Solofest 2020 Presents World Premiere of GETTING THERE!

Rebecca O'Brien is a survivor, and she's back! Now in remission from a bout with cancer, the writer-performer re-enacts her miraculously healing encounters with strangers as she rode the bus on Fairfax Avenue in Hollywood, to and from her treatments at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

"The strangers on the bus have become family," O'Brien said. "Riding the bus has been magical."

In the show she describes as "bus stories that are funny, poignant and maybe a little shocking, "O'Brien plays some nine of the characters she met while traveling the Metro Bus during her medical care. She remembers a man who delayed getting off the bus until she caught up with it, so that she didn't have to wait for the next ride, and another time when she, in turn, held the bus for a frantic blond rider.

"If you're open-minded to finding intimacy in your life, you can increase your odds of survival," O'Brien remarked, adding, "These stories popped out of me, effortlessly, at crucial period in my life. People will see the bus in a completely different way. They will understand, and their eyes will be opened to the real humanity on the bus."

A versatile veteran of stage, screen and standup, O'Brien is the recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Natalie Schafer Award for an emerging comic actress. She was also nominated by the LA Weekly for a Best Supporting Actress Award and again by the Weekly in the category of Best Comedic Performance by a female.

She has appeared in such plays as "Wearing My Own Brassiere," which she wrote, "Once in a Lifetime," "The Women," "Rebeck Revisited," and numerous other productions around Los Angeles. Her film credits include leading roles in "Curdled," with Keke Palmer, "Come as You Are," with James Russo among several other vehicles. She has been seen on television in "The Perfect Woman," "Another World," "NYPD Blue," "Jimmy Kimmel Live," "ER," "The Tonight Show," "Up All Night," and many other shows. She has also co-written and stars in a web series, "Aunt Norah unleashed!" that should be out shortly.

O'Brien has plans to take "Getting There!" on the road and perhaps bringing it to the screen.

"Getting There" performs one night only, on Sunday, January 19, 7:30 pm, at the Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks. Reservations: https://gettingthere.brownpapertickets.com. Tickets are $25.00 until Jan. 17 at 8:00 pm. - then ticket price increases to $40.00.

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