Gwendolyn (Wendy) Whiteside is an actress, writer, and Producing Artistic Director of American Blues Theater (ABT).
As a stage actress, she’s performed in ABT’s Waiting for Lefty, It’s a Wonderful Life: Live at the Biograph!, Tobacco Road, Augusta, St. Scarlet,365 Days/365 Plays, Kid Simple, and Bus Stop. She was a contributing writer to the Big Shoulders Festival. Regional credits include: Mary in Mary’sWedding, Izzy in Rabbit Hole, Emily in Our Town, and Belle in A Christmas Carol at Indiana Repertory Theatre, and the solo-performance On the House at L.A.’s Lankershim Arts Center. Chicago credits include: the solo-performance thek of d: an urban legend, Metamorphoses at Lookingglass Theatre Company, Dream Boy at About Face Theatre, and work with Northlight Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, Chicago Humanities Festival, Defiant Theater, and Victory Gardens Theater. She’s worked with theater directors: Peter Amster, Nick Bowling, Meredith McDonough, Eric Rosen, Kimberly Senior, Rick Snyder, James Still, Dennis Zacek, and Mary Zimmerman; she’s worked with playwrights: Kristopher Diaz, Richard Dresser, Jordan Harrison, and Laura Schellhardt. She participated in readings and workshops at the Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theater, Northlight Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago Dramatists, Teatro Vista, and Rivendell Theater.
For her Chicago stage work, she’s received seven (7) Joseph Jefferson Awards, Citations, and nominations. She’s the recipient of two (2) After Dark Awards. She was named in NewCity’s “The Players: The Fifty People Who Really Perform in Chicago.”
Her written work has been produced, published, and read at ABT, Lankershim Arts Center, Mary Arrchie Theatre’s Abbie Hoffman Festival, All-Story: Zoetrope Writers’ Retreat, Waiting Room Magazine, Ink, Edinburgh College of Art, Betty Rymer Gallery, G2 Gallery, and Powell’s Bookstore. She was a fiction finalist for Bomb Magazine’s annual prize (judged by A.M. Homes) and Glimmertrain Press.
She joined the Ensemble of American Blues Theater in 1998. She helped lead the transition during the rebirth of ABT in 2009, becoming the Producing Artistic Director. She secured the 501(c)3 and became responsible for administrative oversight, financial reporting, and collaboration with the Ensemble on artistic programming. She ushered in the annual Blue Ink Playwriting Award, Blueprint Play Development, and implemented community outreach as central to the company’s mission. She created “Pink Previews” which donates proceeds of preview performances to the Lynn Sage Foundation for cancer research. She served two years on the National Endowment for the Arts’ theater panel. She moderated and appeared on panels for Chicago Dramatists, Chicago Actors’ Congress, Chicago Theater (anti) Conference (Theater Wit), and with Mike Daisey (“How Theater Failed America”at Victory Gardens Biograph Theater). She serves on the national Board of Directors for Network of Ensemble Theaters.
She graduated cum laude from Northwestern University (Chicago, IL). Following graduation, she lived in Los Angeles, California and worked in television. She returned to the midwest to earn her MFA, attending University of Iowa Writers’ Fiction Workshop summer session and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Presently she attends the Kellogg Executive Scholars Program in Nonprofit Management.
About
As a stage actress, she’s performed in ABT’s Waiting for Lefty, It’s a Wonderful Life: Live at the Biograph!, Tobacco Road, Augusta, St. Scarlet, 365 Days/365 Plays, Kid Simple, and Bus Stop. She was a contributing writer to the Big Shoulders Festival. Regional credits include: Mary in Mary’s Wedding, Izzy in Rabbit Hole, Emily in Our Town, and Belle in A Christmas Carol at Indiana Repertory Theatre, and the solo-performance On the House at L.A.’s Lankershim Arts Center. Chicago credits include: the solo-performance the k of d: an urban legend, Metamorphoses at Lookingglass Theatre Company, Dream Boy at About Face Theatre, and work with Northlight Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, Chicago Humanities Festival, Defiant Theater, and Victory Gardens Theater. She’s worked with theater directors: Peter Amster, Nick Bowling, Meredith McDonough, Eric Rosen, Kimberly Senior, Rick Snyder, James Still, Dennis Zacek, and Mary Zimmerman; she’s worked with playwrights: Kristopher Diaz, Richard Dresser, Jordan Harrison, and Laura Schellhardt. She participated in readings and workshops at the Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theater, Northlight Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago Dramatists, Teatro Vista, and Rivendell Theater.
For her Chicago stage work, she’s received seven (7) Joseph Jefferson Awards, Citations, and nominations. She’s the recipient of two (2) After Dark Awards. She was named in NewCity’s “The Players: The Fifty People Who Really Perform in Chicago.”
Her written work has been produced, published, and read at ABT, Lankershim Arts Center, Mary Arrchie Theatre’s Abbie Hoffman Festival, All-Story: Zoetrope Writers’ Retreat, Waiting Room Magazine, Ink, Edinburgh College of Art, Betty Rymer Gallery, G2 Gallery, and Powell’s Bookstore. She was a fiction finalist for Bomb Magazine’s annual prize (judged by A.M. Homes) and Glimmertrain Press.
She joined the Ensemble of American Blues Theater in 1998. She helped lead the transition during the rebirth of ABT in 2009, becoming the Producing Artistic Director. She secured the 501(c)3 and became responsible for administrative oversight, financial reporting, and collaboration with the Ensemble on artistic programming. She ushered in the annual Blue Ink Playwriting Award, Blueprint Play Development, and implemented community outreach as central to the company’s mission. She created “Pink Previews” which donates proceeds of preview performances to the Lynn Sage Foundation for cancer research. She served two years on the National Endowment for the Arts’ theater panel. She moderated and appeared on panels for Chicago Dramatists, Chicago Actors’ Congress, Chicago Theater (anti) Conference (Theater Wit), and with Mike Daisey (“How Theater Failed America” at Victory Gardens Biograph Theater). She serves on the national Board of Directors for Network of Ensemble Theaters.
She graduated cum laude from Northwestern University (Chicago, IL). Following graduation, she lived in Los Angeles, California and worked in television. She returned to the midwest to earn her MFA, attending University of Iowa Writers’ Fiction Workshop summer session and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Presently she attends the Kellogg Executive Scholars Program in Nonprofit Management.
She’s grateful to the Chicago artistic community.