AustLit

Margaret Fischer's parents were Austrian Jews; holocaust survivors who came to Australia in 1949 after escaping from Austria to China in 1939 where they lived for the next decade. Fischer grew up in Sydney, and gained a BA and a DipEd from the University of New South Wales.

Between 1975-1981 Fischer wrote for and performed with Pipi Storm, a Sydney theatre company. She also had her work performed in Adelaide and Melbourne.

With her partner Roxxy Bent and with Ollie Black she founded the Vitalstatistix Women's Theatre Co in 1984 and has worked as artistic director, writer and actor for the company since that time. She has always been deeply involved in struggles against injustice in her work in theatre and community culture development, working with women, indigenous people and people from non-English-speaking backgrounds. Fischer has been awarded grants by the Australian Council (the Ros Bower Award, 1996), the South Australian Department of the Arts, the Myer Foundation and the Equal Opportunities Commission. In 1997-8 she was Co-Artistic Director of the first Adelaide Gay and Lesbian festival.