The Artificial Woman (developmental workshop)
Book by Amy Gerstler and Steve Gunderson
Music by Steve Gunderson; Lyrics by Amy Gerstler
Directed by Kirsten Brandt
May 28, 29, 30, June 3 and 4, 2021
All shows: 7:30 pm
Twitch live stream link
These public performances are the culmination of a quarter-long developmental workshopping of The Artificial Woman, a new musical by Steve Gunderson and Amy Gerstler, directed by Kirsten Brandt, Assistant Professor of Musical Theater at San Jose State University. The musical will be staged as a full production by UCSC Theater Arts Department in Winter Quarter, 2022. The Artificial Woman is based on the real-life tempestuous, nearly three-year relationship between Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) and Alma Mahler (1879-1964), a composer and widow of composer Gustav Mahler, and the break up that inspired the obsessed Kokoschka to commission an artist to create a life-sized Alma “doll.”