Jacqueline Goldfinger (she/they) is a playwright-librettist who grew up in rural North Florida with a love of music and storytelling. Today, they write theatre, music, and opera for companies around the world.
Their plays have been produced by The Kennedy Center, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Court Theatre (New Zealand), École nationale de théâtre (Canada), Capital Stage, Urbanite Theatre, Theatre Exile, Vortex Rep, Perseverance Theatre, among others.
Her opera, choral and art song libretti have been performed at Sydney Opera House (Australia), Opera Columbus, Resonance Works, BBC Radio 3 (UK), Voces8 (UK), Oberlin Opera, Chor Leoni (Canada), Chiesa di Ognissanti (Italy), San Diego Opera/Without Walls Festival, and others. The filmed version of their short opera, Letter to Our Children, with Composer Justine F. Chen has screened at film festivals around the world.
Their work has been developed at Maryland Opera Studio, The National Theater (UK), New Georges, La Mama, Disquiet (Portugal), Drama League, Lark Playwrights Week, National New Play Network, among others. Her work has been supported by organizations including Yaddo, National Endowment for the Arts, Millay Colony, Sloan Foundation, and the Orchard Project.
Her plays have won the Yale Prize, Glaspell Award, Generations Award, Smith Prize, Barrymore Award, among others. Her opera Alice Tierney won the Opera America Discovery Award with Composer Melissa Dunphy. Her short opera film Letter to Our Children with Composer Justine F. Chen won Best Music Video at the Paris Short Film Awards.
Her plays and libretti have been published by Yale Press, Theatrical Rights Worldwide, Concord Theatricals, Dramatists Play Service, Edition Peters, and others. Her poetry has been published by literary magazines including La Piccioletta Barca and Beyond Queer Words Poetry Anthology.
As a dramaturg, they have worked with La Jolla Playhouse, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Arden Theatre, and others. She is the Creative Director for the Sledgehammer Series which publishes new play anthologies with visual art. She was the Guest Editor for the Special Issue of the Journal of American Drama and Theatre themed “Revolutions in New Work Development.”
As an educator, they have taught playwriting and dramaturgy at University of Pennsylvania, University of the Arts, and others. Her academic writing includes two books, Playwriting with Purpose and Writing Adaptations and Translations for the Stage published by Routledge. Her work has been documented for Innovations in Socially Distant Performance at Princeton University and she was a Granada Artist-In-Residence at UC Davis.