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 and New York Observer. A selection of the Voice pieces is gathered in the book Five Flights Up, 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, 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:
Reviewing the play, Village Voice critic Alexis Soloski observed that the "material is genuinely fascinating."