She Stoops To Comedy
by David Greenspan

Name: She Stoops To Comedy
Brand: David Greenspan
SKU: 9780573700705
Rating: 3.75 (5 reviews)

She Stoops To Comedy Book Cover — She Stoops To Comedy Cover

Highlights

Small Cast

Female

Male

90 mins Present Day Bare Stage/Simple Set Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes American Historical Comedy

Synopsis

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 the "disguise" so effective - Alexandra has an opportunity to not only hear what people really think of her, but to be made privy to the inner lives of her friends and colleagues.

The play examines the friendships and love relationships of its seven characters, and plays with the nature of authenticity - both on and off the stage.

Press Reviews

"Great theater can be immensely entertaining, profoundly thought-provoking or artistically inventive; She Stoops to Comedy… manages all three at once. David Greenspan's brilliant, hilarious… six-actor deconstruction of a modern-day Elizabethan farce finds vitality, renewal and delight at the unlikely heart of theatrical artifice."
— The Los Angeles Times

"80 minutes of near total delight… Sweeping away everything but the mind of the playwright and the ability of the actors, Greenspan creates a fiction that has the pleasure and pain of life, plus the extravagant possibilities of the imagination. He does it without apparatus, attitude, amplification, willed ugliness... It's just theater, pure and simple. What a relief."
— The Village Voice

"Within the first five minutes, it's clear that you're in for a bumpy ride. Not a ''fasten your seat belts'' kind of ride, but rather one where you're a picked up by a tornado, spun around, and dropped into a world that is different and odd and wonderful and fun. This tornado was created by playwright David Greenspan, who explores gender, sexuality and love in his inventive play… You may leave the theater a little unsure of where you've been, but you'll be happy you were there."
— Metro Weekly

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
Alison Rose Alexandra’s lover, also an actress	female	—	Alexandra’s lover, also an actress
Kay Fein close friend of Alexandra, an archeologist or a lighting designer	—	—	close friend of Alexandra, an archeologist or a lighting designer
Hal Stewart a filmmaker	—	—	a filmmaker
Eve Addaman Hal’s girlfriend, also a filmmaker	—	—	Hal’s girlfriend, also a filmmaker
Jayne Summerhouse rival to Alexandra, also an actress, she’s studying film	female	—	rival to Alexandra, also an actress, she’s studying film
Simon Lanquish an actor	—	—	an actor
Alexandra Page an actress, assumes the role of Harry Samson	female	—	an actress, assumes the role of Harry Samson