FARCE. ABSURDITY. EXISTENTIALISM. GUARANTEED.
Check out my plays, where comedy collides
with moral ambiguity — and the occasional twist of history.
Plays
Braddon Mendelson | Encounter New Plays From an Award-Winning Playwright
Plays
Browse my catalog of farces, histories, satires, farcical histories,
satirical farces, and other miscellaneous theatrical mischief.
Awards
Awards
Awards, Festivals, Et cetera
- 2026 Semifinalist, AACT New Play Fest — “Resisted Living”
- 2025 Recipient, The Element, The MAIN Theatre — “Provenance”
- 2023 Finalist, Vintage Theatre’s Best New Play Festival — “Gallows Falls”
- 2023 Semi-Finalist, Soop to Nuts Short Play Festival — “Juneteenth”
- 2022 Winner, Best New Play, Long Beach Playhouse New Works Festival — “Rembrandt Perfected”
- 2022 Second Rounder, Austin Film Festival, Playwriting Division — “Rembrandt Perfected”
- 2022 Finalist, Players Theatre Short Play Festival, New York — “Old Friends”
- 2009 Second Place, Humorfeed Annual Satire News Competition
- 1999 Warner Bros. Writers Workshop
- 1994 Honorable Mention, HBO New Writers Project
- 1994 Winner, America’s Best Annual Writing Competition, The Writers Foundation
About Braddon
Braddon Mendelson is a playwright whose work explores the friction between history, satire, and the beautifully absurd. Known for a signature blend of meticulous research and comedic invention, Braddon’s plays challenge audiences to find meaning in the complex intersections of our past and present.
Theatrical Works
Braddon is the author of the award-winning Rembrandt Perfected, which received the Best New Play award at the 2022 Long Beach Playhouse New Works Festival. He also directed the play’s 2023 world premiere in Santa Clarita, where the historical farce—reimagining the 1839 meeting between Samuel Morse and Louis Daguerre—played to sold-out houses and rave reviews.
Braddon’s writing is known for its wit, craftsmanship, and audience appeal, with a distinctive voice that bridges classical structure and contemporary humor.
Other works include:
- Passing Wind – A high‑velocity, absurdist farce slated for its world premiere in March 2026.
- Resisted Living – Runner‑up for the 2026 AACT Best New Play award; a dark comedy about aging parents, adult children, and the chaos of end‑of‑life planning.
- Gallows Falls (Next Stage Press) – A suspenseful ghost story set in the deep woods of Vermont.
- The WaterWay – A musical chronicling the rise of Los Angeles through the arrival of water in the early 20th century.
- Minor Character – A comedy set in the backstage world of Broadway theatre.
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Film & Television Background
Before focusing on the stage, Braddon’s professional career spanned decades in film and television. He began in the high-stakes world of live broadcasts, prompting presenters at the Academy Awards and Emmy Awards. He later moved into independent film as the producer of the cult favorite feature Boogie Boy and wrote for international television, including Ritas Welt (Sony Television International), Germany’s top-rated comedy and recipient of the Adolf Grimme Preis.
Digital & Literary Projects
Beyond the stage, Braddon lends his voice to children’s literature as the narrator of the digital series Read Me a Story. He also co-produces and directs CineVerses, an award-winning multimedia project that blends poetry, animation, and original music.
Personal
A graduate of California State University, Northridge and the Warner Bros. Writers Workshop, Braddon resides in Stevenson Ranch, California, with his wife and is the father of one son. When not at his desk, he is currently engaged in the somewhat absurd task of building a full-size Boeing 727 airliner entirely out of paper and glue.
Formative Mentors & Early Recognition
Two mentors from two different eras — one from Hollywood’s studio legacy, one from the world of network television — offered early recognition that shaped Braddon’s trajectory. Their encouragement forms the prologue to the writer he ultimately became.
Milton Sperling (1983)
Milton Sperling — the veteran Warner Bros. producer behind The Enforcer, Merrill’s Marauders, The Court‑Martial of Billy Mitchell, and the epic war film Battle of the Bulge — taught Braddon screen adaptation during his senior year at California State University, Northridge. Sperling’s career was deeply intertwined with the Warner legacy: he was married to Betty Warner, daughter of studio co‑founder Harry Warner, placing him within the family that helped shape Hollywood’s golden age.
For his final class project, Braddon adapted a book he disliked by reinventing it as a comedy. After the semester ended, Sperling mailed the script back with a handwritten note that became a defining early endorsement.
“This could be a script by Mel Brooks out of Groucho Marx… you’ve written a very funny, very wild, very good scenario.” — Milton Sperling
He closed with a postscript that felt like a door opening: “When you get an agent, tell him to give me a call.”
Donald L. Seigel (1984)
A year later, Braddon found himself pitching story ideas to Donald L. Seigel, the television writer‑producer whose credits include The Jeffersons, The Golden Girls, Frasier, and Bob. Braddon arrived with his pitches typed, organized, and neatly stacked — a level of preparation Seigel immediately noticed.
He listened, smiled, and then offered a small rite of passage: he told Braddon to take off his tie. It was a gentle, good‑humored way of saying he belonged in the room. Seigel spoke encouragingly about his potential as a television writer, leaving Braddon with the unmistakable sense that he had the instincts — and the discipline — to make a career of it, even if the meeting didn’t lead to a sale.
Seigel praised his preparation and told him he had a real future in television writing.
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