Betty Smith in One Act

Spartan Theatre presents the New York Premiere of Betty Smith in One Act, an evening of rarely-seen short plays by Betty Smith, the Brooklyn-born writer who shot to fame with her coming-of-age novel A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. Directed by Rebecca Poole and Robert Grady.

The evening features three short plays by Smith, which are being produced for the first time in over 50 years. In the political satire “Freedom’s Bird” (1937), a conservative politician is sure that the only thing voters care about is a good show, so he enlists the aid of a turkey buzzard to fly bald-eagle-like over his campaign speech. In the comedy “Lawyer Lincoln” (1939), a pre-Presidential Honest Abe cleverly negotiates a marriage proposal for a young couple that can’t seem to handle the job on their own. Finally, “Vine Leaves” (1937) concerns a young real estate clerk who faces unemployment when his love poetry is published, embarrassing his image-conscious employers.