'Mozart and the Gray Steward'

 Thornton Wilder experimented with “three-minute plays.” He wrote a bunch of them in college.

After The Bridge of San Luis Rey, publishers were eager to see more of his work. In 1928, Wilder collected 16 short plays in The Angel That Troubled the Waters and Other Plays. The longest is “Mozart and the Gray Steward,” which is about the commission for the Requiem.

The Gray Steward has this line about grief:

 

Only through the intercession of great love, and of great art which is love, can that despairing cry be eased. 

I first read Wilder in high school. I can’t say that I love his work, but I do find a lot of it interesting. I would like to see more of Wilder’s letters and more of his short plays.

• Source: “Mozart and the Gray Steward” is in Thornton Wilder: Collected Plays & Writings on Theater; Library of America, 2007, pp. 43–47. Library of America has included the play in its wonder Story of the Week catalog, which is free. It’s here:

https://storyoftheweek.loa.org/2025/04/mozart-and-gray-steward.html