THE PLAY

Conversation Design follows three friends—artists and conversation designers (the people who teach AI to talk)—who come of age as artificial intelligence does. Hired by a San Francisco startup to build a top-secret product, they become each other’s confidants, collaborators, and surrogate family, wrestling with questions of art, ethics, and motherhood as they unwittingly lay the groundwork for the very technology that threatens to replace them. A play about female friendship, the role of the artist in the age of AI, and the fundamental need for human connection that technology can never replace.

PROJECT IMPACT

Conversation Design is a play for our time. As we navigate the AI boom, all of us must grapple with questions about whether the advantages of this new technology are worth the risks to privacy, creativity, and human connection. In this current landscape, Conversation Design is an urgent new play, that explores the deeply human consequences of replacing people with algorithms.

OUR NEXT STEP

We held a reading of the play in July 2026 at the HOWL New Play Festival in Poughkeepsie that was electric—the questions the play asks are ones on all our minds right now. We believe this is the moment to bring the story into the world more fully. To do that, we are producing a development workshop this fall, inviting producers and industry professionals who can help give the play its next, bigger life. This workshop will give us the chance to further develop the play, incorporate script changes, and rehearse and perform a staged reading presentation. We've secured free studio space; what we need now is funding to pay our actors for the workshop itself, as well as procure a high quality performance venue. Our goal is to raise $7,700 by November 1.

Here's how that breaks down:

Artist stipends - $5,500
Studio rentals - $1,000
Supplies and printing - $200
Fiscal sponsorship - $500
Contingency - $500

TOTAL - $7,700

Will you help us bring Conversation Design to life?

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Danielle Frimer (playwright) is a writer for theater, film, and new media whose work interrogates the systems and stories we inherit. Her play P. Pan et al. will have its world premiere with TOSOS in NYC in Fall 2027, after development with New Jersey Play Lab, Green Mountain New Play Festival, the Stissing Center, and Round the Bend Theatre. Her play Mariana won the Jewish Plays Project's "On One Foot!" Contest and starred Alexandra Socha at the Colonial Theatre; Conversation Design was a semi-finalist for the O'Neill, Ojai Playwrights, Seven Devils', and Seattle Public Theatre's new works fest. Her ​w​ork has been developed nationwide and published in “The Cincinnati Review” and Smith & Kraus's “Best Short Plays” (2024 and 2026). Also an Emmy-nominated, Cannes Grand Prix-winning interactive audio writer, Danielle lives in the Hudson Valley with her wife and their badly behaved but beloved rescue dog, Dory. B.A., Yale; M.F.A., A.C.T.

Allie Moss (director) is a Brooklyn-based director of new and contemporary work. She makes queer and feminist plays that question the status quo and dare to imagine a new way forward. Most recently, she has directed several readings of new plays she has helped to develop: Conversation Design by Danielle Frimer at the HOWL New Play Festival, The Prodigal Father by Agyeiwaa Asante at The Playwrights Realm, and Boxed by Mylan Gray at Whitman College. Previously, she directed productions of Caryl Churchill’s Vinegar Tom, Sarah Ruhl’s adaptation of Orlando, a queer reinterpretation Romeo and Juliet, and Beth Hyland’s new play Cancelina, all at UC San Diego. She has also directed in American Conservatory Theater’s M.F.A. and Young Conservatory programs, as well as at Cutting Ball Theater, Custom Made Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Shotgun Players, and Playwrights Foundation. Her next project is directing Eureka Day by Jonathan Spector at the Contemporary Theater of Ohio. Allie has an M.F.A. in Directing from UC San Diego and she is an Associate Member of SDC.

Beth Slade (producer) is a New York–based Creative Producer and Dramaturg focused on the development of new theatrical work.

CURRENT: General Management & Artistic Coordinator, New York City Center (Encores! series). RECENT: and her Children by Rosie Glen-Lambert and Hailey McAfee (SoHo Playhouse, Two Drama Desk Nominations); bedroom pop (The Tank), 500 Rats: A Love Story by BT Hayes (HERE Arts Center), Krav Maga in the Temple Basement Starting This Sunday, Bagels to Follow by Rebecca Salzhauer (29-Hour). 

HONORS: Semi-Finalist for the Prince Fellowship (2026), Moxie Incubator Producer (2025); CIPA Rising Producer Fellow (2025); The 24 Hour Plays: Nationals Producer (2025). 

PAST: The Playwrights Realm; Baseline Theatrical; 77th Annual Tony Awards, Turnkey Theatrical; Manhattan Theatre Club.
www.bethslade.com