The Myopia and Other Plays by David Greenspan

Marc Robinson, Edited and with an Introduction
University of Michigan Press
June 2012
ISBN: 978-0472051731

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 autobiographical, 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.