Ali has been with Sticky since 2004, and has been co-producing since 2005 (I think). She is anti social media, but I got her to do the interview anyway. The above blurry picture was the best I could get her to give me.

Libby
What’s your favorite thing about being alive?

Ali
I guess this is a ridiculous answer, but my favorite thing is the act of being alive itself. Being alive is no easy thing. It is heartbreaking and breathtaking, terrifying and beautiful. Your life is the greatest asset that you can own. You get to shape it and plan it, but there is no real road map so it ends up being this huge glorious mess of mistakes and triumphs and you never know where you will end up or what you will end up with, but it is yours whatever it is.

Libby
Are there any you don’t want to own? I have some memories that come upon me unsummoned in which I find myself behaving in a way that is completely humiliating, or perhaps anathema to who I think I am. I’ve known you long enough to guess that you have those too. If you could change those moments, would you? Or do you think a person needs to redefine themselves? Or do we suffer our continuous faults?

Ali
Memories? Experiences? Mistakes? Yeah, there are PLENTY that I don’t want to own! I have done terrible things and things I am ashamed of and things that when I think about my actions I want to weep for that ridiculous person that could not possibly have had anything to do with the person I believe myself to be. But I do own them and I can’t change them. The best I can hope for is that maybe I won’t do that one particular thing again. But, knowing me, I probably will. People constantly redefine themselves and yes, we do suffer our continuous faults. We are all trying to cope with who we are and what we might become. But that is not a unique feeling to me. There is no one without regret. We are all just trying to figure it out.

Libby
What’s your favorite thing about Sticky?

Ali
I have been doing Sticky with you and Dave for I think 11 years now, so obviously I love everything about it from production meetings to rehearsals to performance. Every time we do a Sticky (and we have done a lot) I am as excited and amazed by the show as I was at the first Sticky. And I think it just keeps getting better. If I had to pick what is most important to me about Sticky is the community that it has created. Many of my closest friends have come from the Sticky family in some way. And those that did not show up at every show!

Libby
If you could make Sticky happen anywhere, money and vacation time are no object, where would it be?

Ali
Though I think that Sticky is just tailor made to work best in NYC, when I see people’s reactions to Sticky and when I see what J. Michael is doing with Sticky in the Sticks and how he has had such an outpouring of support from his community there, I know it can work anywhere. That said, for my own personal enjoyment and if money / time / vacation were no problem, I would love for Sticky to be the vacation. Or rather be something of a traveling show. I would love to take a small Sticky team and travel around, spending a few weeks to a month in each city before moving on to the next. Roadtrip Sticky!

Libby
If it was frontier times, would you head out West or stay home?

Ali
If it was frontier times, I think heading West would be the way to go. It would be an adventure. We could do shows, run a bar and try not to get shot. Not so different than our trip to Crete!

Libby
Do you think danger makes things more fun? Like that time in Crete at the monastery with the olive trees and the gun shots? Is danger part of what makes life more enjoyable?

Ali
Danger certainly makes things more exciting and more memorable. If we had gone to that monastery in Crete and been able to go inside and look around and then walked around the hillside, that would have been lovely and enjoyable and we likely would not have discussed it again. But as it was, it was locked despite our best efforts to get in, and your uncle is crazy and wanted to steal an olive tree and then someone shot at us! Now that is a story! I like stories.

Sticky 552
Beauty Bar, 249 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, 11215
Thursday, February 5, 7:30 pm
$10 advance, $15 at the door
via www.stickyseries.brownpapertickets.com