David Greenspan – författare

Playwright and actor David Greenspan has been a leading figure in Manhattan's downtown performance scene for over twenty years. His numerous accolades include a Guggenheim fellowship and four Obie Awards for his acting and writing, and most recently a fifth Obie for Sustained Achievement. Tony Kushner once declared Greenspan "probably all-around the most talented theater artist of my generation," and the New York Times has called his performances "irresistible." The Myopia and Other Plays brings together five of Greenspan's most important works, accompanied by a critical introduction and new interview with the playwright.Greenspan's work---often semiautobiographical, always psychologically intense---deals with issues of memory, family, doubt, and sexuality. The plays in this collection take particular interest in the motivations for erotic and aesthetic expression, forces inextricably linked in Greenspan's world. Critic and scholar Marc Robinson's informative introduction and lively interview with Greenspan further increase the collection's appeal to lovers of inventive playwriting, as well as students and scholars in the fields of Performance Studies, English, American Studies, and LGBT Studies.

In Go Back to Where You Are God offers Passalus, a failed actor from ancient Athens festering in hell, the opportunity of redemption by returning to Earth to free a young woman from her domineering mother, Claire, a distinguished stage actress. Passalus accepts the proposal with the understanding that on completing his mission his soul be annihilated. God agrees - with the caveat that Passalus not become entangled in the lives of others. Granted the ability to shape-shift, Passalus assumes the role of a British matron and former actress, arriving at Claire's summer home during a week-end in which she is hosting friends and family. But Passalus is also equipped to hear the inner thoughts of the characters he encounters - and armed with knowledge of their suffering is unable to remain aloof. He also finds himself falling in love with Claire's brother, Bernard, the underappreciated author of eccentric comedies. The play dramatizes second chances in love - and love that facilitates the soul's release from hell into life again.

In She Stoops to Comedy Alexandra Page a self-involved actress known for her portrayals of tragic heroines disguises herself as a man in order to play Orlando opposite her girlfriend Alison Rose who has been cast as Rosalind in an out-of-town production of As You Like It. Because the role of Alexandra is played by a man her transformation does not require the use of drag. And because the other actors in the As You Like It cast are friends of Alexandra and Alison - and