Hello! I’m glad you’re here.

Photo by the fab @withreservation

I’m a writer, performer, teacher, and intimacy director based in New York’s Hudson Valley. I love storytelling, and I’ve spent a couple of decades creating and helping others create all kinds of stories in all kinds of contexts.

Interested in my work as a content strategist for clients like IBM and American Express? Right this way.

As an actor, I trained in classical theater at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the University of Delaware’s Professional Theater Training Program (RIP) and at Michael Howard Studios, where I was lucky enough to be a regular at the Shakespeare Workout. I played ingenues, leading ladies, snarky servants, scheming courtiers, and assorted misfits and weirdos including a bored pirate, a mystical hag, a fussy little mayor, a charades-obsessed maid, and a Christmas sheep.

As a writer and storyteller, I have an MFA in creative nonfiction from the New School and have appeared on stages and podcasts throughout New York and beyond. I created and hosted Story Social, an open mic at QED, for two years. Check out the stories page for a few examples. Along the way I had a parallel career developing brand messaging platforms and training teams of writers at large enterprises, spent four years at IBM embedded with a team of AI engineers, and regularly consult as a user experience and digital communications strategist. You can find details on that work here.

As a teacher, I was both a teaching artist and company member at the National Shakespeare Company and the Texas Shakespeare Festival and taught acting and playwriting at Manhattan University. I taught storytelling for The Moth and as a guest teaching artist at CUNY’s Newmark School of Journalism and served as a mentor and curriculum director for Girls Write Now. In 2016 I co-founded Rasa Advising, a consultancy that trained public defenders and other criminal justice advocates to argue more effectively for their clients by using narrative structures in their work, with an emphasis on recognizing and counteracting inherent bias.

I trained as an intimacy director at IDC Professionals and have intimacy directed projects including Madylon at the NY Theater Festival, Old Town Theatrical’s The Cottage, and Around the World in 80 Days at Shadowland Stages, where I also teach acting and storytelling. I use my extensive training to support directors, actors, and producing organizations by establishing collaborative spaces and designing choreography that helps tell our most deeply human stories with creative freedom, safety, clarity, and precision.

I love talking about any and all of these things! Say hello anytime.


4 thoughts on “Hello! I’m glad you’re here.”

  1. Pamela Leconey

    Julie’s class is a joy ! She is so knowledgeable and has a unique way of looking at a character and breaking it down to create a three dimensional complete person ! I had to miss all too many classes but with her, but I feel her suggestions helped me become a better actor ! Can’t wait to start her next class ! She has so much to give !

    Reply ↓
    1. admin Post author

      Hi Pam!

      Thank you so much for this 🙂 (And I am *terrible* about checking my website, so don’t take this delayed reply personally. I’m working on it.

      I’m so glad you’re coming back and delighted to work with you again 🙂

      Reply ↓
  2. Judy

    I just completed an acting class that Julie taught at the Shadowland Theater in Ellenville. She has a style of teaching that helps me look at my character in many different ways. This adds depth to the character as I delve into their motivation. Some of the exercises focus on the interactions between characters and how this interdependence adds so much to the scene. In addition to enhancing my acting skills, Julie makes the class fun.
    I’ve already signed up for my next class with Julie.

    Reply ↓
    1. admin Post author

      Hi Judy 🙂

      I loved having you and am thrilled you’re going to be back! Thank you so much for this, and apologies for the delayed response. (As I said above, I’m always behind at updating this site, but I always intend to be. So thank you also for the motivation :).

      See you in class (very soon)!

      Reply ↓

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