I am thrilled to say that my drama “Life of Mahler” has been recognized as a semifinalist in a national playwriting contest sponsored by The Road Theatre Company!

My script was judged among the top 15% of scripts out of hundreds of others submitted, which is a great honor, considering The Road’s reputation for identifying important new works.

Founded in 1991, the Road Theatre Company is a very well-respected theater out of North Hollywood, California that has paved the way for new plays to be heard in the greater Los Angeles area for over 30 years and also dedicated itself to introduce youth, limited-income seniors, and other underserved audiences to the world of theatre through main stage productions, workshops, classes, presentations, and free weekly readings.

Many thanks to The Road for this honor and here’s wishing them a successful summer playwriting festival!

I wanted to extend a heartfelt “thank you” to Valley Players of Napa Valley, California.

My play “Life of Mahler” was a finalist in their recent new play contest and received very positive feedback from their dramaturg and readers (and in fact, my drama “The Last Flight of the Electra” was previously a finalist last year in their new play contest, which focused on roles for mature women).

Describing “Life of Mahler” as “an ambitious and emotionally resonant work, steeped in musical history and personal heartbreak”, Valley Players said that the play “offers a fascinating window into a relationship that has long been mythologized but seldom dramatized with such psychological intimacy.”

Briefly, “Life of Mahler” is about the relationship between the composer Gustav Mahler and his wife, Alma – as told by Alma to a young journalist, Franz Kaufman, whom she entertains to write Mahler’s biography after his death. Valley said “the interplay between Alma Mahler and Franz is especially compelling – serving not only as a framing device but as a crucible for questions about narrative authority, self-erasure, and the power of legacy. We were particularly and universally impressed with the way Alma’s voice gradually emerges as both subject and author of the tale, culminating in a revelation that is less about historical confession and more about emotional re-centering.”

In examining the structure of the play, Valley touted it as “quite sophisticated” – with “the alternating past/present structure, with scenes from Alma’s memory embedded within her dialogue with Franz, function(ing) beautifully as a theatrical device. The meta-theatrical tension – who gets to tell the story, and why – is one of the most engaging parts of the script.”

Additionally, Valley very kindly praised the heightened language used throughout the play, calling it “elegant, thoughtful, and elevated – often echoing the grandeur of the period and the operatic tone of Mahler’s music itself. Certain scenes (such as Alma’s defense of her love for Mahler)… are lyrical and moving, with some lovely, memorable turns of phrase.”

Lastly, the assessment praised my characterization of Alma Mahler herself:

“Alma is richly drawn—by turns commanding, wounded, poetic, and calculating. Her contradictions are what make her compelling, and her transformation from a curated widow to a full-bodied human being is one of the play’s greatest achievements. Franz, too, is effective as both interlocutor and emotional counterbalance—his blend of admiration and skepticism makes for an excellent audience surrogate. Mahler himself, though glimpsed mostly in flashback, is rendered with an intriguing mix of genius and fragility.”

All in all, Valley praised “Life of Mahler” as “a thoughtful, moving, and thematically resonant piece” that “interrogates the cost of genius, the silencing of women’s creativity, and the price of devotion with genuine empathy and dramatic craft” and deemed it “a story that deserves to be told.”

Again, I’m very grateful for the kind words from Valley Players and look forward to continuing to develop “Life of Mahler” – and, hopefully soon, find a home for it!

I am thrilled to announce I have completed a new historical drama – “Life of Mahler” – which I have had rolling around in my head for quite a while now.

In all honesty, it is a bit difficult to discuss “Life of Mahler” without revealing the twist end of the story itself, which does rather limit me in discussing the piece – but suffice it to say, I was inspired to write the play due to the historiographical debate about Gustav Mahler’s life and which sources are (or indeed, are not) to be believed concerning him.

In its incubation, I first considered the idea for this play sometime back in 2022 – and spent some time researching Gustav Mahler’s life a good deal – but there the idea sat, in the back of my mind, until just a few weeks ago, when I ventured to write an outline for what the play would look like, found it somehow all made magical sense, and started writing.

An intimate, character-rich drama, “Life of Mahler” is a full-length, one-act play that follows a young journalist in 1912 (Franz Kurtzman) who has been invited to write an authorized biography of the great composer Gustav Mahler – courtesy of Mahler’s widow, the beautiful and captivating Alma. Franz leaps wholeheartedly into his assignment, combing through boxes of Mahler’s letters and growing closer to Alma in the process… until one day, Franz discovers a hidden box… or two… or three… with letters that portray a Gustav Mahler who is strikingly different from what Alma has described. As Franz wrestles with this deception and confronts Alma, he must ask the question – what does it really mean to write the life of Mahler – and which Mahler’s life is he really writing about?

At its core, “Life of Mahler” is a story about the nature of deception and the sometimes hazy interplay between deception and truth, complemented with poetic dialogue, wry humor, rich characters, and a surprise ending – and not only that, but it’s easy to produce, with a single, unit set and only 4 actors required to tell its story.

That all being said, I must say I am excited about this play, because it touches on many key interests of mine in one – not only bringing in history as a storytelling tool, but also being a very character-centric piece that is devoid of fluff and heavily dependent on the raw art of acting and directing (and not spectacle) to sustain its narrative.

You can read a synopsis of the play here and read the first 30-plus pages here!