Interview: Conrad Ricamora Tackles AI, Ambition, and Ethics in Disruption

Conrad Ricamora is enjoying a year filled with an array of stage work. Previously, he traveled to the Philippines to play director Zach in A Chorus Line, and in the fall he’ll be part of the cast of Clifford Odets’s Waiting for Lefty at Classic Stage Company.

In between those gigs, Ricamora, who earned a Tony nomination for his performance as a closeted Abe Lincoln in Cole Escola’s Broadway sensation Oh, Mary!, is part of the top-notch ensemble of Andrew Stein’s new off-Broadway play, Disruption.

Directed by Hersh Ellis, Disruption explores technology’s ever-expanding influence by zeroing in on three millennial couples who become the test subjects of their tech entrepreneur friend, Nick (played by John David Washington), after he pitches them to invest in his new project—an algorithm that’s supposed to help people make better life choices. Ricamora—whose co-stars also include Elizabeth Stanley, Joe Tippett, and Shaunette Renée Wilson—plays Ben, a married Columbia professor whose life isn’t all he’d like it to be.

TheaterMania spoke with the actor about this and other roles, his thoughts on AI, and why theater is the right medium for a play about technology.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

You’re having a busy theatrical year. What drew you to Disruption?
I think it really captures the allure of what AI could possibly give each and every one of us, and also the pitfalls. It’s essentially about three couples, and for a show about technology, it feels like a kitchen sink drama as well. [AI] makes so many things, quote-unquote, easier, but are we happier with the increased ease of our lives? We sometimes lose our humanity within the distance that technology creates.

There have been other plays about the impact of technology on society and the ethical questions that come with it. Why is an old art form like theater a good place to explore that?
Because it’s something that we all have to ask as a community, and there’s no art form that is more communal to me than live theater, where the audience is breathing the same air as the actors. I think audiences spending time in a theater with other citizens with these questions is really healthy for us right now.

Has working on this play impacted the amount of time you spend online?
It’s actually decreased it, because I was in rehearsals from 10 to 6. But we’ve all cumulatively spent so much time on devices that we can pull from those past experiences.

Disruption has an impressive cast. Have you worked with any of your co-stars before?
No. I’ve known of them, and I feel so grateful to be in this cast. Shaunette Renée Wilson, who is playing my wife, and I were both on the TV show The Resident, but I’d never met her because we never had any scenes together. So it’s cool that we’re getting to play so intimately now after being on a TV show where we never met.

What about your character do you connect to the most?
I’m playing an ethics professor, and I feel like one of the biggest conversations that we should be having right now are the ethics around artificial intelligence. Knowing that artificial intelligence is deployed by companies who are beholden to shareholders—and they are consciously making these products to manipulate us into using them—that’s a really thorny ethical question, and I love that my character gets to come at it from that perspective, whilst also being drawn in by the technology.

The play centers around a bunch of friends, mostly in their early 40s, who all seem to be successful by most people’s standards, yet they keep comparing themselves to their tech-entrepreneur friend, and want more. Is that something you’ve ever found yourself doing?
One hundred percent. It’s something that is so inherent to New Yorkers as well. It’s so hard to live here that you’re constantly in hustle/ambition mode. We’re constantly looking for the newest tool, the next best thing.

On a different note, what was it like doing A Chorus Line in the Philippines?
Oh my gosh, it was incredible! Theatre Group Asia, the theater that Clint Ramos started with Bobby Garcia and Christopher Mohnani, is a gorgeous theater in the heart of Manila, and they have a big fan base.

My dad was born in the Philippines, and I’d never been. It was also the first time I’d never not been a minority in a country. Being in a country full of Filipinos made me realize there was this layer to me as an Asian American man that I’d been carrying around that I didn’t even know existed, this kind of tension in my body that I was able to pull out and see clearly.

Maybe you’ll go over there again to do something.
We’ll see. There might be some plans in the works.

Tell us about your next gig.
A few weeks after we open Disruption, I start rehearsal for Waiting for Lefty at Classic Stage Company, which I’m super excited about. It’s another amazing cast—Greg Hildreth, Adam Chanler-Berat—Steve Pasquale’s directing. It’s a great interpretation with original music that is going to be live.

Any plans to return to Oh, Mary! at some point?
Ooh, I hope so. We’ll just have to wait and see.