Now to Ashes is a play focusing on four exceptional abolitionist women: Sarah Grimke (Sally) and her sister Angelina Grimke (Nina), two Southern heiresses who left their life of privilege to work toward racial justice in Philadelphia; Sarah Douglass, one of the black leaders of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society; and the Grimkes’ niece, Angelina Weld Grimke, a queer black poet of her time. It reflects on an extremely polarized and fraught time in American history and pulls parallels from the past to the present in order to provide guidance for confronting our current conflicted times. Each woman’s story gives the audience a varying perspective on how to respond to injustice, while introducing the audience to a fraught time period in American history: the 1830’s during the presidency of Andrew Jackson and the birth of the abolitionist and feminist movements.
The play challenges the audience to question how to individually and collectively fight against systematic racial injustice and gender injustice; how white allies can effectively fight for racial equity; why historically the abolitionists and the feminists separated after working side by side; and how this separation has perpetuated the unequal and flawed systems that we still have in place today. Now to Ashes is a critical analysis of past policies and actions, and a call to action and collectivism for future activists and co-conspirators. We believe it is extremely timely during our present moment, when each of us is asking what we can do to make a difference in the world around us.
This play is co-written by Renae Erichsen and Sarah Pultz, alongside the edits and input of sensitivity reader Renee Harleston. The play’s themes focus strongly on community and equity, and with that in mind, any production of this play must hire local artists, circulate money back to the local community, and work alongside local anti-racist and abolitionist groups fighting for racial justice, as described in the preface of the play. Overall, the playwrights fell in love with each of the women they studied and wrote about over the course of creating the script, and look forward to sharing their stories with a wider audience.
Cast:
Angelina Weld Grimké (Present) \ Grace Douglass: Jam Donaldson
Sarah "Sally" Moore Grimké: Mikaela Fenn
Angelina "Nina" Grimké: Alexandria Grigsby
Sarah Mapps Douglass: Amber Patrice Coleman
Angelina Weld Grimké (Young) / Margaretta "Marg" Forten: Madison Norwood
John Grimké / Johnathan Evans / William Lloyd Garrison: Paul Brewster
Polly Grimké / Quaker / Catharine Beecher: Allison Turkel
Charlotte Forten: Paulette Grady
Israel Morris / Arthur Tappen: Ari Post
Theodore "Theo" Dwight Weld: Max Johnson
Understudies
Angelina / Grace / Charlotte / Sarah: Gaddiel Adams
Sally / Nina: Lillian Grace Hall
Theo / Israel / John / Garrison: Stefan Mitrović
Creative Team
Playwright/Director: Renae Erichsen-Teal
Playwright/Director: Sarah Pultz
Crew
Stage Manager: A.J. Jelonek
Graphic Designer: Amanda Burtka
Sensitivity Reader: Renee Harleston
Looking Backwards in Order to Look Forwards a Dramaturgical Note by Sarah Pultz
Do you remember sitting in your history class, learning about abolition, the civil rights movement, and many other intense conflicts in our not-so-distant past? Do you remember thinking about what you would have done at that time? How would you have protested, supported the movements? How many people in your life have you heard say that they would have been “on the right side of history?” When pondering these questions, I encourage you to think of one at the heart of them all – what are you doing now?
In the early 1800’s, Sally and Nina Grimké, two young heiresses in Charleston, South Carolina, witnessed the horrors of slavery before them, and despite attempts by their family and neighbors to normalize it, the girls refused to accept the abuse of people around them. At the time, abolition was a fringe movement - barely in the cultural consciousness. Yet, Sally and Nina were steadfast in their radical belief that all races were the same in the eyes of God and deserved fair treatment and equality. They faced isolation from their communities, churches, and family, but still persisted in their goal to change minds. Their decision to do so began a journey that put abolition front and center in U.S. politics, started the early waves of feminism in America, and left a family legacy of activism and empowerment.
The women toured the Northeast, speaking on the violence they had witnessed, promoting boycotts, and leading letter-writing campaigns to political leaders. Their actions led to a split in the movement over the argument of women’s rights’ to work in the public sphere toward abolition, which caused an irreparable split in abolitionist activism. This led to violence against known abolitionists and forced the Grimkés to retreat from the public sphere.
Yet, they continued their activism through published writings and by living their beliefs. Upon discovering they had black nephews through their brother Henry, they welcomed the nephews into their family, paid for their schooling, and supported them. These men became prominent men in Washington, D.C., with Francis being a preacher, and Archibald becoming an American Consul and the President of the D.C. Chapter of the NAACP. Archibald even named his daughter after Nina, calling her Angelina Weld Grimké. Angelina went on to become a feted poet, playwright, and writer. She was the first black woman to have a play produced in America and was a major influence on the Harlem Renaissance writers and musicians.
This incredible family took on the battles of prejudice and oppression across the years. In our show, Angelina Weld Grimké bridges the gap between the past and the present, showcasing how these issues repeatedly come back to haunt us or are reborn under a new name. So many of the arguments used against these activists are the ones still being used today: protect state’s rights, women, and the traditional family structure, protect your family from “dangerous criminals”, even the argument that protestors and activists are paid actors has been used repeatedly throughout American history.
Now to Ashes asks us to think critically about our own involvement in the pursuit of justice and equality. What are the modern-day versions of enslavement, sexism, and xenophobia that are creating fear and division amongst us as a nation, and how can we be a better ally to our neighbors? As you leave today, we encourage you to get more involved. Below, we have listed some organizations you can connect with today.
Quakerism Then and Now a Dramaturgical Note by Renae Erichsen-Teal
In the early decades of the 19th century, the Religious Society of Friends—commonly known as the Quakers—was a spiritual home to some of the earliest voices against slavery in the United States. Known for their pacifism, commitment to equality, and belief in the Inner Light – the core tenet that “there is that of God in everyone” – Quakers offered a moral framework that deeply resonated with reformers. Yet despite their principled opposition to slavery, most Quakers in the 1830s resisted direct political action, favoring quiet witness over public confrontation. This tension—between personal conviction and public protest—was at the heart of the Grimké sisters' conflict with their Quaker meeting in the 1830s.
Sarah (Sally) and Angelina (Nina) Grimké, born into a wealthy slaveholding family in Charleston, South Carolina, converted to Quakerism and attempted to live according to its moral code. But in choosing to speak out boldly and politically against slavery, they ultimately found themselves too radical for the very religious tradition. The sisters’ defiance not only shaped the trajectory of American abolitionism, but also anticipated the eventual transformation of Quakerism itself—from a community largely averse to political engagement to one now openly committed to activism and social justice today.
In the 1830s, Quakers were widely recognized as principled opponents of slavery. Since the late 17th century, the Society of Friends had publicly condemned the practice. By the early 1800s, slaveholding was explicitly banned among Friends in both the United States and Britain. However, the Quaker witness against slavery was largely moral and social rather than political. Quakers often emphasized the importance of living a virtuous life over challenging unjust systems through the political process. This "quietism"—a tradition of inward reflection, spiritual humility, and political disengagement—meant that many Quaker meetings actively discouraged members from taking part in abolitionist societies, public lectures, or political organizing.
At the same time, a deep contradiction persisted within the very meetings that professed spiritual equality: many Quaker congregations practiced racial segregation. Despite their theological commitment to the Inner Light—that divine spark said to dwell equally in every person—most Quaker meetings in the United States in the 1830s excluded Black Friends from full participation. Black attendees were often forced to sit separately in meetinghouses, denied formal membership, or barred from leadership and decision-making roles. In Philadelphia, where the Grimké sisters were members and where leading Black abolitionists like Sarah Mapps Douglass were active, racial exclusion was widespread, even as some white Quakers worked alongside Black activists in abolitionist causes. This hypocrisy was not lost on the Grimkés, who recognized that many Quakers' moral convictions stopped short of confronting their own racial bias within their communities.
After joining the Quakers in Philadelphia in the late 1820s, the Grimké sisters became increasingly involved in the abolitionist movement, fueled by their personal experiences in the slaveholding South and their belief in the spiritual and civic equality of all people. Nina, in particular, became a powerful writer and orator, issuing an open letter to the South and embarking on a highly public lecture tour in 1837. Her speeches, alongside Sally’s, were groundbreaking not only for their content but for their audiences: the sisters insisted on addressing men and women together, breaking social norms about women's public speech. Their outspokenness drew widespread criticism—from the clergy, from Southern mobs, and from within the Quaker community. The Philadelphia Yearly Meeting rebuked their activism, and the Grimkés ultimately distanced themselves from organized Quakerism. The sisters believed that moral purity without action was not enough; true faith, they argued, required political engagement, public confrontation with injustice, and one’s actions reflecting spoken convictions, which is captured by a common charge among Quakers today to“Let your life speak.”
Though rejected by many within their faith tradition, the Grimkés were not alone in their convictions. Other Quakers, particularly among the more liberal Hicksite branch, were also beginning to push the boundaries of acceptable engagement. Figures like Lucretia Mott, a fellow Quaker and close friend of the Grimkés, combined abolitionism with advocacy for women’s rights and public reform. Levi Coffin and other Quakers operated stations on the Underground Railroad, directly aiding enslaved people in their escape to freedom. Even earlier, Benjamin Lay was an outspoken anti-slavery reformer in the 18th century. Still, the broader Quaker community remained divided—torn between its roots in quiet spiritual discipline and the growing call to prophetic public witness.
Over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, Quakerism evolved in response to these tensions. The movement fractured into several branches: Evangelical Friends, who emphasized biblical authority and often retained a conservative social orientation; Conservative Friends, who clung to traditional silent worship and internal discipline; and Liberal or Unprogrammed Friends, who embraced the primacy of the Inner Light and increasingly adopted a universalist, socially engaged ethos. By the mid-twentieth century, many Quaker meetings had come to see activism not as a distraction from faith, but as a direct expression of it. Quakers became leaders in conscientious objection during both World Wars, advocates in the civil rights movement, supporters of prison reform, and participants in anti-war and environmental campaigns.
Today, Quakerism is marked by this diversity. Some meetings retain a cautious approach to politics, while others see lobbying, protest, and community organizing as integral to their spiritual practice. The testimonies of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship (collectively known as the “SPICES”) guide many Quakers in their ethical and political commitments. In this pluralistic landscape, the once-radical stance of the Grimké sisters—faith as fuel for political action—has become a widely accepted Quaker path. Local to D.C., the Friends Meeting of Washington is a reflection of this evolution, with its public commitments and active work toward inclusion, social justice, and peace.
In retrospect, the Grimké sisters stand as prophetic figures—not only in the history of American abolition and feminism, but in the story of Quakerism itself. Their insistence that faith demanded more than passive virtue, that it required public risk and political courage, anticipated a transformation that would come to shape much of modern Quaker witness. Their rejection by the Society of Friends in the 1830s reveals the limits of even well-intentioned religious traditions—but their legacy reminds us that those limits can, and sometimes must, be broken.
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