This Will Be Our Year Workshop

Help us take This Will Be Our Year on the road!

Ali adapted her play This Will Be Our Year into a play with music, collaborating with rock singer Craig Finn from the band The Hold Steady.

They teamed up with musical director and composer Kris Kukul from Beetlejuice The Musical and Sing Street The Musical to create arrangements for the show and work with the rock band.

Ali met Tony-winning producer Adam F. Cohen (Fat Ham, Parade, Suffs, Water for Elephants) through a networking event. Adam loved her pitch and the script and wanted to make this show happen.

This Will Be Our Year is a rock-n-roll Greek tragedy about a star-crossed love affair between a British rock star and a New York designer. The story takes place in the '90s and '00s and tackles addiction, toxic love, and fate.

Someone recently called it Sid and Nancy meets Notting Hill.

Recently the show has been offered performance slots from several different theaters in London. There are ALSO opportunities workshop here in the States in NYC with prestigious theater institutions.

We will be doing multi-phase fundraising, but we are currently recording a demo of Craig's songs with the band, and for upcoming travel costs.

So, we humbly ask that you donate whatever you are able to give.

You will be helping us immensely, and helping our cause of promoting awareness about addiction and mental illness.

Thank you!!!

Team TWBOY

Our story:

Award-winning playwright/actor/director Ali MacLean wrote This Will Be Our Year while recuperating from a long illness. The story is inspired by music biz people Ali crossed paths with during her time as a radio personality in the early 00s, and the characters Hugo and Gen are modeled after Greek mythology's Jason and Glauce.

The play is the second in her Zombies Trilogy, plays based on songs by the 60's rock group The Zombies. Her plays She's Not There, This Will Be Our Year, and I'll Call You Mine all explore relationships from a different toxic theme.

Early versions of this show were developed at Antaeus Theater Playwrights Lab, EST/LA, and Citadel of Playwrights, where Ali was the Artist in Residence. The show had workshops at SHE/LA Arts festival, including two shows at the Zephyr Theater, directed by Jason Weiss.

Ali performed in the show as Gen with Scottish actor Adam Sinclair playing Hugo. The show was nominated for five Broadway World Awards, including Best Play, Best Actor for Sinclar, and Best Actress for MacLean. The show has since received great reviews and Ali was also profiled for Broadway World's online publication.

But this show, about a British rock star, was missing something...rock.

So, Ali teamed up with Craig Finn, frontman of the cult favorite rock band The Hold Steady. The band just released their 9th album The Price of Progress, and are touring to celebrate their 20th anniversary together.

Craig has written some fantastic original songs for This Will Be Our Year. Hugo and the fictional band, May Day will perform these songs throughout the show.

After retooling the script and getting the songs down, Ali and Craig began collaborating with producer Adam Cohen (Suffs, Parade, Fat Ham) and musical director and arranger Kris Kukul (Beetlejuice on Broadway, David Byrne's Joan of Arc).

Now, this isn't just a kick-ass, funny, heartbreaking, rock opera. It's also not just a nostalgic love story set in the ever-changing music era of grunge, Brit pop, Lillith Fair, rap rock, and coffeehouse crooners. Nor is it merely a diegetic musical/rock concert/love story with high-profile and critically acclaimed musicians behind the music...it's also a cause.

Our team believes that theater can be a salve for this world because it fosters empathy. As a mental health advocate and partner with MTV for Mental Health Action Day, MacLean is committed to representing this in her work and making sure that her work is disability inclusive.

This play centers on addiction, with raw and gritty portrayals of alcohol, emotional, and physical abuse. The effect is intended. The show has linked with non-profits like MusiCares, to help those who struggle with addiction or mental health. We intend on having literature and resources at each show.

Their story:

This Will Be Our Year (A Star Is Born meets The Last 5 Years and American Idiot) follows the star-crossed love affair between Gen, a struggling New York jewelry designer, and Hugo, a fledgling British rock star, over the span of ten years as they come together, fall apart, and destroy each other’s lives. Hugo’s band, May Day, serves as an indie rock Greek chorus, playing out Hugo’s emotional soundtrack at different stages of their lives - and a decade of ever-changing music and pop culture in the late 90s and early aughts.

Thank you for your support!