02/12/2024
BACKSTAGE BIO - Susan Crawford
American business is fraught with follies and foibles, but continues to be at the heart of what most American workers say they want: to run their own business.
In writing the book for "Fifth Avenue," I did a lot of research about the Prohibition era in New York City. That included, for instance, reading a memoir about Arnold Rothstein by his wife, "New York Nights," a compilation of New Yorker articles by Stephen Graham about nightlife in the 1920's. The story I was developing really clicked into place for me when I read about Owen Madden, a combination gangster and nightclub entrepreneur. The character Tommy Grace in our show is loosely based on him.
My theater life began at 13 in my hometown's Shakespeare Festival. It evolved into much acting from then into my 30's. It soon overlapped with an interest in playwriting, and I finished my first play at 24. Eventually writing overcame acting for me. For that I studied with Arthur Kopit and John Guare; lyric writing at the ASCAP workshop, and with Sheila Davis, and Dorothy Fields. Among the scripts I worked on I co-developed the continuity for Ned Sherrin for “Only In America,” a. compilation of songs by Leiber and Stoller. It ran at the Roundhouse in London, and was a distant antecedent to what became “Smoky Joe’s Cafe.”
In addition to this production of "Fifth Avenue," in the past two years I've had two other plays produced; "Dollars to Doughnuts, A Comedy for the 99%" at Theatre for the New City, and "Place Settings," a one-act comedy at the Chain Theatre.
Dan and Susan on what they love about the theater!
Susan: I love the immediacy of performing, and the audience feedback. As a form of writing, playwriting is a more skeletal framework than fiction, for instance, in which actors, directors and audience all contribute to bringing the writer's story to life.
Dan: I am in awe of good acting. And I am very touched by the performances I am seeing in Fifth Avenue. It’s amazing to watch words and music on a page come to life before your eyes and ears!
How we met:
We met while working in the mailroom at the Barrymore Theater. Dan had left the switchboard and got a "promotion" to the mailroom. Susan was there working until she left for London for the opening of "Only In America" at the Roundhouse Theater.
