John Fisher's DOODLER Begins At The Marsh This Month

The Marsh San Francisco will present John Fisher's true crime thriller DOODLER after a sold-out first run at Theatre Rhinoceros. Set in 1970s San Francisco, DOODLER follows a young gay man on a relentless investigation to solve the mystery of the “Doodler,” a serial killer who targeted the queer community and left behind drawn portraits of each of his victims.

The amateur sleuth tours the city in search of clues—from the Castro to Haight-Ashbury, from Ocean Beach to North Beach. Fisher takes the one-man show format to the extreme, operating all staging and technical elements live from the stage while performing every role in this chilling, dead-serious, and campy crusade. To this day, the Doodler case remains unsolved.

DOODLER will run May 31 – July 6, 2025 (press opening: June 7), with performances 8:00pm Saturdays and 3:00pm Sundays at The Marsh San Francisco (1062 Valencia Street). For tickets ($25-$35 general admission, $50 and $100 reserved, $3 convenience fee per ticket) or for more information, the public may visit themarsh.org.

John Fisher's DOODLER was first developed as a virtual performance during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Fisher, the executive artistic director of Theatre Rhinoceros, created and performs the solo show. Hailed as “a masterpiece” by Theatrius and “excellent...well worth experiencing” by Stage and Cinema, DOODLER enjoyed a two-show special at The Tank in New York City, a sold-out run at Theatre Rhinoceros in San Francisco, and an extended presentation at SAFEHouse Arts in San Francisco before coming to The Marsh San Francisco.

ABOUT THE CAST AND CREATIVES

John Fisher (Playwright/Co-Director/Actor) recently completed a successful Off-Broadway run of his show Medea: The Musical at the Actor's Temple, after an initial run at Green Room 42 in NYC. He enjoyed a six-month run of his solo-show A History of World War II at The Marsh, preceded by two runs of the show in Manhattan (United Solo/Theatre Row – Best Actor Award - and Pangea Performance Space) and another in Los Angeles (The Broadwater). He is a two-time winner of the Will Glickman Award, as well as being a recipient of the GLAAD Media Award, an NEA Project Grant and 10 San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics' Circle Awards (most recently for Best Production for Cabaret in 2024). His plays include the award-winning Action Hero, Shakespeare Goes to War, To Sleep and Dream, Combat! and Medea: The Musical. Previous COVID-19 performances include Murder in Hawaii, Shark! and A Tourist in London. Fisher's COVID-19 plays A Tourist in Hawaii and A Tourist in London were revived online at The Marsh. He is a frequent performer of his solo work at Pangea NYC, The Tank NYC and the LGBTQ Center in Manhattan. Fisher has worked at Golden Thread, The American Conservatory Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, as well as at the HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. Fisher returns to The Marsh after playing runs of four of his shows on the San Francisco Mainstage, in Berkeley and online: A History of World War II, Radical, A Tourist in Hawaii and A Tourist in London.