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, and R.I.P.!). I write features plus theatre reviews for the San Francisco Examiner. 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, Theatre Bay Area, San Francisco Arts Monthly, Variety, American Theatre, Stage Directions, Dramatics. In 2012, my play "Abnormally Funny," about the relationship between a clown with Alzheimer's and her adult daughter, received two staged readings in San Francisco.