Toni Schlesinger

Toni Schlesinger is a Chicago-native, New York City-based journalist and theater artist. She is best known for her long-running “Shelter” column in The Village Voice (1997–2006) and New York Observer (2006–07).[1] A selection of the Voice pieces is gathered in the book Five Flights Up (Princeton Architectural Press 2006), which Tom Hanks hailed as a must-read and about which playwright Tony Kushner wrote, “Toni Schlesinger’s book describes this relationship of the accidental to the profound, the domestic to the totally weird; she visits, draws out and celebrates this permanent impermanence better than anyone ever has.” Previously, Schlesinger was a writer and columnist for the Chicago Reader (1977–1992), where she first collaborated with illustrator Tom Bachtell.

Schlesinger's theatrical career as a writer, designer and performer—though obviously an influence on her interviewing style—holds a unique position in New York City's Off-Off Broadway tradition.

Among her produced works include:

• "The Mystery of Pearl Street" at Dixon Place, 2014; inspired her seventeen-year investigation of the real-life 1997 disappearance and presumed murder of artists Camden Sylvia and Michael Sullivan following a dispute with their landlord.[2]

Reviewing the play, Village Voice critic Alexis Soloski observed that the "material is genuinely fascinating." [3]

• "The Mystery of Oyster Street" at Dixon Place, 2012; a fictional, two-person interrogation play starring Drew Hildebrand and Esme Von Hoffman
• "When The World Broke In Two: A Visit With Willa Cather" Metropolitan Playhouse, 2010 [4]
• "The Toni Schlesinger Show," Puppet Lab at St Ann's Warehouse, 2007 [5]
• "Lobster Village," at HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program at the Great Small Works Toy Festival, 2003, for two puppets.