Transport Group's THE PATSY Will Open in March

Transport Group has announced that the revival of its acclaimed 2011 production of The Patsy, written by Barry Conners, performed by David Greenspan, and directed by Jack Cummings III, will begin performances Wednesday, March 30 at Abrons Arts Center, 466 Grand Street. The opening is set for Sunday, April 10 at 3pm.

Filled with familial intrigue, marital sparring, lovers in pursuit, country club scandals, and labors of the heart, The Patsy premiered on Broadway in 1925 becoming an instant success. The hit play was then immediately immortalized in film by a quartet of early 20th century luminaries-stars Marion Davies and Marie Dressler, director King Vidor, and producer William Randolph Hearst.

In 2011 six-time Obie Award winner David Greenspan, along with Transport Group Artistic Director and two-time Obie Award winner Jack Cummings III, put their own spin on the feisty drawing room comedy by giving all eight roles to Greenspan. Now Greenspan and Transport Group resurrect this Cinderella story of a girl a little less beautiful, a little less loved, and her fractious, gossipy family, which explores a family's aspirations of wealth, status, and love in pre-depression America.

The 2011 production of The Patsy was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Solo Performance as well as an Off-Broadway Alliance Award nomination for Best Special Event and was hailed by critics:

"As we looked at what a COVID-safe return to the stage could be, we realized we wanted to do so with a small cast, small crew, and a shorter run time-to help all involved and all audience members feel as safe as possible. And who better to turn to than David Greenspan-the only solo performer we've worked with in our 20-year history-an incomparable artist and breathtaking actor who has been revitalizing both downtown theater and Transport Group's work for years." says Artistic Director Jack Cummings III.

Called "the singular downtown artist" and "a protean actor and playwright with an appetite for challenge and an abiding interest in the magic trickery of theater" by The New York Times, David Greenspan is perhaps best known for appearing in his own plays, most notably Dead Mother and The Home Show Pieces (NYSF/Public Theater), She Stoops to Comedy and Go Back to Where You Are (Playwrights Horizons), I'm Looking for Helen Twelvetrees (Abrons Arts Center), his adaptation of Thornton Wilder's The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Two River Theater) and his solo plays The Argument (Target Margin) and The Myopia (The Foundry) - and for performing solo renditions of Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude and Barry Conners' The Patsy (Transport Group), Gertrude Stein's lecture Plays (The Foundry) and a program of two Stein lectures and a playlet Composition...Masterpieces...Identity (Target Margin). Greenspan drew notice for his performances in Terrence McNally's Some Men and in revivals of Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band and Goethe's Faust. Mr. Greenspan is the recipient of Guggenheim, Lortel and Fox fellowships, Alpert, Lambda Literary, Helen Merrill Playwriting awards, a RUTHIE and six OBIES.

Barry Conners (1882-1933), actor, playwright, attorney, and screenwriter, was born and raised in Oil City, Pennsylvania, the son of a country doctor. Barred from acting in the 1910s due to his involvement in the White Rats Movement, which was formed to improve conditions for actors, he took a job as a hunting and fishing guide in the Lake Tahoe, Nevada area and began writing plays, several of which were produced in New York City in the 1920s, beginning with the off-Broadway production of Mad Honeymoon. Among his other successful plays was Hell's Bells, which in 1925 provided the Broadway debut of actress Shirley Booth and actor Humphrey Bogart. His other Broadway plays included Applesauce and Unexpected Husbands. Following the success of the silent film version of his hit play The Patsy (which starred William Randolph Hearst's mistress, Marion Davies), Conners left Broadway for Hollywood as talkies swept the film industry at the end of the decade, he worked as a screenwriter for Fox Films for several years prior to his death in 1933.

The Patsy features the production's original scenic and costume design by Dane Laffrey and original lighting design by Mark Barton, with original sound design by Michael Rasbury. Kristina Corcoran Williams served as dramaturg for the original production, and Theresa Flanagan returns as production stage manager.

Transport Group (Jack Cummings III, artistic director; Denise Dickens, executive director) is an off-Broadway theatre company whose work has been called "storytelling at its purest" by The New York Times, "at once faithful and irreverent." Since the company was founded in 2001 by Jack Cummings III and Robyn Hussa, Transport Group has produced 33 shows: 17 new works and 16 revivals, including three New York premieres and six commissioned works. The company has received a special New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, three Drama Desk Awards including a special one "for its breadth of vision and its presentation of challenging productions," nine Obie Awards, an Outer Critics Circle Award, three Off-Broadway Alliance Awards, and a Dramatists Guild Award. In addition, Transport Group's productions have received 46 Drama Desk Award nominations, eight Drama League Award nominations, four Lucille Lortel Award nominations, six Outer Critics Circle Award nominations, nine American Theatre Wing Design Award nominations, nine Off-Broadway Alliance Award nominations, four Audelco Award nominations, and a Tony Award nomination.

Abrons Arts Center is a home for contemporary interdisciplinary arts in Manhattan's Lower East Side neighborhood. A core program of the Henry Street Settlement, Abrons believes that access to the arts is essential to a free and healthy society. Through performance presentations, exhibitions, education programs and residencies, Abrons mobilizes communities with the transformative power of art. Abrons Arts Center values freedom of expression and creativity, ever striving to provide creative communities with a space that celebrates diversity of thought and experience. Abrons aims to be an anti-oppressive home to people from all backgrounds and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, citizen status, ancestry, age, religion, disability, sex or gender identity. As definitions of expression and inclusion evolve, Abrons is committed to continually revising this statement in collaboration with our communities.

The Patsy, which has a running time of 80 minutes, plays Wednesday, March 30 - Sunday, May 1 at Abrons Arts Center, 466 Grand Street (F to Delancey Street; J or M to Essex Street; D or B to Grand Street), as part of the @Abrons Series. The regular performance schedule is Tuesday through Saturday at 7pm; Saturday and Sunday at 3pm. Tickets prices start at $55 and may be purchased by visiting transportgroup.org or by phoning 866-811-4111. For more information and exact performance schedule, visit transportgroup.org. You may follow Transport Group on Instagram and Twitter @TransportGrp and Facebook at @TransportGroup.

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