Ali MacLean’s new full length play The Point, a dark and comedic thriller based on the true story of a murder in the woods amongst ‘friends’, will debut at EST/LA. The official Winterfest selection of the Playwrights Unit, will open up this year’s EST/LA festival of new work. As the ‘Pick of the Playwrights Unit’ The Point, which boasts Boston accents, drug busts, brutality, and Bon Jovi, will be presented as a staged reading on Saturday, February 24th, at 8pm in the Atwater Village Theater Complex – 3269 Casitas Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90039
Funny, dark, menacing, and shocking, THE POINT explores the dangers of dating, class inequity, and the growing opioid crisis all within two small neighboring towns.
THE POINT is a dark thriller that follows a love quadrangle between a college student, a townie drug pusher, his junkie ex-girlfriend, and the hapless friend in love with the co-ed. The tension mounts when one of them is found dead. The story, told out of sequence, follows the aftermath of the death, but on a macro level it examines the rise of economic inequity along with corresponding opioid deaths.
THE POINT is set behind the “Tofu Curtain”, an invisible county line that divides the quaint Ivy college town of North Hampton from the run-down factory town of Holyoke in Western Massachusetts. While North Hampton boasts Smith College, Holyoke had the highest rate of pregnancies and STDs, and the largest heroin and Fentanyl trade in the New England area in 2023.
The cast is an ensemble of respected stage & screen actors, who have an impressive list of credits and includes: Brent Morin, Greg Winter, Michael King, Ashley Denise Robinson, Ali MacLean, Spencer Garrett, Judy Louise Johnson, William Duffy, and Lauren Campedelli.
Ali MacLean, playwright, television writer, and actor, was recently a finalist for the Woman’s Playwriting Prize UK and The Parity Commission and has been a finalist for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Kitchen Dog Theater, Scribe Playwrights, Orchard Project, Gary Marshall New Works Theater Festival, Moxie Arts, and more. She is also the recipient of the 2018 John Gassner Award. She NYC Arts Best Play, Julie Harris Playwriting Award, Best Short film at Toronto, Atlanta, Int’l Canadian, Palm Springs, Gen Art, and the David Sedaris Humor Writing Prize. Ali has been nominated for a Broadway World Award for writing, acting, and directing. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, Writers For Writers Fellowship, Summer Salt Playwriting Fellowship, Women In Film Mentee, Respectability Lab Fellowship, 1in4 Writers Coalition, Ensemble Studio Theater, Antaeus Theater Playwrights Lab, and PetCo Membership Rewards Program. Currently, Ali is developing a rock-n-roll play, based on her experiences as a radio personality. The play, This Will Be Our Year, features original music written by The Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn, and is produced by Tony Award winner Adam F. Cohen.
For more information on the 2/24/24 performance and tickets, go to: ESTLOSANGELES.ORG
More information on Ali MacLean can be found on her website: https://alimaclean.com
ALI MacLEAN 