The Ask
What does it cost to get what we need?
Time and Place

December 2022

Greta's study, an Upper West Side apartment


80 Minutes

There will be no intermission.

Matthew Freeman
Playwright

Matthew Freeman (he/him) is a New Dramatists alum, where he proudly received the Joe A. Callaway Award, and a MacDowell Colony Fellow. He was awarded the Kesselring Prize in 2021. His plays and monologues have been published by Concord, Applause, Smith & Kraus, and Playscripts. Plays include Silver Spring, That Which Isn't, Steve Burns Alive (co-writer), When Is A Clock, The Listeners, Why We Left Brooklyn, The Most Wonderful Love, and Glee Club. His audio pieces have been a part of the HearNow Festival, New Dramatists Active Listening, Atlanta Fringe Radio. Freeman is a graduate of Emerson College. He divides his time between the Western Catskills and Brooklyn with his wife, the magical author Pam Grossman. Freeman is the Producing Artistic Director of Theater Accident.

Jessi D. Hill
Director

(she/her) Director of SMALL - 2024 Nominations for Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award. New York Theatre includes: New York Theatre Workshop, Public Theater/Joe’s Pub, Playwrights Horizons, Primary Stages, LAByrinth Theater Company, Rattlestick, The Women’s Project, 59E59 Theaters, P73, The New Group, Keen Company, Clubbed Thumb, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Musical Theatre Factory, The Acting Company, The Barrow Group, New Dramatists, Playwrights Realm, New Georges. Regional Theatre includes: A.R.T, Old Globe, People’s Light, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Diversionary, TheatreSquared, Orlando Shakes and others. Her work has been seen internationally in Edinburgh, London, New Zealand, Berlin, Hamburg, Brussels, Ukraine and Rome. She currently teaches directing at Fordham and Barnard/Columbia University. MFA Directing: Yale. Website: www.jessidhill.com

Betsy Aidem
Greta

BROADWAY: Prayer For The French Republic (Tony, Drama League, Lucille Lortel, OCCA nominations and Richard Seff Award) at City Center and Broadway. Leopoldstadt (Tony, Best Play) All The Way (Tony, Best Play) Beautiful. OFF-BROADWAY: Nikolai and the Others and Road (Lincoln Center Theatre) Metal Children and Mary Rose (Vineyard) Celebration (Atlantic) Crooked (WP) Final Follies (Primary Stages) Stone Cold Dead Serious (Edge) Balm In Gilead, Lie Of The Mind and Steel Magnolias. Many regional and international appearances. TV AND FILM: Upcoming: Savant and Babka. Margaret, Irrational Man, A Vigilante, Greatest Showman, Inside Amy Schumer, Bull, Law and Order: SVU, The Americans, Madame Secretary. OBIE AWARD: Sustained Excellence of Performance. DIRECTING: A Doll's House Part 2.

Colleen Litchfield
Tanner

Colleen Litchfield (she/they) recently made their Broadway debut originating the role of Hanna in Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt (Tony Award for Best Play). Regional: Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. TV: The Crowded Room on Apple TV+. Training: BFA NYU Tisch, RADA

Natalie Rose Ibarra
Co-Producer/General Manager

Natalie Rose Ibarra (she/her/ella) is a general manager and producer who has supported productions on- and off-Broadway with Signature Theatre Company (Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; Confederates; A Case For The Existence of God), DR Theatrical Management (The Fears; Personality: The Lloyd Price Musical), and Alchemy Production Group (Melissa Etheridge: My Window; A Sign of the Times). She is delighted to be back downtown, where the creativity in the air is palpable. MFA, Performing Arts Management, Brooklyn College. rcp.natalie@gmail.com

Moira Stone
Co-Producer/Props Design

Moira Stone is a multi-disciplinary theater artist who specializes in genre- and gender-bending new work. Moira won the 2017 NYIT Award for Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role, was a 2013 inductee into the Indie Theater Hall of Fame, and is a proud member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. https://www.moirastone.com/

Cody Hom
Sound Design

Cody Hom is a Brooklyn based theater technician and is delighted to be bringing The Ask to life. Cody is an alumnus from Brooklyn College and works as a freelance sound designer, stage manager, lighting/sound programmer and is getting his feet wet in playwrighting and production management. Outside of theater, Cody is a cartoonist, graphic designer, D&D content creator on TikTok, and manages wholesale for a local chain of cafés.  Cody’s goal is to become a jack-of-all-trades, master of some. All socials: @C7Animatics

Daisy Long
Lighting Design

Daisy Long is a lighting designer for theater, opera, concert and dance. Originally from Cambridge, MA, she now lives in New York City. New York credits include: The Shed, Keen Company, BAM, Atlantic, The Barrow Group, Primary Stages, Abingdon Theater Company, Mason Holdings, HERE Arts Center, LaMaMa, NYU, AMERINDA, TADA! Youth Theater (National Youth Arts Award for Outstanding Lighting for The Perfect Monster), Manhattan School of Music. Regional credits include: Hartford Stage; Westport Country Playhouse; Everyman Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Alliance, Speakeasy Stage Company (IRNE Award for Best Lighting for The Scottsboro Boys), Kitchen Theatre Company, Yale, Connecticut College, Middlebury, Smith, Interlochen. She is the lighting director for Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, a Roundabout teaching artist, and a USA 829 member.

Craig Napoliello
Scenic Design

Regional credits Sunday In the Park With George, Santa Fe Playhouse, 39 Steps, Virginia Stage Company, River Ditty, Peter and the Starcatcher, VA Rep, I Am My Own Wife (Robert Fulton Award—Best Scenic Design), Witness For The Prosecution, Fulton Theatre, The Music Man-In Concert, Two River Theater. Off-Broadway The Ask, Wild Project,  I Forgive You, Ronald Regan, Beckett Theatre, The Bardy Bunch, St. Clement’s Theatre, Touch, 59E59, Sexual Healing, Rattapallax.  Scenic & Costume Design The Exes, Midnight Street, Theatre Row Come Light My Cigarette, St. Clement’s Theater Death of the Moon, Jerry Orbach Theatre. https://www.napoliellodesign.com/

Nicole Wee
Costume Design

(she/her) - National Tour: Martin Luther on Trial and The Great Divorce (Fellowship for the Performing Arts). Off-Broadway: Medea Re-Versed (Red Bull Theater), Desperate Measures (New World Stages), Closer Than Ever, and Storyville (Henry Hewes and Audelco nominations - Outstanding Costume Design, York Theatre Co.), Surely Goodness and Mercy (Keen Co.).   Regional: Seascape (The Alley), The Great Leap (Portland Center Stage), Vietgone (Geva Theater Center), The White Snake (Baltimore Center Stage), Indecent (Chautauqua Theater Co.). Director: Playwrights Horizons Theater School. MFA: New York University. https://www.nicolewee.com/

"Curly" Karen Schleifer
Production Stage Manager/Board Operator

“Curly” Karen Schleifer - Favorite / Selected Credits (*denotes world premiere): Off-Broadway: POOF! (Drama League’s Directorfest/Keen Company, Theatre Row) SMALL (@59E59, Penguin Rep & Chita Rivera in assn. w/ Ted Snowdon & Flying Carpet Theatre Co.), The Panic of ’29* (LessThanRent/59E59). RegionalSMALL (Lyric Theatre of OK), SMALL (People’s Light Theatre) The Shot* (NJ Rep), Secret Hour* (Capital Rep Theatre), SMALL* (Penguin Rep Theatre), To The Moon* (Creede Rep Theatre), King Lear, Pericles, As You Like It* (San Francisco Shakespeare Festival), Scrooge In Love (42nd Street Moon), Hello Again (The Drama League’s Directorfest), Driving Miss Daisy (The Laguna Playhouse), Jews, Christians & Screwing Stalin* (The Matrix). Awards Shows/Production Supervisor: (Annual) Drama League Awards & (Annual) Drama League Gala (The Drama League). An accomplished singer-songwriter (@shotguncurly), she played “Kate/Molly” for 2 years in the original Broadway production of Annie! B.A. (SUNY Purchase). Proud member AEA/SAG-AFTRA. She dedicates her theatrical career to Jennifer Straniere.

Daren A.C. Carollo
Assistant Stage Manager
Daren A.C. Carollo (he/him) is a director, producer, and stage manager. Daren’s producing company NextStage Productions, formed with long time friend and collaborator, Michael Palumbo, co-produced bare Off-Broadway with Martian Entertainment. NextStage invested in A Time to Kill with Daryl Roth and the upcoming A Wonderful World with Martian and Vanessa Williams. A San Francisco Bay Area arts leader for over 20 years, he seeks to foster new, inclusive theatre.  For all that Daren has been blessed and honored to accomplish theatrically thus far, he is most proud of his greatest accomplishment: being the father of his son, Jack.
Theater Accident

Theater Accident is dedicated to the creation and realization of live and digital performances that examine the collision between an audience and its expectations. Notable productions included Why We Left BrooklynThe Zebra Shirt of Lonely ChildrenThat Which Isn’t and The Sea The Mountains The Forest The City The Plain. Audio Dramas including Back At The Start (with David Greenspan) and Places I Have Heard Voices (with Moira Stone, directed by Jessi D. Hill). @theateraccident

The Flying Carpet Theatre Company

Incorporated in 2003, Adam Koplan (Founding Artistic Director) created The Flying Carpet Theatre Company (FCT) after spending formative time training at Playwrights Horizons in New York City and at Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris. Over 20+ years, The Flying Carpet Theatre Company has created and/or premiered 25+ original plays including early works by artists who continue to shape the American Theatre such as Robert Lopez (Avenue Q, The Book of Mormon, Frozen) and Geoff Sobelle (All Wear Bowlers, The Object Lesson, Elephant Room). We have performed our new works in our home bases of New York, NY and Atlanta, GA and have toured nationally to 17 states, and internationally to Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Dublin, Prague and Rome.

Production Staff
Production Stage Manager
"Curly" Karen Schleifer
Assistant Stage Manager
Daren A.C. Carollo
Sound & Light Board Operator
"Curly" Karen Schleifer
Lead Electrician
Jack Bebinger
Assistant Electrician
Oziel Jimenez Santos
Wardrobe Supervisor
Peter Chan


Credits
Scene Shop
BNG Industries
Lighting Equipment Rental
Christie Lites
Graphic Design
Lara Antal
Press
Emily Owens PR
Venue
wild project

This production was made possible by


The Actors and Stage Managers employed in this production are members of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.




Donors
Thank you for your generous support!

Susan Aberth

Jesse Bartel

Peter Bebergal

Kate Bittman & Nick Traverse

Emily Bohannon

Pete Boisvert

Andy Bragen

Jesse Bransford

Steven M. Burns

Kerry Lee Chipman

Tyler Christie

Maggie Cino

Djahari Clark

Angela Colasanti

Jason Consolacion

Kate Cortesi

David Cote

Michael Criscuolo

Rachel Dakarian

Rebecca Davis

Jessica deLisser

Laura Desmond

Kristoffer Diaz

Jessie Dickey

Allyson Dwyer

Edward Einhorn

Sean & Rohana Elias-Reyes

Matthew Ellis

Tim Errickson

Paul Ford

Julia C. Fox

Robert Franzblau

Max Freeman (and his parents)

Leonard & Lindsay Freeman

Carlos Garcia

Michael Gardner

Anne Gibson

Natalie Gold

Jennifer Gordon Thomas

Morgan Gould

Ian Gould

Rich & Nina Grossman

Virginia Hall

Heidi Hart

Moira Stone and Robert T.  Honeywell

Arlene Hutton

Joanna Jeros

C. Julian Jiménez

Danielle Johnson

David Johnston

Amanda Jones

Jerrod Jordahl & Rachel Dakarian

Donna Jorgensen

Elliot Joseph

Lena Kaminsky

Aditi Brennan Kapil

Michael Lasky

Susan & Joseph LeClair

Emily Lee

Jay Leibowitz

Shelley & David Lemmond

Kate Luhr

Whit MacLaughlin

Cheri Magid and Ron Riley

Kori Markel

James McElwain

Questy McQuestington

Peter Meysenburg & Amanda Morgan

Opus Moreschi

Emily Morse

Martha Mountain

Thomas Neenan

Stephen Nelson & Peter Vitale

Maureen O'Boyle

Eileen A O'Connor

John Oddy

Aya Ogawa

Matthew Paul Olmos

Brian Olsen

Doc Anthony Pennino

Caitlin Perry

Eric Pfeffinger

Jennifer Lynn Phillips

Jerry Polner

Megha Ramaswamy

Kari Adelaide and Max Razdow

Davis Robinson

Lynn Rosen

Amie Rotruck

Alessandra Ruiz

Tammy Ryan

Tom Schantz

Imran Sheikh

Crystal Skillman

Stephen Speights & Gary Shrader

Alisha Spielmann

Ariel Stess

Marguerite Stimpson & Gerry Rodriguez

Cori Thomas

The Trumbull Family

Jane Turk

David Valdes

Will Verchereau

Megan Walker

Benjamin Warfield

Nicole White

Sean & Jordana Williams

Susan Wilson

Brenda Withers

Emily Zemba

And our anonymous Donors! Thank You!

Pam Grossman, Robert Honeywell, Zachary Diamond, Hope Singsen, Tom Staggs, Josh Helman, Susan & Joe LeClair, Leonard & Lindsay Freeman, Nina & Rich Grossman, David & Erica DelGrosso, Matthew & Stephanie Trumbull, Kyle Ancowitz & Kierin Baldwin, The New Dramatists staff and community, ACLU Gift Planning team, Ben Pesner, Lynn Rosen, Steve Burns, Erin Neary, Rob Gomes, Joel Guzman, Chris Moseley, Justin Taylor, Tammy Ryan, Emily Bohannon, Andrea Kuchlewska, Leah Raymond, Sarah Lippman, Imran Sheikh, Carl Pasbjerg, Alex Stone, Lauren Tucker, and Marshall Purdy.

For their invaluable contributions to shaping and honing this play:

Stacey Raymond, Peggy J Scott, Amanda Jones, Zo Tipp, Xandra Clark, Kathryn Grody, and Mar Urzua

Dedicated to Ellen Moncure Wong, who hired me.

Although this play draws heavily on my work as a fundraiser at the ACLU, THE ASK is an imagining – a work of fiction. Neither of these characters is drawn from a real person I have met or an individual I work with at the ACLU. Even the “ACLU” in the play is the subject of dramatic license: the ACLU did not experience mass layoffs in the fall/winter of 2022, for example. I do here what so many writers have done before: employ my experience of employment to talk about something that goes, I hope, beyond it.

I also hope THE ASK displays my admiration and reverence for those that work at the ACLU - and the thousands of nonprofits, big and small, that help shape our country. And I hope it shows my empathy for, and love of, those individuals that are privileged to, and tasked with, keeping the lights on at those organizations.

Among its thicket of themes, THE ASK is about money. Money provides the outline (sometimes the chalk outline) of our lives. Even the institutions that seem to rise above the values of the marketplace wouldn’t exist without money: museums, theaters, poetry foundations, human rights organizations, food banks. People work at those places, in those fields, the work they do costs money, and that money has to come from somewhere. And so, there is an exchange of energy, of earnings, of intention, and yes, a transfer from the privileged to the less so.

Money, as much as experience, seems to define this generation’s divide. It has ever been thus, maybe, but I’m intrigued by the shape that divide takes today. There’s something stubborn and painful about it: self-defeating, heartbreaking, and energizing. I hope that in the ‘private-made-public’ in which theater excels, we can let the stage lights illuminate how we stumble through ego, emotion, duty and doubt as we try to do good in this world.

Thank you for coming to see THE ASK. And for the good you do in this world.

The Ask
What does it cost to get what we need?
Time and Place

December 2022

Greta's study, an Upper West Side apartment


80 Minutes

There will be no intermission.

Matthew Freeman
Playwright

Matthew Freeman (he/him) is a New Dramatists alum, where he proudly received the Joe A. Callaway Award, and a MacDowell Colony Fellow. He was awarded the Kesselring Prize in 2021. His plays and monologues have been published by Concord, Applause, Smith & Kraus, and Playscripts. Plays include Silver Spring, That Which Isn't, Steve Burns Alive (co-writer), When Is A Clock, The Listeners, Why We Left Brooklyn, The Most Wonderful Love, and Glee Club. His audio pieces have been a part of the HearNow Festival, New Dramatists Active Listening, Atlanta Fringe Radio. Freeman is a graduate of Emerson College. He divides his time between the Western Catskills and Brooklyn with his wife, the magical author Pam Grossman. Freeman is the Producing Artistic Director of Theater Accident.

Jessi D. Hill
Director

(she/her) Director of SMALL - 2024 Nominations for Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award. New York Theatre includes: New York Theatre Workshop, Public Theater/Joe’s Pub, Playwrights Horizons, Primary Stages, LAByrinth Theater Company, Rattlestick, The Women’s Project, 59E59 Theaters, P73, The New Group, Keen Company, Clubbed Thumb, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Musical Theatre Factory, The Acting Company, The Barrow Group, New Dramatists, Playwrights Realm, New Georges. Regional Theatre includes: A.R.T, Old Globe, People’s Light, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Diversionary, TheatreSquared, Orlando Shakes and others. Her work has been seen internationally in Edinburgh, London, New Zealand, Berlin, Hamburg, Brussels, Ukraine and Rome. She currently teaches directing at Fordham and Barnard/Columbia University. MFA Directing: Yale. Website: www.jessidhill.com

Betsy Aidem
Greta

BROADWAY: Prayer For The French Republic (Tony, Drama League, Lucille Lortel, OCCA nominations and Richard Seff Award) at City Center and Broadway. Leopoldstadt (Tony, Best Play) All The Way (Tony, Best Play) Beautiful. OFF-BROADWAY: Nikolai and the Others and Road (Lincoln Center Theatre) Metal Children and Mary Rose (Vineyard) Celebration (Atlantic) Crooked (WP) Final Follies (Primary Stages) Stone Cold Dead Serious (Edge) Balm In Gilead, Lie Of The Mind and Steel Magnolias. Many regional and international appearances. TV AND FILM: Upcoming: Savant and Babka. Margaret, Irrational Man, A Vigilante, Greatest Showman, Inside Amy Schumer, Bull, Law and Order: SVU, The Americans, Madame Secretary. OBIE AWARD: Sustained Excellence of Performance. DIRECTING: A Doll's House Part 2.

Colleen Litchfield
Tanner

Colleen Litchfield (she/they) recently made their Broadway debut originating the role of Hanna in Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt (Tony Award for Best Play). Regional: Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. TV: The Crowded Room on Apple TV+. Training: BFA NYU Tisch, RADA

Natalie Rose Ibarra
Co-Producer/General Manager

Natalie Rose Ibarra (she/her/ella) is a general manager and producer who has supported productions on- and off-Broadway with Signature Theatre Company (Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; Confederates; A Case For The Existence of God), DR Theatrical Management (The Fears; Personality: The Lloyd Price Musical), and Alchemy Production Group (Melissa Etheridge: My Window; A Sign of the Times). She is delighted to be back downtown, where the creativity in the air is palpable. MFA, Performing Arts Management, Brooklyn College. rcp.natalie@gmail.com

Moira Stone
Co-Producer/Props Design

Moira Stone is a multi-disciplinary theater artist who specializes in genre- and gender-bending new work. Moira won the 2017 NYIT Award for Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role, was a 2013 inductee into the Indie Theater Hall of Fame, and is a proud member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. https://www.moirastone.com/

Cody Hom
Sound Design

Cody Hom is a Brooklyn based theater technician and is delighted to be bringing The Ask to life. Cody is an alumnus from Brooklyn College and works as a freelance sound designer, stage manager, lighting/sound programmer and is getting his feet wet in playwrighting and production management. Outside of theater, Cody is a cartoonist, graphic designer, D&D content creator on TikTok, and manages wholesale for a local chain of cafés.  Cody’s goal is to become a jack-of-all-trades, master of some. All socials: @C7Animatics

Daisy Long
Lighting Design

Daisy Long is a lighting designer for theater, opera, concert and dance. Originally from Cambridge, MA, she now lives in New York City. New York credits include: The Shed, Keen Company, BAM, Atlantic, The Barrow Group, Primary Stages, Abingdon Theater Company, Mason Holdings, HERE Arts Center, LaMaMa, NYU, AMERINDA, TADA! Youth Theater (National Youth Arts Award for Outstanding Lighting for The Perfect Monster), Manhattan School of Music. Regional credits include: Hartford Stage; Westport Country Playhouse; Everyman Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Alliance, Speakeasy Stage Company (IRNE Award for Best Lighting for The Scottsboro Boys), Kitchen Theatre Company, Yale, Connecticut College, Middlebury, Smith, Interlochen. She is the lighting director for Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, a Roundabout teaching artist, and a USA 829 member.

Craig Napoliello
Scenic Design

Regional credits Sunday In the Park With George, Santa Fe Playhouse, 39 Steps, Virginia Stage Company, River Ditty, Peter and the Starcatcher, VA Rep, I Am My Own Wife (Robert Fulton Award—Best Scenic Design), Witness For The Prosecution, Fulton Theatre, The Music Man-In Concert, Two River Theater. Off-Broadway The Ask, Wild Project,  I Forgive You, Ronald Regan, Beckett Theatre, The Bardy Bunch, St. Clement’s Theatre, Touch, 59E59, Sexual Healing, Rattapallax.  Scenic & Costume Design The Exes, Midnight Street, Theatre Row Come Light My Cigarette, St. Clement’s Theater Death of the Moon, Jerry Orbach Theatre. https://www.napoliellodesign.com/

Nicole Wee
Costume Design

(she/her) - National Tour: Martin Luther on Trial and The Great Divorce (Fellowship for the Performing Arts). Off-Broadway: Medea Re-Versed (Red Bull Theater), Desperate Measures (New World Stages), Closer Than Ever, and Storyville (Henry Hewes and Audelco nominations - Outstanding Costume Design, York Theatre Co.), Surely Goodness and Mercy (Keen Co.).   Regional: Seascape (The Alley), The Great Leap (Portland Center Stage), Vietgone (Geva Theater Center), The White Snake (Baltimore Center Stage), Indecent (Chautauqua Theater Co.). Director: Playwrights Horizons Theater School. MFA: New York University. https://www.nicolewee.com/

"Curly" Karen Schleifer
Production Stage Manager/Board Operator

“Curly” Karen Schleifer - Favorite / Selected Credits (*denotes world premiere): Off-Broadway: POOF! (Drama League’s Directorfest/Keen Company, Theatre Row) SMALL (@59E59, Penguin Rep & Chita Rivera in assn. w/ Ted Snowdon & Flying Carpet Theatre Co.), The Panic of ’29* (LessThanRent/59E59). RegionalSMALL (Lyric Theatre of OK), SMALL (People’s Light Theatre) The Shot* (NJ Rep), Secret Hour* (Capital Rep Theatre), SMALL* (Penguin Rep Theatre), To The Moon* (Creede Rep Theatre), King Lear, Pericles, As You Like It* (San Francisco Shakespeare Festival), Scrooge In Love (42nd Street Moon), Hello Again (The Drama League’s Directorfest), Driving Miss Daisy (The Laguna Playhouse), Jews, Christians & Screwing Stalin* (The Matrix). Awards Shows/Production Supervisor: (Annual) Drama League Awards & (Annual) Drama League Gala (The Drama League). An accomplished singer-songwriter (@shotguncurly), she played “Kate/Molly” for 2 years in the original Broadway production of Annie! B.A. (SUNY Purchase). Proud member AEA/SAG-AFTRA. She dedicates her theatrical career to Jennifer Straniere.

Daren A.C. Carollo
Assistant Stage Manager
Daren A.C. Carollo (he/him) is a director, producer, and stage manager. Daren’s producing company NextStage Productions, formed with long time friend and collaborator, Michael Palumbo, co-produced bare Off-Broadway with Martian Entertainment. NextStage invested in A Time to Kill with Daryl Roth and the upcoming A Wonderful World with Martian and Vanessa Williams. A San Francisco Bay Area arts leader for over 20 years, he seeks to foster new, inclusive theatre.  For all that Daren has been blessed and honored to accomplish theatrically thus far, he is most proud of his greatest accomplishment: being the father of his son, Jack.
Theater Accident

Theater Accident is dedicated to the creation and realization of live and digital performances that examine the collision between an audience and its expectations. Notable productions included Why We Left BrooklynThe Zebra Shirt of Lonely ChildrenThat Which Isn’t and The Sea The Mountains The Forest The City The Plain. Audio Dramas including Back At The Start (with David Greenspan) and Places I Have Heard Voices (with Moira Stone, directed by Jessi D. Hill). @theateraccident

The Flying Carpet Theatre Company

Incorporated in 2003, Adam Koplan (Founding Artistic Director) created The Flying Carpet Theatre Company (FCT) after spending formative time training at Playwrights Horizons in New York City and at Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris. Over 20+ years, The Flying Carpet Theatre Company has created and/or premiered 25+ original plays including early works by artists who continue to shape the American Theatre such as Robert Lopez (Avenue Q, The Book of Mormon, Frozen) and Geoff Sobelle (All Wear Bowlers, The Object Lesson, Elephant Room). We have performed our new works in our home bases of New York, NY and Atlanta, GA and have toured nationally to 17 states, and internationally to Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Dublin, Prague and Rome.

Production Staff
Production Stage Manager
"Curly" Karen Schleifer
Assistant Stage Manager
Daren A.C. Carollo
Sound & Light Board Operator
"Curly" Karen Schleifer
Lead Electrician
Jack Bebinger
Assistant Electrician
Oziel Jimenez Santos
Wardrobe Supervisor
Peter Chan


Credits
Scene Shop
BNG Industries
Lighting Equipment Rental
Christie Lites
Graphic Design
Lara Antal
Press
Emily Owens PR
Venue
wild project

This production was made possible by


The Actors and Stage Managers employed in this production are members of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.




Donors
Thank you for your generous support!

Susan Aberth

Jesse Bartel

Peter Bebergal

Kate Bittman & Nick Traverse

Emily Bohannon

Pete Boisvert

Andy Bragen

Jesse Bransford

Steven M. Burns

Kerry Lee Chipman

Tyler Christie

Maggie Cino

Djahari Clark

Angela Colasanti

Jason Consolacion

Kate Cortesi

David Cote

Michael Criscuolo

Rachel Dakarian

Rebecca Davis

Jessica deLisser

Laura Desmond

Kristoffer Diaz

Jessie Dickey

Allyson Dwyer

Edward Einhorn

Sean & Rohana Elias-Reyes

Matthew Ellis

Tim Errickson

Paul Ford

Julia C. Fox

Robert Franzblau

Max Freeman (and his parents)

Leonard & Lindsay Freeman

Carlos Garcia

Michael Gardner

Anne Gibson

Natalie Gold

Jennifer Gordon Thomas

Morgan Gould

Ian Gould

Rich & Nina Grossman

Virginia Hall

Heidi Hart

Moira Stone and Robert T.  Honeywell

Arlene Hutton

Joanna Jeros

C. Julian Jiménez

Danielle Johnson

David Johnston

Amanda Jones

Jerrod Jordahl & Rachel Dakarian

Donna Jorgensen

Elliot Joseph

Lena Kaminsky

Aditi Brennan Kapil

Michael Lasky

Susan & Joseph LeClair

Emily Lee

Jay Leibowitz

Shelley & David Lemmond

Kate Luhr

Whit MacLaughlin

Cheri Magid and Ron Riley

Kori Markel

James McElwain

Questy McQuestington

Peter Meysenburg & Amanda Morgan

Opus Moreschi

Emily Morse

Martha Mountain

Thomas Neenan

Stephen Nelson & Peter Vitale

Maureen O'Boyle

Eileen A O'Connor

John Oddy

Aya Ogawa

Matthew Paul Olmos

Brian Olsen

Doc Anthony Pennino

Caitlin Perry

Eric Pfeffinger

Jennifer Lynn Phillips

Jerry Polner

Megha Ramaswamy

Kari Adelaide and Max Razdow

Davis Robinson

Lynn Rosen

Amie Rotruck

Alessandra Ruiz

Tammy Ryan

Tom Schantz

Imran Sheikh

Crystal Skillman

Stephen Speights & Gary Shrader

Alisha Spielmann

Ariel Stess

Marguerite Stimpson & Gerry Rodriguez

Cori Thomas

The Trumbull Family

Jane Turk

David Valdes

Will Verchereau

Megan Walker

Benjamin Warfield

Nicole White

Sean & Jordana Williams

Susan Wilson

Brenda Withers

Emily Zemba

And our anonymous Donors! Thank You!

Pam Grossman, Robert Honeywell, Zachary Diamond, Hope Singsen, Tom Staggs, Josh Helman, Susan & Joe LeClair, Leonard & Lindsay Freeman, Nina & Rich Grossman, David & Erica DelGrosso, Matthew & Stephanie Trumbull, Kyle Ancowitz & Kierin Baldwin, The New Dramatists staff and community, ACLU Gift Planning team, Ben Pesner, Lynn Rosen, Steve Burns, Erin Neary, Rob Gomes, Joel Guzman, Chris Moseley, Justin Taylor, Tammy Ryan, Emily Bohannon, Andrea Kuchlewska, Leah Raymond, Sarah Lippman, Imran Sheikh, Carl Pasbjerg, Alex Stone, Lauren Tucker, and Marshall Purdy.

For their invaluable contributions to shaping and honing this play:

Stacey Raymond, Peggy J Scott, Amanda Jones, Zo Tipp, Xandra Clark, Kathryn Grody, and Mar Urzua

Dedicated to Ellen Moncure Wong, who hired me.

Although this play draws heavily on my work as a fundraiser at the ACLU, THE ASK is an imagining – a work of fiction. Neither of these characters is drawn from a real person I have met or an individual I work with at the ACLU. Even the “ACLU” in the play is the subject of dramatic license: the ACLU did not experience mass layoffs in the fall/winter of 2022, for example. I do here what so many writers have done before: employ my experience of employment to talk about something that goes, I hope, beyond it.

I also hope THE ASK displays my admiration and reverence for those that work at the ACLU - and the thousands of nonprofits, big and small, that help shape our country. And I hope it shows my empathy for, and love of, those individuals that are privileged to, and tasked with, keeping the lights on at those organizations.

Among its thicket of themes, THE ASK is about money. Money provides the outline (sometimes the chalk outline) of our lives. Even the institutions that seem to rise above the values of the marketplace wouldn’t exist without money: museums, theaters, poetry foundations, human rights organizations, food banks. People work at those places, in those fields, the work they do costs money, and that money has to come from somewhere. And so, there is an exchange of energy, of earnings, of intention, and yes, a transfer from the privileged to the less so.

Money, as much as experience, seems to define this generation’s divide. It has ever been thus, maybe, but I’m intrigued by the shape that divide takes today. There’s something stubborn and painful about it: self-defeating, heartbreaking, and energizing. I hope that in the ‘private-made-public’ in which theater excels, we can let the stage lights illuminate how we stumble through ego, emotion, duty and doubt as we try to do good in this world.

Thank you for coming to see THE ASK. And for the good you do in this world.