Jacqueline Wade's Bio
Jacqueline Wade is a native of Philadelphia who has lived in New York and Chicago. Jacqueline is a graduate of Temple University Theater Department and holds a BA. Jacqueline also attended Circle in the Square Two Year Certificate Actor’s Training Program in New York City. She holds a graduate MFA Degree from the City College of New York in Film from the Film Department. She has worked as an adjunct professor at Hunter City University of New York in the Media and Film Department. She finished up her second MFA at Hunter City University of New York in the Integrated Media Arts Program. She is a member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. She was a semifinalist for Fulbright 2021.
Jacqueline Wade’s goal is to create works of art as an activist artist that deal with the human condition, race, and social justice issues. She wants to make positive changes and actions through her work. She wants to empower others. Jacqueline comes from an extensive theater background of acting, directing, playwriting, puppetry, teaching, producing, and film work. She combines puppetry, theater with documentary and narrative filmmaking, animation along with interactive media. As an actress, Jacqueline Wade has performed in many plays at various regional theaters throughout the country, including Milwaukee Repertory, Wilma Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival, LaMaMa E.T.C., Classical Theater of Harlem. She has also written 20 plays, including “Black Panther Women,” and directed over 35 plays and performance art pieces. Her play, “Miles Davis,” was nominated for an AUDELCO Award. She has directed and written Ten plays at Black Spectrum Theater, including “Mae Jemison.” Jacqueline Wade was a recipient of the Walt Disney Pride Rock Grant. She was also awarded the Ethel Surgent Grant for $15,000, which helped to fund the touring of her plays to over 30 culturally deprived schools and institutions in Pennsylvania. Jacqueline also worked extensively with youth as a teaching artist and an organizer to motivate and empower them. She has also taught workshops about police brutality and prevention of gun violence to youth. Ms. Wade was also honored by Delta Zeta Chapter in Philadelphia for teaching cultural literacy through drama. She was awarded various writing residencies through The Field, Center at West Park, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. In Fall 2018, Jacqueline Wade was invited to attend the prestigious BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop as a librettist.
Jacqueline Wade’s installation work, “Spiritual Activism," was also part of Thomas Allen Harris Mother Bethel Harlem USA. In 2019, Jacqueline Wade attended the Eugene O Neill National Puppet Conference and received the Ralph E. Cheese Minority Scholarship. Jacqueline has also worked with Professor Claudia Orenstein on puppet productions as a builder, sound designer, puppeteer and guest workshop teacher. Jacqueline Wade's articles, “African Americans and African Diaspora: Living Puppetry and Objects” and “Just Another Lynching Reviews and Thoughts,” were published in 2018 and 2019 in Puppeteers of America Puppetry Journal. In 2021, Jacqueline designed, sculpted, and was lead builder for the 18ft giant Mumia puppet. The puppet was used in Philadelphia and New York for Mobilization4Mumia rallies. The giant puppet was also part of the International. Puppet Fringe Festival NYC 2021. Jacqueline was a speaker on the UNIMA panel at the festival concerning social justice and puppets. Jacqueline’s giant Mumia puppet was also presented in October 2021 as part of the Spirit of Mandela International Tribunal at the Church Center for the United Nations. Jacqueline Wade’s film “Osage,” was shown as part of the prestigous film festival DOC NYC in November in 2021. Jacqueline was also awarded a scholarship to Catapult 2022 for the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival along with scholarship for summer workshops. She also was awarded a scholarship in Sandglass Theater Summer Intensive program 2022. Jacqueline designed, and was lead builder for a 20ft Mother Earth Puppet that was used in Veterans for Peace event in New York City. She also was awarded BPOC scholarship to Bread and Puppet where she was an apprentice for summer 2022. Jacqueline Wade was awarded in September from New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) 2022 Scholarship for exceptional film work at Hunter. Jacqueline was also awarded the Puppet Lab Residency (for 9 months Oct-June 2023) which is part of the prestigious Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival in Chicago. Jacqueline Wade created, directed and workshopped the puppetry performance piece for the puppet lab, “Consuewella: Triptych in MOVE”. Jacqueline also designed and built all the three-dimensional puppets. This was performed at the Chopin Theatre in Chicago for the puppet lab. She also performed the piece at the Trap Door Theatre as part of their Open-Door Series (Nov/Dec 2024). Jacqueline is profiled in a chapter of the book “Object Performance in the Black Atlantic: The United States” Chapter 12 (about political activism), Routledge. In 2023, Jacqueline contributed a written chapter/essay in the book “Race, Gender and Disability in Puppetry and Material Performance” Edited by Alissa Mello, Paulette Richards and Laura Purcell-Gates To be published by Routledge in 2025. Jacqueline was invited to perform a puppet theater piece on Mumia at Bread and Puppet’s Radical Cheese Festival in fall 2023.
Jacqueline was hired to write the Nubia section of History Park for Black Spectrum Theater in 2024. In April 2024, Jacqueline was invited to New Orleans Giant Puppet Festival where she directed and performed in her puppetry performance, "Consuewella Triptych in MOVE". In June 2024, Jacqueline received a Henson scholarship to attend the Eugene O Neill and study with Andrew Kim. In late June, 2024, Jacqueline was also invited to speak at the conference PSI 29 in London at the University of London concerning “Dis/Assembling the Other: Negotiating Race, Gender, and Disability Identities through Puppetry and Material”. In August, 2024 Jacqueline, "Consuewella Triptych in MOVE" was invited to perform in Puppet Paradise! The Southeast Regional Puppeteers of America Festival. In 2025, Jacqueline's giant puppets Power to the People, Mumia, and Mother Earth were featured and on exhibition at The History Center in Tompkins County at the Tompkins Center for History and Culture Museum in Ithaca, New York October 30 to May 28. Jacqueline Wade's giant John Africa puppet and two pig police heads were on display at the Chicago Cultural Art Center from Dec 2024 to April 6, 2025. This was part of the Potential Energy Puppet Exhibition. Jacqueline Wade was also the founder and producer of the Chicago Women of Color Puppetry and Performing Arts Fringe Festival 2025 that ran for 50 days, chicagowomenofcolorfest.com from January to March 2025. Summer 2025, Jacqueline wrote, directed and performed in the Sudan piece which was part of the Bread and Puppet Circus. Jacqueline also designed and was lead builder on the giant Scapegoat puppet that was set on fire in July as part of the pageant performance at Bread and Puppet. Jacqueline Wade was hired to design and build the entry and exit installation that is part of Rough House's Exquisite Corpse that will be at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago from October 9 to November 2, 2025.
