Susan Shafer. Susan’s award-winning plays have been produced or given staged readings in theaters across
the country. Her most recent work, Shirtwaist Girls, Unite! was performed in the Delray Beach
Playhouse in Florida. The play tells the true story of Clara Lemlich, a young Jewish girl who, in
1909, led a strike of factory workers in New York.
In addition to Florida, Susan's works have appeared in Open Hydrant in the Bronx, the
Katharine Cornell in Nantucket, as well as AlphaNYC and Theater for the New City, the latter
two in Manhattan. Besides writing plays for adults, Susan is the author of five plays for children
and numerous works for the education market.
Susan writes nonfiction articles, too. Her piece “Memory Slipping? Try Playing Mah Jongg”
(2019) was, at that time, the most read article in the history of www.nycitywoman.com. “Caring
For a Loved One With Dementia” (2019) appeared in www.nycitywoman.com as well. Also
published was “On Stage: Women in History Come Alive” (2018) and “Library Books for
Homebound Readers” (2018). Her opinion piece “The Best Place for Comics? The Classroom”
was published in 2017 in Publishers Weekly.
Dr. Shafer is a graduate of Columbia University's Teachers College where her doctoral
dissertation, entitled Rachmones, was probably the first and only work there with a Yiddish title.
In addition to her membership in the Alliance for Jewish Theatre, Susan belongs to The
Dramatists Guild, The League of Professional Theatre Women, and The Authors Guild.
She can be reached through her website www.sshafer.com or her email, sshafer@mindspring.com.
Interested in reading Susan's plays? Many can be found on The New Play Exchange.