Julie has a BFA in theatre from the University of Tulsa and a MHR Masters of Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma. She has directed and/or developed over 80 national and local plays and play contests. She is the founder of Laughing Matter Improv, an improvisational troupe in which she performed in over 400 shows. For 21 years she was the Artistic Director of Heller Theatre, and for 14 years she was the Artistic director for Clark Theatre for the City of Tulsa. She was in Where the Red Fern Grows for eight weeks as “Ma” and toured in ten states and performed for approximately 50,000 people for Omaha National Children’s Theatre Company in 2002. She has also implemented touring shows throughout the Oklahoma area. She has directed for or acted with most of the theatre companies in the Tulsa area.
Julie has served as an ahha teaching and performing artist through Artists in the Schools and Harwelden Institute since 1988. She won the 2012 Mary Kay Place Legacy TATE Award for lifetime achievement and contribution to the Tulsa theatre community. She also won the 2014 Hall of Honor Award from the Oklahoma Community Theatre Association in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the development of community theatre in Oklahoma. Currently, she is a theatre educator for the Orbit Initiative and tours her original adaption of Aesop fables called “Aesop’s Afoot,” where she plays a souped up video gamer in “The City and Country Mouse.”
