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All people deserve art. All people have the impulse to create.
All people have the tools to unlock meaningful aesthetic experiences. Art should be available and accessible to ALL.
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Julie creates spaces of possibility.
Julie is a dynamic leader who galvanizes multidisciplinary teams of artists to create contemporary theatre and live art projects that evoke, challenge, and astonish. She inspires creativity in others or works independently to design large-scale spectacle or intimate performance environments. She seeks deep connection to local culture with community-based projects, specifically in prisons creating work alongside incarcerated artists and also with folks experiencing homelessness, folks dying in hospice care, young people and other marginalized groups.
Julie values process, making time to listen, build community, and forge a sense of belonging and investment for all involved in a production. She leads with love and justice. Fundamentally inclusive, the rehearsal space Julie creates amplifies all voices, acknowledges the labor and intelligence of all contributors, with a willingness to engage in difficult conversations and ensure all artists experience the freedom to fail (and blossom!).
Julie received her MFA in Theatre Performance from Arizona State University (2014), Julie has also attended the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU/Tisch and Naropa University for undergraduate studies, as well as trained internationally at DAH Teatar in Belgrade, Serbia, and the Grotowski Institute in Brzezinka, Poland.
Her directing credits (devised, new works, and extant works) include: pity + fear (a travesty) by Miriam Suzanne, Everybody by Branden Jacob-Jenkins, RECIPE, JANE/EYRE, Good Kids by Naomi Izuka, whispering gallery, HOT+WAX, Mouse in a Jar by Martyna Majok, RAIN/ OF TERROR, pussy +6 Suzan-Lori Parks. In addition, she has created Memento Mori, The In-Between, RID, glASS (and other imponderables), a murder one less, and My Burning Tires. As a performer, she has toured nationally and internationally in productions of My Name is Rachel Corrie and manson | family valUeS, as well as performed various featured roles in many other performance, film, and video projects.
In fall 2022, Julie will direct The Gentle Life-Changing Magic of Burning It All Down to the Ground, a world premier by Heather Beasley at Denver’s Benchmark Theatre.
Julie has created performing arts programs at three prisons in three states: Drama Workshop at Eyman State Prison (Florence, AZ), Interdisciplinary Performance at Draper State Prison (Draper, UT), and Action, Change Theatre/ACT Ensemble at Sterling Correctional Facility (Sterling, CO) with co-facilitator Misty Saribal. She was instrumental in the creation, development, and expansion of the University of Denver Prison Arts Initiative, training over 40 prison-arts facilitators and leading multiple projects. She continues to create inside prisons in Colorado with ACT Ensemble. She has served as the Subject Editor for the Routledge Prison-Based Theatre digital archive and has two forthcoming book chapters on art and abolition.
Julie edited and led the creation of Tell It Slant: An Anthology of Creative Nonfiction by Writers from Colorado’s Prisons, which was a finalist for the 2022 Colorado Book Awards presented by Colorado Humanities.
After a two-year faculty position at the University of Utah, Julie returned to Denver, Colorado. She has worked as Affiliate Faculty at Naropa University, Community College of Aurora, and MSU Denver. She is currently on Faculty Senate at MSU Denver.
She worked as a Teaching Artist & Facilitator with Mirror Image Arts, before transitioning to serve as the Advocacy Manager, advancing legislation and igniting grassroots campaigns for youth justice. In the 2022 legislative session, Julie led the efforts to successfully pass HB22-1373: Court-Ordered Restitution Paid by Juveniles.
She is a co-founder of the multimedia performance company, Grapefruit Lab, created with friends, Miriam Suzanne and Kenny Storms.
When not making messes, she reads books on her sofa, works on crossword puzzles, and hikes around in the mountains. She has a cat. She sometimes does yoga or dances around her living room, with or without tap shoes. She’s had the fortune of traveling to many amazing places, creating art, giving talks, or simply exploring. She prefers sunshine to grey days and coffee to tea, but she’s an experience junky and will take it all, in fact.
In March of 2020, Julie was profiled for Voyage Denver Magazine. Check out the profile HERE.
In February of 2018, Julie was named one of 100 Colorado Creatives by the Denver Westword. Check out the interview HERE.
In the summer of 2014, Julie was named one of 100 Phoenix Creatives by the Phoenix New Times. Check out the interview HERE.
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Re-framing and Re-containing: Can We Really Ensure Safety in the Rehearsal Studio or Classroom?
More Love Affair than Assembly Line: Casting Practices in Devised Theatre
Script Analysis: No Screaming Matches, No Riot Police
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