Michael Goldstein

Michael Goldstein, a playwright and journalist based in Encino, California, holds an MFA in Playwriting from Brooklyn College and an MFA in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute.

A staged reading of his one-act JUDGES DECISION, about the life and death of an Olympic sprinter, was part of the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s 2012 WINTERFEST program in Los Angeles.

In 2016, JUDGES DECISION was selected for a staged professional reading in the New Play Lab of the 35th Anniversary William Inge Theater Festival, held in Independence, KS, in April, 2016. According to the awards citation, “Your play scored higher in most categories (i.e. original concept, compelling story, dialogue, structure, pacing, producing potential, etc.”

Mr. Goldstein was delighted to attend the 2016 Inge Festival...

Michael Goldstein, a playwright and journalist based in Encino, California, holds an MFA in Playwriting from Brooklyn College and an MFA in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute.

A staged reading of his one-act JUDGES DECISION, about the life and death of an Olympic sprinter, was part of the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s 2012 WINTERFEST program in Los Angeles.

In 2016, JUDGES DECISION was selected for a staged professional reading in the New Play Lab of the 35th Anniversary William Inge Theater Festival, held in Independence, KS, in April, 2016. According to the awards citation, “Your play scored higher in most categories (i.e. original concept, compelling story, dialogue, structure, pacing, producing potential, etc.”

Mr. Goldstein was delighted to attend the 2016 Inge Festival, watch JUDGES DECISION performed in a staged reading by the Living Room Theater of Kansas City, MO, and work with theater professionals like playwright David Henry Hwang.

In April 2017, Mr. Goldstein was accepted to the Inge Festival once again, for the staged reading of his madness-in-space drama, DUCT TAPE by Kokopelli Theater of Kansas City.

Mr. Goldstein’s full-length drama SEASONS, about an unrepentant 80-year old Jewish communist and his long-suffering daughter, has been developed at the Sunday Best program of Ensemble Studio Theatre Los Angeles. A staged reading of SEASONS was held as part of EST’s WINTERFEST on March 26, 2016

In May of 2016, a staged reading of Mr. Goldstein’s ten-minute play MAIL was held at The 5th Annual Short Play Festival at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, CA. And in May 2017, a reading of his play, HOMELESS COUNT, was part of the 6h Annual Short Play Festival at Valley Beth Shalom.

Michael Goldstein (818-783-1684, [email protected]) is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, the Playwriting Center, the Valley Beth Shalom Jewish Writer's Roundtable and the Association of Los Angeles Playwrights.

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Scripts

Frank Sinatra Briefcase

by Michael Goldstein

Cast Size
2
Genre
docudrama/historic,
drama,
period

The play opens with an older man, AL, counting twenty-dollar bills in a bank vault. His work is interrupted by the arrival of an agitated FRANK SINATRA, whose son Frank Jr. has just been kidnapped. While the clock is ticking, SINATRA pleads with AL, the President of a bank, that AL give him the $40,000 he needs for ransom, rather than hand it over to the FBI.

The play opens with an older man, AL, counting twenty-dollar bills in a bank vault. His work is interrupted by the arrival of an agitated FRANK SINATRA, whose son Frank Jr. has just been kidnapped. While the clock is ticking, SINATRA pleads with AL, the President of a bank, that AL give him the $40,000 he needs for ransom, rather than hand it over to the FBI.

Frank Sinatra Briefcase

by Michael Goldstein

Cast Size
2
Genre
docudrama/historic,
drama,
period

The play opens with an older man, AL, counting twenty-dollar bills in a bank vault. His work is interrupted by the arrival of an agitated FRANK SINATRA, whose son Frank Jr. has just been kidnapped. While the clock is ticking, SINATRA pleads with AL, the President of a bank, that AL give him the $40,000 he needs for ransom, rather than hand it over to the FBI.

The play opens with an older man, AL, counting twenty-dollar bills in a bank vault. His work is interrupted by the arrival of an agitated FRANK SINATRA, whose son Frank Jr. has just been kidnapped. While the clock is ticking, SINATRA pleads with AL, the President of a bank, that AL give him the $40,000 he needs for ransom, rather than hand it over to the FBI.

Estate Sale

by Michael Goldstein

2
Cast Size
3
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
romantic comedy

Attending a suburban estate sale at the end of the sales day sets off a simmering sparring match between an acquisitive 'hoarder' husband and long-suffering wife, refereed by a bored clerk.

Attending a suburban estate sale at the end of the sales day sets off a simmering sparring match between an acquisitive 'hoarder' husband and long-suffering wife, refereed by a bored clerk.

THE GIRLS, OR, A LETTER FROM THE GHETTO

by Michael Goldstein

Cast Size
11—13
Genre
drama,
faith-based,
melodrama,
tragedy,
young audiences

In this one-act, the last survivors of a Jewish religious girls school and their young teacher huddle in a tenement in the Krakow Ghetto during the Holocaust. They must decide whether to try to survive or die sanctifying the name of G-d rather than be forced to serve in a Nazi brothel.

In this one-act, the last survivors of a Jewish religious girls school and their young teacher huddle in a tenement in the Krakow Ghetto during the Holocaust. They must decide whether to try to survive or die sanctifying the name of G-d rather than be forced to serve in a Nazi brothel.

HOMELESS COUNT

by Michael Goldstein

Cast Size
3
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
drama,
faith-based

HOMELESS COUNT is a #ten-minute comedy about two WOMEN who are volunteers in a homeless census effort. They beat the bushes trying to count homeless people and their shelters---but they get more than they bargained for when they wake up a TROLL, a dazed and resentful HOMELESS MAN.

HOMELESS COUNT is a #ten-minute comedy about two WOMEN who are volunteers in a homeless census effort. They beat the bushes trying to count homeless people and their shelters---but they get more than they bargained for when they wake up a TROLL, a dazed and resentful HOMELESS MAN.

DUCT TAPE

by Michael Goldstein

Cast Size
2
Genre
drama,
science fiction

DUCT TAPE is a one act play about madness in space. The cast is composed of with a male and a female astronaut. When the play opens, the male astronaut is duct-taped to the wall of the capsule, and slowly we learn why.

DUCT TAPE is a one act play about madness in space. The cast is composed of with a male and a female astronaut. When the play opens, the male astronaut is duct-taped to the wall of the capsule, and slowly we learn why.

MAIL

by Michael Goldstein

Cast Size
2
Genre
drama,
melodrama

MAIL is a ten-minute about a conversation between an aging mother (70s-80's) and her middle-aged (50ish) son. It's a two-hander with very simple prop requirements---two armchairs and a white plastic US Mail box full of junk mail.

MAIL is a ten-minute about a conversation between an aging mother (70s-80's) and her middle-aged (50ish) son. It's a two-hander with very simple prop requirements---two armchairs and a white plastic US Mail box full of junk mail.

JUDGES DECISION

by Michael Goldstein

Cast Size
5—10
Genre
docudrama/historic,
drama,
experimental

JUDGES DECISION, a one-act play, is the (fictional) story of CANDACE MERIWEATHER, a former U.S. Olympic sprinter, and what she lost to win. She rolls out of bed ready to challenge the world and make her comeback.

Field judges, referees and individuals from her past and present, from family to former lovers to authority figures, appear in dream-like fashion, challenging her focus. And despite her bravado, we...

JUDGES DECISION, a one-act play, is the (fictional) story of CANDACE MERIWEATHER, a former U.S. Olympic sprinter, and what she lost to win. She rolls out of bed ready to challenge the world and make her comeback.

Field judges, referees and individuals from her past and present, from family to former lovers to authority figures, appear in dream-like fashion, challenging her focus. And despite her bravado, we soon see that her biggest enemy is herself.

As CANDACE prepares for her big comeback race, she shares her story with the audience, ultimately admitting to taking performance-enhancing drugs, something she’s both defiant about and apologetic for. She revisits her moments of glory, deals with a troubling present and plots her comeback.

CANDACE ends up pleading with the field judges, her family, former opponents and teammates, the audience and ultimately with death itself for just one more shot at the gold.

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SEASONS

by Michael Goldstein

Cast Size
7—12
Genre
drama,
political,
romantic comedy

SEASONS is a full-length drama with comic elements.

SEASONS is set in Cape Cod, Massachusetts in November, 1989, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The play is about ISAAC ROSEN, a retired teacher and unrepentant New York Jewish Communist approaching 80. He is cared for by his apolitical, long-suffering youngest daughter, ROSA LUXEMBURG ROSEN, 38. Their home is dominated by a large photograph of Joseph...

SEASONS is a full-length drama with comic elements.

SEASONS is set in Cape Cod, Massachusetts in November, 1989, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The play is about ISAAC ROSEN, a retired teacher and unrepentant New York Jewish Communist approaching 80. He is cared for by his apolitical, long-suffering youngest daughter, ROSA LUXEMBURG ROSEN, 38. Their home is dominated by a large photograph of Joseph Stalin.

ROSA, a potter and people pleaser, has taught her father print-making as a hobby, although she finds it irritating that ISAAC’s novelty prints of monsters now outsell her work at the Liberation Gallery in town. As they prepare for a big gallery show, ROSA meets JASON, 27, a cynical but sensitive younger man still looking for his place in life.

Against her better judgement, ROSA starts falling in love with JASON. JASON, in turn, is alternately charmed by and irritated by Isaac’s free lectures on the wonders of Soviet Communism.

An encounter with Isaac’s long-estranged daughter, EMMA GOLDMAN ROSEN, and her bourgeois husband JOHN brings further revelations about the fractured Rosen family.

The fall of the Berlin Wall, which ISAAC, ROSA and JASON watch on television in a hostile workingman’s bar, and the disastrous gallery show, bring a reassessment of ISAAC’S lifelong beliefs and a difficult choice for ROSA.

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