Atlantic needs your support now, more than ever!  I just had my first experience working there and I am very grateful to now be a part of the Atlantic Theater community.

Okay, here’s the crazy thing and how it started.  Director Ken Rus Schmoll, with whom I had worked on two previous productions and trust wholeheartedly, called to tell me that a playwright named Mona Pirnot (who I had never heard of) sent him a play.  He told me she was “obsessed” with me as a playwright and actor.  (Alarm bells!)  The title of this solo play was I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan.  (What!)  He said he liked the play.  (Huh?)  Ms. Pirnot wrote in the script that the play “could only be performed by David Greenspan” and that if I didn’t agree to perform the play, the play could never be done.  (???)

I said I would read the play but gave it to my partner Bill to read first.  He read it, said it was very funny, that it captured the voice of my early plays.  He told me I shouldn’t do it.

I read the play.

And I agreed.  I couldn’t do it.  I couldn’t say the things that are said about me in this play (hero-worship!).  I couldn’t say these things about myself.

But…

She seemed like such a nice person, and I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so I said let’s you, Ken and I meet, and I can read the play aloud.  I thought that would put an end to it.

Annie MacRae, Associate Artistic Director at Atlantic, offered Mona a studio where we could meet.  I read it aloud.  Ken and Mona were crying.  I didn’t know what to make of the whole thing – though I began to sense that the play was not about me at all; it was about the struggle artists face to put up their work while trying to eke out a living by any means necessary.  So I said yes, because I never turn down work, and suggested we do an “exploratory” workshop (figuring no one was going to produce it anyway).

The next thing we knew, Artistic Director Neil Pepe and Annie said they would produce the play at Atlantic.  (I mean we hadn’t yet done a workshop – when does that happen?)  Cut to the chase, the entire process and production was absolutely joyous.  We had a blast and, more importantly, audiences were delighted and moved by the play.

Oh, and did I mention the show was closed down after four previews because of the IATSE strike?

And oh, did I mention that we put the show back up in two days once the strike was settled?  (I knew we would!)

Here’s the really crazy thing: this is how theater happens – in unexpected, unanticipated and sometimes circuitous fashion.

Here’s the thing that’s not crazy.  The purpose of theater is to entertain people.  And by that, I mean to entertain people’s hearts and minds – to engage an audience intellectually and emotionally.  I’ve seen enough shows at Atlantic Theater to know that’s exactly what they are doing – and why their mission is absolutely essential.

If you’ve been moved by what you’ve seen on Atlantic’s stages – everything on the dramatic spectrum from comedy to tragedy – this is the ideal time to open your wallets.  Please keep things hopping at the Linda Gross and Stage 2.  You too, as a part of the Atlantic Theater community, are critical to helping really good theater come to life.

So, thank you for your support!

David Greenspan

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