David Greenspan (born 1956) is an American actor and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

. He is the recipient of six

Obies Obies () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. Heraldry See also *Communes of the Nord department The following is a list of the 648 communes of the Nord department of the French Republic. The communes cooperate in the ...

, including an award in 2010 for Sustained Achievement.

Life

Greenspan was born in 1956 in Los Angeles, California. He holds a B.A. in Drama from the University of California at Irvine. He lives in New York City with his long-time partner, painter William Kennon.

Career

"A classicist in experimental clothing, David Greenspan is a playwright who is also passionately involved in the theatre as an actor and director. From his early more autobiographical plays (one of which, Principia, took inspiration from the shifting modalities of Joyce’s Ulysses) to more recent works inspired by (and at times adapted from the work of) Hawthorne, Stein, Molnar, and Thorton Wilder, Greenspan’s theatre is a place where anything can happen. Deliciously complicated, incredibly funny, the work, whether tragic, tender, mysterious or cruel, betrays a profoundly empathic imagination. Both wildly conjured and deeply attentive to diverse literary and theatrical traditionsfrom vaudeville and Greek mythology to the Bible and boulevard comedyGreenspan’s plays ask big questions about history, creation, sexual behavior, the complications of family and the very act of performing a play." In 2009 he collaborated with Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields in a musical adaptation of

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gr ...

's '' Coraline'', under the direction of

Leigh Silverman Leigh Silverman is an American director for the stage, both off-Broadway and on Broadway theatre, Broadway. She was nominated for the 2014 Tony Award, Best Direction of a Musical for the musical ''Violet (musical), Violet'' and the 2008 Drama Desk ...

. In an interview with Lizzie Olesker in '' The Brooklyn Rail'', Greenspan describes the musical: "We suggest things. Not like a large animated musical. There’s no amplification of our voices. We wanted something that was more direct and immediate as opposed to something coming out of a wall of sound." In 2022, Greenspan was included in the book ''50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre'', profiled in a chapter written by performance scholar Nick Salvato.

List of works

Theater

*''The Horizontal And The Vertical'', world premiere HOME for Contemporary Theatre and Art, NYC, 1986 *''Dig A Hole And Bury You Father'', world premiere HOME for Contemporary Theatre and Art, NYC, 1987 *''Jack'', world premiere HOME for Contemporary Theatre and Art, NYC, 1987 *''Principa'', world premiere HOME for Contemporary Theatre and Art, NYC, 1988 *''The Home Show Pieces'', world premiere HOME for Contemporary Theatre and Art, NYC, 1988 *''2 Samuel 11, Etc.'', world premiere HOME for Contemporary Theatre and Art, NYC, 1989 *''Dead Mother, Or Shirley Not All In Vain'', world premiere NYSF/Public Theater, 1991 *''Dog In A Dancing School'', world premiere Dance Theater Workshop, NYC, 1993 *''Son Of An Engineer'', world premiere HERE Arts Center, NYC, 1993 *''Start From Scratch'', world premiere New Renaissance @ Greenwich House, NYC, 1993 *''Them'', world premiere Actors Theater of Louisville, 1993 *''Only Beauty'', reading NYSF/The Public Theater, NYC, 1997 *''Five Frozen Embryos'', world premiere New York Fringe Festival, 2002 *''She Stoops To Comedy'', world premiere Playwrights Horizons, NYC, 2003 *''The Argument'', world premiere Target Margin Theater, NYC, 2007 *''Old Comedy From Aristophanes' Frogs'', world premiere Target Margin Theater, NYC, 2008 *''Coraline'', world premiere Manhattan Class Company, NYC, 2009 *''The Myopia, an epic burlesque of tragic proportion'', world premiere The Foundry Theatre, NYC, 2010 *''Go Back To Where You Are'', world premiere Playwrights Horizons, NYC, 2011 *''Jump'', world premiere Under The Radar Festival - NYSF/Public Theater, NYC, 2011 *''Jonas'', world premiere Transport Group, NYC, 2011 *''I'm Looking For Helen Twelvetrees'', world premiere Abrons Arts Center, NYC 2015 *''The Bridge of San Luis Rey'', world premiere Two River Theater, Red Bank, NJ, 2018 *''On Set with Theda Bara'', world premiere The Brick, Brooklyn, NY, 2023

Performance Credits

Theater

* ''The Bridge of San Luis Rey'' (2019), Miami New Drama at the Colony Theatre as "Uncle Pio" (also Director) * ''Cute Activist'' (2018), Bushwick Starr as "Landlorde" * '' Strange Interlude'',

Transport Group Transport Group Theatre Company is a non-profit, off-Broadway theatre company in New York City that stages new works and revivals of plays and musicals, with a focus on American stories told in visually progressive way. History Transport Group was ...

(solo performance), NYC 2017 * ''Punk Rock'' (2014)

MCC Theater MCC Theater (Manhattan Class Company) is an off-Broadway theater company located in New York City, founded in 1986 by artistic directors Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey and William Cantler. Blake West joined the company in 2006 as executive direc ...

as "Dr. Richard Harvey" * ''

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...

'' (2012) Classic Stage Company as " Francis Flute" * ''Go Back to Where You Are'' (2011) Playwrights Horizons as "Passalus" * ''The Patsy'' (2011)

(solo performance) NYC

Awards and nominations

; Awards * 2013 Lambda Literary Award for Drama - ''The Myopia and Other Plays'', a collection of five of his plays published by University of Michigan Press in 2012, won a Lambda Literary Award in 2013 in the Drama category. * 2010

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the A ...

for Sustained Achievement * 2008

Special Citation - ''The Argument'' * 2007

for Performance - ''Some Men'' * 2007

for Performance - "Faust" * 2003

Special Citation - ''She Stoops to Comedy'' * 2002 CalArts// Alpert Awards in the Arts * 1996

for Performance - '' Some Men'' by Terrence McNally ; Nominations * 2012 Off Broadway Alliance Award Nomination - Best Special Event, ''The Patsy'' * 2012

Outer Critics Circle Award The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on Broadway and Off-Broadway. They are presented by the Outer Critics Circle (OCC), the official organization of New York theater writers for out-of-town newspa ...

Nomination - Outstanding Solo Performance - "The Patsy" * 2008 Drama League Award Nomination - Distinguished Performance Award - ''Beebo Brinker Chronicles'' * 2007 Lucille Lortel Award Nomination - Outstanding Featured Actor - ''Beebo Brinker Chronicles'' * 2007

Nomination - Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play - ''Beebo Brinker Chronicles'' ; Fellowships * An alumnus of

New Dramatists New Dramatists is an organization of playwrights founded in 1949 and located at 424 West 44th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues in the Hell's Kitchen (Clinton) neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The members of New Dramatists parti ...

, he has received playwriting fellowships from the

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been ...

, Jerome Foundation, Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation and Charles Revson Foundation. He received the 1993 McKnight Fellowship from the Playwrights Center and a 2006

Lucille Lortel Lucille Lortel (née Wadler, December 16, 1900 – April 4, 1999) was an American actress, artistic director, and theatrical producer. In the course of her career Lortel produced or co-produced nearly 500 plays, five of which were nominated for ...

Foundation Fellowship.

Bibliography

''She Stoops to Comedy'' by David Greenspan

Samuel French, Inc. Samuel French, Inc. is an American company, founded by Samuel French and Thomas Hailes Lacy, who formed a partnership to combine their existing interests in London and New York City. It publishes plays, represents authors, and sells scripts fro ...

, October 2013 * ''The Myopia and Other Plays'', University of Michigan Press, 2012 * ''Four Plays and a Monologue'', No Passport Press, 2012
''Go Back to Where You Are'' by David Greeenspan
Playwrights Horizons, 2011 * ''She Stoops To Comedy'' in Plays From Playwrights Horizons, Vol 2,

Broadway Play Publishing Inc. Broadway Play Publishing Inc (BPPI) was established in New York City in 1982 to publish and license the stage performance rights of contemporary American plays. The Broadway Play Publishing Inc catalog consists of over 1,000 plays and nearly 400 ...

, 2010 * "Play: A Journal of Plays, Vol. 3", 2007 * ''Son of an Engineer'', Sun and Moon Press, 2000

Interviews

* Borinsky, Alexander.
David Greenspan. And his Little Dog, Too
" The Brooklyn Rail" (March 2015) * CFR Staff
David Greenspan on David Greenspan

The Clyde Fitch Report ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

" (May 22, 2013) * Charles McNulty.
Theatricalizing Theory: A Conversation with the Inimitable David Greenspan
'' Los Angeles Times'' (November 9, 2011) * Raymond, Gerard.
Staging Solos: An Interview with David Greenspan
"

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

" (July 2011) * Olesker, Lizzie.
The Power of Suggestion: David Greenspan
" The Brooklyn Rail" (May 2009)

References

External links

* *
David Greenspan profile
at the ''New York Times''
Bomb Magazine Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greenspan, David 1956 births Living people Obie Award recipients American male stage actors 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights Lambda Literary Award for Drama winners American gay writers American LGBT dramatists and playwrights American male dramatists and playwrights 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American LGBT people Postmodern theatre