Jean Schiffman's Biography

I'm a fulltime freelance arts journalist specializing in theatre. I write about dance, music, art, film, performance art and especially theatre for a variety of publications, both local and national, trade and general consumer, print- and web-based. My love of theatre comes from my background as an actor and cofounder of a theatre company in San Francisco, not to mention all the plays my mother took me to as a kid (thanks, Mom!). I write a monthly column about the craft of acting for Back Stage; I write mostly features and sometimes theatre and film reviews; and my book The Working Actor's Toolkit was published by Heinemann in 2003.

I also write personal essays (some have been published in various newspapers around the country) and short stories (some of which have appeared in small literary journals).

Here’s a brief sampling of some of the arts publications that I’ve written for in recent years: Back Stage, San Francisco Arts Monthly, Variety, American Theatre,Stage Directions, Dramatics.