INTERVIEW: Divide between liberals, progressives explored in new play
Photo: The Ask stars, from left, Betsy Aidem and Colleen Litchfield. Photo courtesy of Kent Meister / Provided by Emily Owens PR with permission.
The new play The Ask certainly hits home for writer Matthew Freeman. He crafted the narrative, in part, based on his time fundraising for the American Civil Liberties Union, better known as the ACLU. Now the show is premiering off-Broadway with a talented cast of performers, including Betsy Aidem and Colleen Litchfield. Performances continue through Sept. 28 at the wild project, and the run is co-produced by Theater Accident and the Flying Carpet Theatre Company. Jessi D. Hill directs the 80-minute two-hander.
In the show, according to press notes, a young fundraiser has a conversation with a liberal donor, and they come to realize there’s a generational divide between their outlook on life and ideas of progressivism.
Recently the playwright exchanged emails with Hollywood Soapbox and explained how The Ask was first developed. Freeman’s previous theatrical credits include Silver Spring, That Which Isn’t, Bluebeard, When Is a Clock and The Listeners, among others. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What was your experience like working with the ACLU?
It’s still wonderful! I am still an employee of the ACLU, proudly. Honestly, I’ve always felt really lucky to be a part of the team I’m on there. The development team is best-in-class across the nonprofit world; it’s just a remarkable group of people and, I think, at the front of conversations about power dynamics in fundraising and community centric fundraising and acknowledging the complexity at the heart of trying to do this work. It’s taught me so much about how to boldly ask, what kind of battles to pick and when to just be grateful.
Did your fundraising experience at the ACLU directly influence the writing of this play?
Absolutely. To be clear: This is a play, and it works like a play. You’ll rarely have a fundraising conversation in real life as harrowing as the one I’m portraying. There’s quite a lot of dramatic license because that’s why we come to the theater: something elevated and rich. But just the basic shape of a visit about supporting nonprofit work, and the terminology of it and the tactics involved, that’s all what I’m putting to work in this play. And, of course, the objections that folks have to the work create natural obstacles for a character to try to overcome or negotiate around.
Do you feel this commentary on the current progressive movement is timely because of the presidential election?
I think it’s evergreen. The election certainly matters this one feels like an existential test of what the United States is, at this moment, to me. But if I put this play in the 1960s, you might see a 1950s traditionalist in a white button-down shirt trying to figure out how to talk to someone wearing a peace sign and a poncho. The progressive/liberal divide feels like a forever problem, and so it’s about now, but also about the last election cycle, and probably many cycles to come.
Ultimately what do you feel a play like The Ask is attempting to accomplish? Are you trying to change minds? Offer a mirror to the audience?
I think people change their own minds if they’re given the time and space and information they need. The best way to fail to change someone’s mind is to lecture them. So, I think The Ask is just trying to talk about what causes us to speak past each other and fail to connect: money, ego, isolation, the feeling of being put out to pasture, making assumptions about each other.
What’s it like to work with Betsy Aidem and Colleen Litchfield?
They’re incredible performers, but also, just wonderful human beings. It’s been a pleasure to get to know them as people. Jessi Hill, the director, worked more closely with Betsy and Colleen than I did in the rehearsal room, and I know it was an ambitious, productive process that took a raw play and made it a refined one. Also, actors are lie detector tests. They could tell when something wasn’t landing before I could, and it always made the play better.
How difficult is it to mount a new play in New York City right now?
It’s difficult. Even if I sold every single seat I have available for this run, I will not make back the money the play cost. Things cost a lot. People don’t want to pay a lot, and there’s this double-whammy of better home entertainment than ever and a pandemic that broke people’s live theater habits. It’s rough. But no one told me that making plays was going to make me rich or make my life easy: They told me the opposite. So it seems not-quite-right to feign shock at the challenge. It’s always been a challenge. The question is, why meet that challenge? And I think the answer is: I love this work and the life it’s inspired me to live.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Ask, written by Matthew Freeman, continues at the wild project through Sept. 28. Click here for more information and tickets.
