Shirley Fishman

Shirley Fishman is the director of play development for the La Jolla Playhouse, where she has also served as dramaturg on Carmen, The Deception, Most Wanted, The Wiz, Culture Clash's Zorro in Hell, The Scottish Play, Palm Beach, Eden Lane, When Grace Comes In, Adoration of the Old Woman, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, Diva, I Am My Own Wife (2004 Pulitzer Prize) and Dracula, The Musical. At the Joseph Papp Public Theater, Fishman dramaturged such projects as Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters, directed by Michael Greif; Two Sisters and a Piano by Nilo Cruz; Tina Landau's Space; Arthur Miller's The Ride Down Mount Morgan; Tony Kushner's A Dybbuk: Or Between Two Worlds; David Henry Hwang's Golden Child; numerous works-in-process, readings and workshops. She also co-curated the Public's annual New Work Now! Festival. She has been a creative advisor/dramaturg at the Sundance Theatre Lab, working on such projects as Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife; Naomi Iizuka's 36 Views and Moises Kaufman's The Laramie Project.

She is an MFA graduate of Columbia University's dramaturgy program, has lectured at UCSD's Department of Theatre and Dance and is a dramaturg for UCSD's Baldwin Playwrights Festival. She serves on the Board of Trustees of the San Diego Performing Arts League.