Michael Goldstein

Michael Goldstein is an award-winning Los Angeles journalist and playwright. His one-act play, THE GIRLS, OR, A LETTER FROM THE GHETTO, was awarded the Bruce Geller Memorial Prize by American Jewish University in 2022. THE GIRLS explores a Holocaust story about the self-destruction of 93 young women from a girl’s yeshiva in Poland.

His full-length play, THE HECKLER’S VETO, is a full-length drama about the clash between free speech and social justice on a college campus.

From 2018 to 2023 he completed a dozen ten-minute plays. They include FRANK SINATRA BRIEFCASE, about Sinatra's effort to get cash to save his son from a kidnapping, SAVING SOUTINE, about the death of the French Jewish artist in the Holocaust, THE PHLEBOTOMIST, about the terrors of getting one’s blood drawn, OK, CHIEF, a comedy about class, ANNIVERSARY, about ‘celebrating’ the Los Angeles Riots, LIVING DOWN MY GRANDFATHER, about a man who learns his late grandfather performed in blackface, SEMINAR, about a university official who discovers his Judaism yet want to platform an antisemite ‘because free speech,’ MAIL,  about an elderly mother and her middle-aged son going through her mail, TYPECAST, SEX STRIKE, HOMELESS COUNT, ESTATE SALE and GYM GERMS.

He was invited to both the 2016 and 2017 William Inge Festivals in Independence, Kansas, where his one-act plays JUDGES DECISION and DUCT TAPE were read by professional actors. In 2016, the full-length SEASONS, about an aging Jewish-American Communist and his long-suffering daughter, was read during Ensemble Studio Theater’s WINTERFEST. His play JUDGES DECISION, about an Olympic sprinter who denies using performance-enhancing drugs, was read at WINTERFEST in 2012.

Michael has a BA from Princeton University with a Certificate in Theater and Dance. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from Brooklyn College. He is a member of the Dramatist’s Guild, the Association of Los Angeles Playwrights, and the Orange County Playwrights Alliance.