Jacqueline Goldfinger

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jacqueline Goldfinger
BornJacqueline Elizabeth Pardue
Tallahassee, Florida U.S.
LanguageEnglish
Education
  • MFA University of Southern California
  • BA Agnes Scott College
GenrePlaywriting, Libretto, poetry, non-fiction
Children3
Website
www.jacquelinegoldfinger.com

Jacqueline Goldfinger (she/they) is an American playwright, librettist, and dramaturg who is known for her plays Bottle Fly and Babel. She grew up in rural North Florida with a love of music and storytelling. Today, she is a playwright-librettist who seeks out unique collaborations, working across disciplines to create singular works of theater and opera. She works nationally and internationally on performative texts which speak to our shared humanity while honoring the nuanced identities of each character and culture.

She also runs a blog called Naked Writing which offers online insight into writing, the art and industry, for her fellow writers.

Career[]

Writing for the stage[]

Goldfinger began her career in fringe theater in 2007 by creating site-specific work with the San Diego Playwrights Collective and touring a one-act version of The Terrible Girls to the New York International Fringe Festival.[1]

Her full-length original plays include:

  • The Burning Season
  • Slip/Shot (Barrymore Award and Brown Martin Award),[2][3]
  • Bottle Fly Yale Prize,[4] The Mix List @ Steppenwolf Theatre,[5] Finalist International Book Awards,[6] Nominated Blackburn Prize),[7]
  • Babel (Generations Award, Smith Prize,[8][9] Kilroy's List,[10] Finalist LAMBDA Literary Award for Drama,[11] Finalist Woodward-Newman Award,[12] Nominated Weissberger Award, Nominated),[13]
  • The Arsonists,[14]
  • The Terrible Girls,[15]
  • Click (Special Citation Terrence McNally Award, Nominated Primus Prize, Nominated Blackburn Prize),[16]
  • Skin & Bone[17]

Her full-length adaptations include:

  • A Wind in the Door, an adaptation of Madeline L'Engle's novel[18][19]
  • The Little Mermaid, a body-positive adaptation of the fairytale for all ages[20]
  • Little Women, an adaption of the classic novel with period music[21]
  • A Christmas Carol, an adaptation of the classic novel with Christmas Carols for all ages[22]

Her librettos include:

  • Alice Tierney (opera): Oberlin Opera World Premiere 2023, OPERA America Discovery Grant, Schlichting Commission[23]
  • Halcyon Days (choral): Composer Melissa Dunphy, Commission and World Premiere by Voces8, UK, 2020;[24] Called “a beautifully concordant and consoling prayer” by Opera Today, 2020;[25] BBC Radio 3, UK, 2021;[26] St. Martin in the Fields, UK, 2021[27]
  • Letter to Our Sons (opera): Composer Justine F. Chen, Commission and World Premiere by Decameron Opera Coalition/Resonance Works, Pittsburgh, 2021
  • Set Myself Free (choral): Composer Melissa Dunphy, Commission and World Premiere by Amuse Singers, NYC, 2019[28]

Her works have been developed and produced nationally [29] and internationally,[30] including with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, BBC 3 Radio (UK), Perseverance Theatre, Hangar Theatre, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Voces8 (UK), Disquiet (Portugal), Gate Theatre (New Zealand), New Georges, Oberlin Opera, St. Martin in the Fields (UK), McCarter Theatre, Hangar Theatre, Theatre Exile, Unicorn Theatre, Resonance Works, Capitol Stage, Azuka Theatre, Wilma Theatre, Arden Theatre, The National Theater (UK), Philadelphia Theatre Company, People's Light and Theatre Company, Amuse Singers, Vortex Rep, Women's Theatre Festival, NYC International Fringe, and others.

Goldfinger has also written short plays and monologues.[31][32]

Goldfinger's work has been supported by Yaddo, Opera America, National Endowment for the Arts, Millay Colony, The Orchard Project, The Lark's Playwrights Week, New Georges’ Audrey Residency, Drama League's First Stage Residency, Granada Artist Residency at UC Davis, Emerson Stage's Playwright Residency, Playwrights Collective at Florida Studio Theatre, Sewanee Writers Conference Dakin and Williams Fellowships, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts, among others.

Major creative publications[]

  • Halcyon Days (choral): “A beautifully concordant and consoling prayer.” -Opera Today
  • Bottle Fly (play): “Jacqueline Goldfinger is that rarity in American theatre--a poet-playwright. Bottle Fly is a gorgeous play, roaring with the sacred and the profane and--for all its passion--delicately conveyed.”—Dan O’Brien, playwright, The Body of an American and The House in Scarsdale, Guggenheim Fellow in Drama & Performance Art (USA)
  • The Arsonists (play): "Jacqueline Goldfinger’s spellbinding new play...The Arsonists, put me in mind of a kind of gender-reversed Sam Shepard—especially Shepard’s early collaborative work with Patti Smith...As in Shepard, there is a sense that love, loss, and betrayal are inseparable...What makes The Arsonists so extraordinary is in part its contradictory oddness. It’s realistic and gritty, but also beautifully poetic; epic in scale, but it runs only 70 minutes. There’s very little plot, but every line tells a story. By the time we reach the finale, the tone has shifted considerably. There is a sense here that the playwright honors a history of theater (the Greeks, Shepard, also Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra), but it’s also contemporary. Best of all, Goldfinger’s voice is distinctly, wonderfully her own." -Philadelphia Magazine
  • The Terrible Girls (play): “3 Women comes to mind…Sharp comic timing brings a vital levity to the cutting plot twists and nightmarish revelations. It’s an interesting examination of need for authority, whether real or imagined, that keeps us in the most precarious situations. Emotional needs beat logic to the truth in this pressure-cooker drama.” -CityPaper

Major academic publications[]

  • In August 2021, she is published her first book, Playwriting with Purpose: A Guide and Workbook for New Playwrights.[33] "I wish I had this book when I began my writing journey. It's fresh, funny, thought-provoking, and provides important insights into the industry so that playwrights can get their work on stage immediately." -Antoinette Nwandu, Award-Winning Playwright and Screenwriter, Pass Over (Broadway), She's Gotta Have It (Netflix)
  • Her second book, Writing Adaptations and Translations for the Stage, co-authored with Allison Horsley, will be published in the summer of 2022.
  • Goldfinger has contributed to the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism,[34] August Wilson Journal,[35] and TCG's Audience Revolutions essay series, among others.[36]

Teaching and mentoring[]

Goldfinger co-founded The Foundry with playwrights Michael Hollinger and Quinn Eli in 2012. The programme provides a free three-year mentorship and professional development program for emerging playwrights in Philadelphia.[37] She has also taught playwriting workshops in the United States and internationally.[38]

References[]

  1. ^ Comer, Ronald. ""the terrible girls": A Southern Gothic Drama". Stage Magazine. Retrieved 2021-09-27.
  2. ^ BWW News Desk. "Seattle Public Theater to Present Jacqueline Goldfinger's SLIP/SHOT, 9/25-10/12". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2021-05-22.
  3. ^ Rosenberg, Amy S. "Trayvon Martin shooting has parallels with new play 'Slip/Shot,' premiering in Philadelphia". www.inquirer.com. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  4. ^ "Yale Drama Series Winners". Yale University Press. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
  5. ^ "The Mix". www.steppenwolf.org. Retrieved 2021-07-04.
  6. ^ "International Book Awards - Honoring Excellence in Independent & Mainstream Publishing". www.internationalbookawards.com. Retrieved 2021-07-04.
  7. ^ Gans, Andrew (2017-05-05). "Jacqueline Goldfinger Is the 2017 Winner of Yale Drama Series Prize". Playbill. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  8. ^ "A Woman Faces a Painful Choice and a Tough-Talking Stork in "Babel"; Passage Presents an Online Reading of Jacqueline Goldfinger's Dark Comedy | Town Topics". Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  9. ^ Tran, Diep (2019-06-18). "The Kilroys Release Newest List of Noteworthy Plays by Women". AMERICAN THEATRE. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  10. ^ "The List 2019 | The Kilroys". 2019-06-12. Retrieved 2021-07-04.
  11. ^ "2021 Lambda Literary Award Finalists". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  12. ^ "2021-22 Woodward/Newman Award Winner". Bloomington Playwrights Project. Retrieved 2021-07-04.
  13. ^ "With 'Babel,' a Philly playwright to get six world premieres". WHYY. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  14. ^ "The Arsonists". Concord Theatricals. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  15. ^ "the terrible girls by Jacqueline Goldfinger | Playscripts Inc". www.playscripts.com. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  16. ^ Bernstein, Jesse (2019-03-26). "'Click' Explores Collision of Tech, Identity". Jewish Exponent. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  17. ^ "Review: A 'Skin & Bone' with plenty of meat". WHYY. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  18. ^ Homer, Dara. "BWW Review: A WIND IN THE DOOR at the Kennedy Center". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  19. ^ Mostafavi, Kendall (2021-09-08). "Kennedy Center opens a fantastic 'Wind in the Door' for kids". DC Metro Theater Arts. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  20. ^ "The Little Mermaid". Hangar - Ithaca, NY. Retrieved 2021-07-15.
  21. ^ "Little Women adapted by Jacqueline Goldfinger | Playscripts Inc". www.playscripts.com. Retrieved 2021-09-27.
  22. ^ "A Christmas Carol adapted by Jacqueline Goldfinger | Playscripts Inc". www.playscripts.com. Retrieved 2021-09-27.
  23. ^ "Oberlin Conservatory Commissions Star Composer Melissa Dunphy". Classical Post. Retrieved 2021-07-04.
  24. ^ "6 New Compositions - Meet the Composers — VOCES8 Foundation". VOCES8 Foundation. Retrieved 2021-07-04.
  25. ^ "Solstice: VOCES8 & The Aeolians". Opera Today. 2020-12-08. Retrieved 2021-07-04.
  26. ^ "BBC Radio 3 - Afternoon Concert, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Singers (4/5)". BBC. Retrieved 2021-07-04.
  27. ^ "Upon your heart". St Martin's Digital. Retrieved 2021-07-04.
  28. ^ Set Myself Free, by Melissa Dunphy, retrieved 2021-07-04
  29. ^ Editors, American Theatre (2020-03-11). "Contemporary American Theater Festival Announces 2020 Season". AMERICAN THEATRE. Retrieved 2021-05-24. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  30. ^ "The Arsonists". The Court Theatre. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  31. ^ 2010 the best 10-minute plays. Lawrence Harbison. Hanover, N.H.: Smith and Kraus. 2010. ISBN 978-1-57525-772-3. OCLC 663951778.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  32. ^ The Best Women's Monologues from New Plays, 2019.
  33. ^ "Playwriting with Purpose: A Guide and Workbook for New Playwrights". Routledge & CRC Press. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  34. ^ "Project MUSE - Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism-Volume 35, Number 1, Fall 2020". muse.jhu.edu. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  35. ^ Goldfinger, Jacqueline (2020-02-17). "Stage Review of Jitney at Arena Stage". August Wilson Journal. 2. doi:10.5195/awj.2020.53. ISSN 2577-7432.
  36. ^ "TCG: Theatre Communications Group > AudRev > Audience (R)Evolution > Research & Resources > Dispatches". www.tcg.org. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  37. ^ Brady, Shaun. "PlayPenn events in Center City this month are your free way to see (and meet) theater's rising stars". www.inquirer.com. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  38. ^ "Jacqueline Goldfinger". Disquiet International. Retrieved 2021-05-22.
Retrieved from ""