CURRENT RESIDENCE: Cary, Illinois
YEAR JOINED ENSEMBLE: 1998
AMERICAN BLUES THEATER CREDITS
EXECUTIVE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
(UPCOMING) It’s a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago (2025) – Director
(UPCOMING) Come Back, Little Sheba (as Lola)
(UPCOMING) Always…Patsy Cline – Director
Exec. Artistic Director: National Theatre Company Award – American Theatre Wing (Tony Awards); 49 productions & remounts – 16 Jeff Awards, Citations, and nominations
Director: The Last Wide Open; It’s a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago! – Jeff nomination for Production-midsize & Jeff nomination for Short Run Production.
Actor: On Clover Road – Jeff Award nomination Production-midsize, Grounded – Jeff Award for Solo Performance, Broadway World Chicago nominee for Actor; Collected Stories – Jeff Award for Production-midsize, Broadway World Chicago Award for Actor; It’s a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago (9 years) – Jeff Award nominee for Production-midsize; Waiting for Lefty; Tobacco Road – Jeff Award nominee for Production-midsize; Augusta; St. Scarlet – Jeff Award nominee for Supporting Actress; Kid Simple; Bus Stop – After Dark Award for Ensemble.
Writer: Big Shoulders, Ripped Festival, adapted and created curriculum for The Lincoln Project used in Chicago Public Schools.
ABOUT WENDY
In her tenure as Artistic Director, she created the nationally-recognized Blue Ink Award for playwriting and new work development program; implemented community service into the company’s mission in 2010; and adapted the arts education programs. She led American Blues through its reorganization in 2009 and built the operational budget from zero to $1 million. She secured the company’s first-ever operating reserve, endowment, and permanent home. Whiteside served on the National Endowment for the Arts panels and a Board member for Network of Ensemble Theaters and League of Chicago Theatres.
Outside of American Blues Theater, she’s performed with Northlight Theatre, Defiant Theater, About Face Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theater, and Lankershim Arts Center in association with HBO. In addition to honors for work at American Blues Theater, she received a Jeff Award nomination for Solo Performance in the k of d: an urban legend; Jeff Award for Ensemble (Lookingglass’ Metamorphoses); Jeff Award for Ensemble & After Dark Award for Ensemble (About Face’s Dream Boy). She was named by American Theatre as a “Chicago Theater Worker You Should Know” and named in Newcity’s Players List – Hall of Fame.
She’s a graduate of Northwestern University (BS), The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (MFA), and a Kellogg Executive Scholar in Nonprofit management (Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University).
FUN FACT
She learned to drive a tractor at 10-yrs-old and began driving to school at 14-yrs old.