Playwright and Screenwriter based in Los Angeles.
Hello! My name is Madeline Mahrer. I received my MFA in theater from UCLA in the Spring of 2021, where I studied playwriting and screenwriting. I write stories that explore the hidden lives of women and the emotional worlds they inhabit. I create fantastical elements amidst the mundane as a way of revealing the poetic nature of everyday life and issues. I am drawn to lonely characters longing for community and oddballs whose absurdity is charming yet isolating. Characters are brought together by peculiar happenstance, creating intimate relationships that otherwise may have been impossible. My work is political, comedic, and emotional. Just like me!
COMING SOON…
Salvador’s Colorful Adventure
A heartwarming storybook about an artist and her mischievous cat.
Art by Ryan Johnson
Pilot - 2023
BEVERLY HILL
A puppet comedy satirizing wealthy white femininity, set in a post capitalist world.
Watch Here!(pw: beverlyhill)
“We thought they were our friends, but it turns out they were renting!”
Play - 2021
THEN BIRDS
Struggling to cope with her mother’s suicide and her own depression, Jemma takes a trip with two friends to the foggy, desolate shores of Bodega Bay. While fighting the urge to either let herself sink or swim, Jemma finds herself entangled in a love triangle, haunted by ghosts, and stuck between dreamworld and reality.
“I can always tell when I’m dreaming. Right now. This is a dream.”
Play - 2020
ARCADE
After surviving a traumatic experience, high school soccer star Gabriella finds herself in a dilapidated arcade run by two teen sisters. While sharing pizza slices, geometry formulas, and their sweet dance moves, the three bond and create a brief but magical sanctuary from the abuse and injustices tied to womanhood.
UCLA Zoom Reading
“I still see my breath under the fluorescent lights, proving that some part of me is still alive.”
One Act - 2019
LOUD, LOUDER
A night spent in regret, working towards breakthrough.
“I am light filling up a room. I am the air in lungs. Somewhere I’m the sound of rain.”
Distancing
An experimental film and audio collage made during quarantine