plot synopsis

“Every single thing leads to everything else…” Amber and Tom, finding their way as freshmen at Princeton, spend a night together that alters the course of their lives. They agree on the drinking, they agree on the attraction, but consent is foggy, and if unspoken, can it be called consent? With lyricism and wit, Actually investigates gender and race politics, our crippling desire to fit in, and the three sides to every story.

select productions

— The Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles, 2017 (Directed by Tyne Rafaeli)
— The Williamstown Theatre Festival, 2017 (Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz)
— The Manhattan Theatre Club, 2017 (Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz)
— Theaterworks, Hartford, CT (May-June, 2019)
— Aurora Theatre, Berkeley, CA (March-May, 2019)
— Theater J, Washington DC (October-November, 2018)
— San Diego Rep, CA (October-November, 2018)
— Theatre3, Dallas, TX (August, 2018)
— GableStage, FL (November-December, 2018)
— Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company (February-March, 2019)
— Trafalgar Studios, London, UK (August 2019)
— Harold Green /Obsidian Theatre Company, Toronto (September 2019)
— Alberta Theater Projects, Calgary, 2020 (Directed by Jenna Rodgers)
— Renaissance Theaterworks, Milwaukee, 2020 and 2022
— Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, 2020
— Mitch and Murray Productions/Firehall Arts Centre, Vancouver, 2020

more press

“Wrenching.  Ziegler’s riveting new drama…creates a portrait of a generation…With consummate skill, the playwright assembles [an] intricate jigsaw puzzle.” – The Boston Globe

“…[A] taut, devastating play… a smart, profoundly painful exploration of [a] murky, treacherous sexual culture… Actually’s great strength, and its great heartbreak, is that it allows us to see both Amber and Tom so fully…Actually’s wit and its intelligence are part of what makes the complex darkness at its center hit so hard. There is brightness in this play, and in these people, and to see its sparks overwhelmed by such fearful and familiar shadows is shattering. In moments, it’s even revelatory.” – New York Magazine

“**** CRITIC’S PICK! Psychologically complex and politically charged, with energy and urgency…Ziegler’s meticulously detailed script is more than occasionally funny, despite its serious themes.” – Time Out NY

“As it empathetically pries open the heads and hearts of its two fragile characters, Ziegler’s play powerfully indicts university culture…Openhearted and intellectually curious. Difficult to dismiss.” – The Washington Post

“A landmark play about sex and recollection…Go see it. Actually is one of the best two-person plays I’ve seen in quite a long time.” – Washington City Paper

“Compelling…Ziegler vividly [evokes] the complexities and intensities of social interactions and self-performance today among young people. Bold and sympathetic. Bracing, timely material. And often very funny.” – Toronto Star

“So brilliantly calibrated that, by the end of its 90 minutes, you’ll have flip-flopped more times than a politician…With Tom and Amber, [Ziegler] has given us two [underdogs], and delineated both with such empathy that we feel less outraged than sad by how their budding relationship has been destroyed by one night of sodden stupidity.” – The Globe and Mail

“Bold and brilliant. [Actually] will likely take its place as one of the emblematic plays of our time in the way that classics like Death of a Salesman and The Heidi Chronicles were of theirs.” – Lavender Magazine

“Actually…fearlessly broaches the subject of when sex becomes rape, and challenges audiences to think through a complex moral dilemma as facts unfold in a way that upsets attempts at clear-cut decision making…Ziegler’s script is electrifying, full of vibrant language and emotion…Actually is absolutely compelling theater–suspenseful, easy to be swallowed up by…Actually knocks it out of the park. – DC Metro (Loazya)

“Richly layered…its characters crafted with compassion, intelligence and insight…Ziegler writes dialogue that is equal parts humor and poignancy…It is not to be missed.” – Theatermania

“Thank goodness for Anna Ziegler, the brilliant playwright who has little regard for our need for facile solutions, and in Actually…delivers what could very well be the play of the season.” – Talkin’ Broadway

“The vexing concept of consent in sex gets a seductively smart parsing in Anna Ziegler’s Actually, [which] zeros in on the zeitgeist like a heat-seeking laser. Ziegler sets up a riveting he-said/she-said narrative…Go see this play.” – DC Metro (Stoltenberg)

“GO! Smart and penetrating…A top-notch narrative that travels beyond the hot-button issue of date rape it tackles. The characters…are as finely etched as in a good novel, and as satisfying.” – LA Weekly

“Rich and disturbing…[Ziegler] wants us to feel what it’s like to live at that terrible crux. Actually is not, after all, a play about rape. It is a play about the failure of justice when it deals with unknowable midpoints instead of obvious extremes.” – The New York Times

“Incisive and smartly observed. Compelling and provocative.” – The Hollywood Reporter

“[A] darkly comedic, compellingly dramatic look at sex, race, gender and booze…riveting throughout…Edgy, thought-and-laugh-provoking, and never less than absorbing, Actually is as button-pushing a play as you’re likely to see all year.” – StageSceneLA.com

“An important night of theater…delivers fascinating philosophical investigations into the sexuality of teenagers…I hung on every word.” – TheaterJones (Dallas)

“One of the best-considered, most open-minded extant treatises on consent/respect/being a good person…Gorgeously insightful.” – The Column (Dallas)

“Actually is a detailed mosaic…Ziegler understands that trauma doesn’t happen in a vacuum. She gives us context and perspective. She creates two vivid characters and never takes sides. Actually is rational, but emotional. It never exploits our feelings, or insults our intelligence. It looks squarely at a difficult subject, with grace, humanity and discretion.” – Sharp Critic (Dallas)

“An insightful, timely drama. Taut and provocative.” – Miami Herald

“The thought-provoking Actually takes a nuanced look at the consent debate. Powerful. The whip-smart script…is a conversation-starter.” – San Diego Union Tribune

“Thoroughly engrossing two-way drama, probing the complexities of sex in college today…A MUST-SEE if you live anywhere near a college — which pretty much covers the whole Bay Area.” – Robert Hurwitt, Former San Francisco Chronicle critic

“The precarious, suspenseful narrative is built in Ziegler’s skilled deconstructionist hands…Although Actually is often described as a play about truth and justice, it’s actually less about those matters than about who we are as witnesses, participants, or judge and jury…Ziegler demands we think about it for ourselves — and for the sake of young men and women who today and in the future enter the risky adult landscape of love, sex, other-person perception and self-definition.” – East Bay Express

“What starts off as a “he said, she said” recounting…turns into something more penetrating and harrowing in playwright Anna Ziegler’s powerful and jarring “Actually.”…The real power of Actually is its ability to…complicate an easy “Who’s Right” and “Who’s Wrong” scenario…Ziegler’s play reminds us of just how complex such incidents can get and just how difficult it can be to arrive at genuine justice.” – Broadway World

“When you decide who was telling the truth, the important question isn’t who is right, but why did you choose that person? That is what makes Actually so important…A brilliantly conceived play…This is what great theater does: it challenges our view of not only the world, but of ourselves.” – The Journal Inquirer

“Superbly written…Actually is actually a terribly human story about what can go wrong when you mix teenagers, dormitories, free drinks, and careerist academic administrators determined to burn every witch they find hiding in freshman clothing.” – CTV News (Calgary)