable mention, for the Stowe Story Labs and is a Women in Film Mentor recipient, Writers For Writers Fellowship recipient, and a participant in the Respectability Entertainment Lab. Her comedy pilot Lady Killer placed in the top ten at ISA's Table Read My Screenplay was selected for Coverfly's Pitchweek, and Reading Series and was in their top 2%. She is the winner of the David Sedaris Humor Writing Prize, and also a member of the Imagine Impact creator network, the Sundance Collective, and the Petco Rewards Program.

The cast of this reading of She's Not There includes Carly Chaikin, Brent Morin, Josh Meyers, Stephen Tobolowsky, Logan Marshall-Green, Arden Teresa Lewis, Arye Gross, Ari Wojciech, Juliet Lopez, Ali MacLean and Marcelo Tubert.

A Q&A will follow the reading with a representative from NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness).

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