Dana Leslie Goldstein

Dana Leslie Goldstein

Playwright and Lyricist Dana Leslie Goldstein has won the New England New Play Competition, Harold and Mimi Steinberg Playwriting Prize, Different Voices New Play Award, ACTF New Play Award, Henry Hoyns Poetry Fellowship, AWP Intro Award, an Academy of American Poets Prize and numerous development grants. Readings and presentations of her work have been seen at Manhattan Theatre Club, Cherry Lane, Culture...
Playwright and Lyricist Dana Leslie Goldstein has won the New England New Play Competition, Harold and Mimi Steinberg Playwriting Prize, Different Voices New Play Award, ACTF New Play Award, Henry Hoyns Poetry Fellowship, AWP Intro Award, an Academy of American Poets Prize and numerous development grants. Readings and presentations of her work have been seen at Manhattan Theatre Club, Cherry Lane, Culture Project, Julia Miles Theater (Women’s Project), The York, Theatre80, Theater for the New City, New Dramatists, Center Stage, BMI, Vineyard Playhouse, Pulse, Theater Row Theatre, Gene Frankel Theatre, The Barrow Group, Acorn Theatre, The Lark, Beckett Theatre, Neighborhood Playhouse, The Workshop Theater, Torn Page, Pacific Theatre (Vancouver), TischAsia (Singapore), NYMF, on Ellis and Liberty Islands, at the U.N. and on Equity TYA tours. Dana is a librettist in the BMI/Lehmann Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, and a playwright member of The Workshop Theater. She has been a member of the Playwrights Lab at Women’s Project, NewShoe & the Dennis and Victoria Ross Foundation Emerging Playwrights Lab. Dana holds MFA degrees in both Playwriting and Poetry, each of which were funded by full writing fellowships.

In addition, Dana is the playwright and lyricist of the following selected works:
DAUGHTERS of the SEXUAL REVOLUTION. DAUGHTERS has had readings or workshops at The Workshop Theater (NYC), the Dramatists Guild Foundation, Manhattan Theatre Club, The New York Society for Ethical Culture, and the Players Club Theater of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. DAUGHTERS was selected by the Dennis & Victoria Ross Foundation/OHenry Productions for further development. Several monologues from the play will appear in “SHE PERSISTED”, to be published by Applause Books in 2021. DAUGHTERS is currently being adapted into a feature film.

LIBERTY, a monumental musical (book & lyrics). LIBERTY enjoyed two limited run, off-Broadway productions at Theatre 80 and 42West. The original off-Broadway cast recording was produced by Broadway Records and is available on iTunes, Amazon and broadwayrecords.com. LIBERTY is commercially optioned and available for national and international licensing through Miracle or 2 Productions. LIBERTY will return to the New York stage in 2020.

CYCLONE and the Pig-Faced Lady (book & lyrics). CYCLONE was Winner of The Women’s Project Collaboration Initiative Grant and selected for a Next Link Project funding award through the New York Musical Theatre Festival, where it was presented. A monologue from CYCLONE will appear in “SHE PERSISTED”, to be published by Applause Books in 2021.

GO DOWN, MOSES. This is Dana’s newest play, a companion piece to DAUGHTERS of the SEXUAL REVOLUTION. It was selected for The Workshop Theater’s first-ever developmental intensive and has received public readings there in 2018 and 2019. GO DOWN, MOSES was presented in January, 2020 at Clamour Theater’s 2nd Annual Playwrights Retreat in Green Cove Springs, FL. Several monologues from GO DOWN, MOSES will appear in “SHE PERSISTED”, to be published by Applause Books in 2021.

In addition to those mentioned above, a monologue from Dana’s play CHICKEN & THE EGG will be appear in “SHE PERSISTED”, to be published by Applause Books in 2021. A monologue from Dana’s play SUBURBAN NIGHTMARES is published in The Best Women’s Stage Monologues of 2018 (Smith & Kraus). A monologue from DAUGHTERS of the SEXUAL REVOLUTION was previously included in The Best Women’s Stage Monologues of 2017 (Smith & Kraus). Dana’s short play UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY will be produced in the Estrogenius Festival in October, 2020, NYC. Her short play NATURAL will be produced by the 4208 Group in September, 2020, in Washington, DC.

Dana is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild. For more information, please visit
www.danalesliegoldstein.com. Agent: Michael Moore Michael@MichaelMooreAgency.com

Plays

  • DAUGHTERS of the SEXUAL REVOLUTION
    It’s 1976. Joyce and Nina are married suburban moms, and they’re having an affair. With each other. Joyce’s daughter, Stacia, has just started college, and she has nothing like the sexual constraints her mother experienced. Against the backdrop of post-Nixon America, valium abuse and the six million dollar man, every character in Daughters of the Sexual Revolution is confronted with ethical choices, as they...
    It’s 1976. Joyce and Nina are married suburban moms, and they’re having an affair. With each other. Joyce’s daughter, Stacia, has just started college, and she has nothing like the sexual constraints her mother experienced. Against the backdrop of post-Nixon America, valium abuse and the six million dollar man, every character in Daughters of the Sexual Revolution is confronted with ethical choices, as they wrestle with their own fears and notions of who they are, and what it means to be faithful.
  • Cyclone and the Pig-Faced Lady
    Sally Kaplan’s hit comic book “Cyclone” is set in the glamorous, seedy Coney Island of the 1920's, where Cyclone, a sultry gypsy heartbreaker, and her freakish twin sister, the Pig-Faced Lady, always save the day. But in the real world, there are no superheroes, and Sally must find a way to become the hero of her own story. (Book & lyrics are by Dana Leslie Goldstein, music is by Rima Fand.)
  • Go Down, Moses
    On a liberal college campus in 1985, the students rally for divestment from South Africa. The faculty congratulate themselves on their past as warriors for civil rights. But when a controversial speaker is invited to campus, free speech becomes a battle cry, and those who fought together to end injustice are suddenly on opposing sides. Racially charged incidents occur, and every character is changed as they...
    On a liberal college campus in 1985, the students rally for divestment from South Africa. The faculty congratulate themselves on their past as warriors for civil rights. But when a controversial speaker is invited to campus, free speech becomes a battle cry, and those who fought together to end injustice are suddenly on opposing sides. Racially charged incidents occur, and every character is changed as they realize how far there still is to go and are forced to reevaluate their own role in the struggle.
  • Next Year in Jerusalem
    Abraham Mendel escaped the Nazis and fought for Israeli independence. Now in his seventies, he’s a contractor in Brooklyn, with adult daughters who won’t do what he says. If he can’t let go of his regrets, he will never be the hero that he thinks his family needs him to be. But maybe a hero isn’t what they need.
  • Courting
    Can love really conquer all? In this four-character, romantic farce, the answer is a resounding yes. George and Sylvia are senior citizens with a lust for life and each other. Ted and Christina are young academics who over-think everything. When Sylvia plays matchmaker for the younger couple, the results defy death, fate and a bad tarot reading. Love is in the air and in the cards.
  • Natural
    Erica and Maggie couldn’t be more different, or at least that’s how it seems to them. When Erica, very pregnant and two weeks overdue, begs Maggie to use her acupuncture and massage skills to help her go into labor, the sisters embark on an unexpected path.
  • Undiscovered Country
    They’re an unlikely pair, but Elizabeth and Teddy have been happily married for decades. After Teddy’s passing, Elizabeth struggles to find a way to go on without him, but maybe she doesn’t have to.
  • Red in the Morning
    Evan has been living in the woods, off the grid, for years. He abandoned his wife, his child, his job and his identity, with no explanation. When Evan’s father dies, Evan’s older brother, Mitch, comes looking for him. Arrows fly, blood is spilled, bourbon flows, and old wounds may have a slim chance at being healed.
  • This Time
    Edie and Lang are having some issues in their marriage. When they visit an extremely unconventional therapist, everything changes in unexpected ways.
  • Eat Dessert First
    An estranged daughter comes to know her late mother, a cookbook writer, through the recipes and cooking tools she left behind. In a larger sense, EAT DESSERT FIRST is about how parents feed their children, not just with food, but with their own hopes and disappointments and absence. The title of the play refers to the title of one of the mother's cookbooks, but EAT DESSERT FIRST is also advice the mother...
    An estranged daughter comes to know her late mother, a cookbook writer, through the recipes and cooking tools she left behind. In a larger sense, EAT DESSERT FIRST is about how parents feed their children, not just with food, but with their own hopes and disappointments and absence. The title of the play refers to the title of one of the mother's cookbooks, but EAT DESSERT FIRST is also advice the mother gives, that ultimately leads the daughter on a journey toward forgiveness.
  • Gateway for Ashes
    When elderly sisters Chana and Rifke visit Ellis Island to see the new American Immigrant Wall of Honor and search for their father’s name, the past becomes the present, and long-held questions may be answered.
  • Enough for All: The First Shared Thanksgiving
    This original musical for young audiences recounts the year leading up to the first recorded Thanksgiving in 1621, a time when Pilgrims and Wampanoag Native Americans worked together. Without help from the Native Americans, the colonists would never have survived. Enough for All is told from the perspective of both colonists and Wampanoag villagers, who eventually put aside their differences and learn to trust...
    This original musical for young audiences recounts the year leading up to the first recorded Thanksgiving in 1621, a time when Pilgrims and Wampanoag Native Americans worked together. Without help from the Native Americans, the colonists would never have survived. Enough for All is told from the perspective of both colonists and Wampanoag villagers, who eventually put aside their differences and learn to trust each other as human beings. When they sit down together to give thanks, they are beginning the tradition that we celebrate today. Though we know that this hopeful beginning is short-lived, at least for this moment, there is enough for all. (Book & lyrics are by Dana Leslie Goldstein, music is by Jonathan Goldstein.)
  • First Lady: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Changing Role of Women in American History
    Eleanor Roosevelt had a view of American history few can rival. In this play for young audiences, she shares her amazing journey: from her sheltered childhood at the turn of the century, to her volunteer work, on to her support of women's suffrage, to her life as a first lady through depression and war, and then beyond that, to her active role in the blossoming civil rights movement, among other...
    Eleanor Roosevelt had a view of American history few can rival. In this play for young audiences, she shares her amazing journey: from her sheltered childhood at the turn of the century, to her volunteer work, on to her support of women's suffrage, to her life as a first lady through depression and war, and then beyond that, to her active role in the blossoming civil rights movement, among other achievements. Whether writing her famous column, My Day, or presiding over a meeting of diplomats at the United Nations, Eleanor Roosevelt's perspective on the twentieth century was unique and fascinating.

  • With Nothing But A Dream: Stories from Ellis Island
    “With Nothing but a Dream” is the story of four families from different corners of the globe who come to America in 1918, and pass through Ellis Island together. Only some are allowed to stay and pursue their dreams. This play is designed to be performed by and for students.
  • Somebody in America
    "Somebody in America" (book & lyrics by Dana Leslie Goldstein and music by John Bronston) is the musical story of four families from different corners of the globe who come to America in 1918, and pass through Ellis Island together. Only some are allowed to stay and pursue their dreams. This play is designed to be performed by and for students.
  • Anzia Alone
    In this sometimes comedic and sometimes poignant monolog, Anzia Yezierska, a true-life, one-of-a-kind writer and celebrity, gives a more or less honest recounting of her ups and downs as a woman, an immigrant and an iconoclast, in New York and Hollywood.
  • Friendly Skies
    Marion has resolved to face her fear of flying. What could go wrong?
  • Fragile
    Rennie is on the verge of losing his beloved comic book shop. When Alana walks in, everything starts to change. Secret identities are revealed, but it’s going to take more than super-strength to forge a new origin story.
  • The God Part
    Matthew and Leah are old hats at loss, unlucky in – well – pretty much everything. Can that change when they meet each other?