Hello! I love new plays and new challenges. 

I love trying new things, doing the old things in new ways, and doing the old things for the fun of doing the old things. 

I love work: hard work, easy work, fun work, confrontational work, deep work, surface work and the kind of work that makes you hungry and thirsty at the end of the day.

I will try anything in rehearsal, no matter how silly or difficult. 

When Buck and Tim Busfield came to me a little before half hour on a preview night of Jim McLure’s play The Agent at the B Street Theatre and said, “We’re changing your whole character! Tonight do the whole thing this way!” I said, “OKAY!!!!”

When I came into rehearsal for that evening’s preview of Edna O’Brien’s Triptych at Magic Theatre, and director Chris Smith said, “Here are ten new pages. It’s a whole new ending and we’re doing it in tonight’s show,” I said, “FANTASTIC!!!!”

When I was in rehearsal for the third act of Taylor Mac’s epic five act piece, The Lily’s Revenge, (Act III consisting of professional dancers…and me), the director, Erika Chong Shuch said, “Okay Julia, now you’re going to get picked up by these people over here and thrown onto into the air. Then you’re going to land on Travis Rowland’s shoulders and he is going to dance/run back and forth across the stage, carrying you over his head for a while and then slip/toss you down to the floor.”  I said, “Oh…uhm…GREAT!” 

Okay, I was really achey after that, but -

Why are we doing this if not for moments like these?!? When anything can happen, and it always does! A performer reaches deep, an audience gasps. a complete surprise to both: a shared experience that is unforgettable, irreplicable, perfect in its flaws and then gone - with only a memory to savor the sweetness.

Photo by Marilee Talkington