Ali MacLean’s provocative play Wolves At The Door has taken the first prize, the Julie Harris Playwright Award, given by the Beverly Hills Theatre Guild.
The Beverly Hills Theatre Guild annually sponsors the Julie Harris Playwright Awards Competition to discover new theatrical works and to encourage established or emerging writers to create quality works for the theatre. The Julie Harris Playwright Awards Competition offers the following prizes:
FIRST PRIZE: $3,500 — The Janet and Maxwell Salter Playwright Award.
SECOND PRIZE: $2,500 — The Dr. Henry and Lilian Nesburn Playwright Award.
THIRD PRIZE: $1,500 — The Ruth Flinkman-Marandy and Ben Marandy Award.
MacLean will be awarded the Salter Award for Wolves At The Door.
Wolves At The Door is a story about a couple – Grace and Gavin, who lost their daughter Lucy in a shooting where she was in the wrong place, wrong time. The shooter, Marc, had returned to work to kill his co-worker in an ‘incel’ styled revenge plot. Lucy was at a dance class in the building next door and was collateral damage. While grieving, Grace is bombarded by a stream of visitors, all who seem to want to exploit her in some manner. A Pastor wants her to convert and be the face of the ministry. A psychic wants her to connect with her daughter and be an advertisement for her popular practice. A cop who was at the shooting wants absolution. Her ex-husband, Mitch, wants custody of half of his daughter’s ashes. Meanwhile, Grace and Gavin grapple with the harassment of ‘hoaxers’ who don’t believe that Lucy is dead, and their own relationship woes, as one of them wants to heal and one isn’t ready to move on.
Julie Harris is widely regarded as the most respected and honored stage actress in America. Playwrights have created roles for her, critics have lavished praise on her, audiences have adored her in the theater, in the movies, on television. For decades, her awards for her stage performances in I Am a Camera (1952), The Lark (1956), Forty Carats (1969), The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (1973) and The Belle of Amherst (1977), gave her the distinction of winning more Tony Awards than any other performer. Her 10 nominations were likewise unequaled. Then in 2002, she was honored with yet another Tony, The Lifetime Achievement Award, securing her place in the record books for decades to come. Julie Harris has been recognized as the soul of the American theater. She is that rare artist who has devoted her life to the stage—on Broadway and off, and in theaters, large and small, throughout the nation.
Ali MacLean 