The Creative Force
LINDA KAUFMAN has been writing music for theatre since 1993 when her first musical, Estherella, was produced at the San Pedro Playhouse with Vivienne Elborne directing. Soon after, she and Elborne collaborated on Nothing Ever Happens in a Small Town, a musical for young actors produced at the Playhouse a year later.
For several seasons she was the co-director of the Beth-El Players, a repertory company, for which she worked on scripts and music for seven shows, including “Out of Ur,” “The Pirate Princess,” and “1001 Chickens.” Following that, she partnered with Rachelle Neuman for a new show titled It’s All About Hats, which had several local productions.
Kaufman is known around town as a writer, musician and successful realtor as well as a songwriter, a talent she inherited from her father who also had a copyrighted song. Her recent single, “I Will Look for Miracles,” is found on YouTube while her Christmas tune, “Home for the Holidays,” was included on a CD featuring local San Antonio artists. She also was asked to write “A Great Miracle Happened There,” a Chanukah song for the Public Theater’s 2021 holiday show. In 2006 she crafted a memoir called “What’s a Nice Jewish Girl Doing in a Place Like This?” – a liberal Jewish family’s adventure in fundamentalist Christianity. She is hoping to publish this volume in the near future. She also wrote the opening number for the Public Theater’s season reveal in January, 2023.
Her first solo musical, “Senior Moments, ” was brought to life at the San Antonio Jewish Community Center in August of 2016 with the Aaron Prado jazz trio providing the musical support for this exploration of aging. Since then “Senior Moments” has had 9 productions around the country, one recently at the Boerne Community Theater in October of 2021. “More Senior Moments,” her follow-up show, has been produced in both Marble Falls and San Antonio as recently as January of 2020. In August of 2023 the JCC of San Antonio will be producing “Senior Moments: the Musical” – a combination of the most popular scenes from the two previous shows.
In 2021, Kaufman saw two productions of her new musical, “Mrs. Rosenberg’s Christmas,” at the Public Theater of San Antonio. Deborah Martin, Theater Arts critic for the San Antonio Express-News, called “Mrs. Rosenberg’s Christmas” - a well-crafted holiday show, with several zippy songs, that deals with intergenerational divides with great warmth and humor.” In addition, she has published, “Mishugas,” a collection of 28 of her columns she wrote for the San Antonio Jewish Journal between 2000-2015, available on Amazon Books.
Another recent project was writing and producing “An Evening of Jewish Humor” which was presented at Agudas Achim synagogue in San Antonio on April 19, 2022. Following that was a reprise of “The Chanukah Guest” at the JCC as part of their holiday programming.
Kaufman won two awards at the recent 2022 ATAC awards ceremony – Best Original Script and Best Original Score for “Mrs. Rosenberg’s Christmas.” Currently, she is working on a TV pilot that will draw from her unusual life as well as on a second script that will spotlight her collaboration with Linda Melendrez based on their YouTube weekly show, “An Italian Goes Well with a Jew.”
For several seasons she was the co-director of the Beth-El Players, a repertory company, for which she worked on scripts and music for seven shows, including “Out of Ur,” “The Pirate Princess,” and “1001 Chickens.” Following that, she partnered with Rachelle Neuman for a new show titled It’s All About Hats, which had several local productions.
Kaufman is known around town as a writer, musician and successful realtor as well as a songwriter, a talent she inherited from her father who also had a copyrighted song. Her recent single, “I Will Look for Miracles,” is found on YouTube while her Christmas tune, “Home for the Holidays,” was included on a CD featuring local San Antonio artists. She also was asked to write “A Great Miracle Happened There,” a Chanukah song for the Public Theater’s 2021 holiday show. In 2006 she crafted a memoir called “What’s a Nice Jewish Girl Doing in a Place Like This?” – a liberal Jewish family’s adventure in fundamentalist Christianity. She is hoping to publish this volume in the near future. She also wrote the opening number for the Public Theater’s season reveal in January, 2023.
Her first solo musical, “Senior Moments, ” was brought to life at the San Antonio Jewish Community Center in August of 2016 with the Aaron Prado jazz trio providing the musical support for this exploration of aging. Since then “Senior Moments” has had 9 productions around the country, one recently at the Boerne Community Theater in October of 2021. “More Senior Moments,” her follow-up show, has been produced in both Marble Falls and San Antonio as recently as January of 2020. In August of 2023 the JCC of San Antonio will be producing “Senior Moments: the Musical” – a combination of the most popular scenes from the two previous shows.
In 2021, Kaufman saw two productions of her new musical, “Mrs. Rosenberg’s Christmas,” at the Public Theater of San Antonio. Deborah Martin, Theater Arts critic for the San Antonio Express-News, called “Mrs. Rosenberg’s Christmas” - a well-crafted holiday show, with several zippy songs, that deals with intergenerational divides with great warmth and humor.” In addition, she has published, “Mishugas,” a collection of 28 of her columns she wrote for the San Antonio Jewish Journal between 2000-2015, available on Amazon Books.
Another recent project was writing and producing “An Evening of Jewish Humor” which was presented at Agudas Achim synagogue in San Antonio on April 19, 2022. Following that was a reprise of “The Chanukah Guest” at the JCC as part of their holiday programming.
Kaufman won two awards at the recent 2022 ATAC awards ceremony – Best Original Script and Best Original Score for “Mrs. Rosenberg’s Christmas.” Currently, she is working on a TV pilot that will draw from her unusual life as well as on a second script that will spotlight her collaboration with Linda Melendrez based on their YouTube weekly show, “An Italian Goes Well with a Jew.”