Something that had existed only in my imagination was now being heard, and felt, by an audience. I’ll never forget that feeling; that I could move people, that I could make them think. It planted the seed for the exciting career I have today, creating and directing new Canadian stories.
-Julie McIsaac, on CCPA’s TD Festival of New Works
In addition to her studies at CCPA, Julie is a graduate of Carleton University (BA Honours Music), and most recently earned her Master’s degree in Directing & Writing from the University of York (UK). She is Artistic Associate of Firepot Performance and is currently Artist-in-Residence with Pacific Opera Victoria, building upon her many accomplishments in theatre/music/creation and receiving mentorship from stage directors Atom Egoyan (Jenůfa), Peter Hinton (Missing), and Maria Lamont (La Bohème). This past year, Julie directed Pride and Prejudice for the Chemainus Theatre Festival, Le nozze di Figaro for Opera Studio/Victoria Conservatory of Music, and she is Associate Director of Corey Payette’s new musical Children of God (Urban Ink/Cultch/NAC), which is headed to the Citadel and Western Canada Theatre in 2018 (featuring fellow CCPA alum Sarah Carlé!) Other directing highlights include: My Rabbi (Sum Theatre), Lend Me a Tenor (Company C), Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (Dancing Monkey Presents), Ordinary Days and The Exquisite Hour (Relephant Theatre; inaugural Playhouse Fringe Award).
As an actor, singer and musician, Julie has performed on stages throughout Western Canada, most often in Vancouver, where she is an Ovation award winner (as Percy in The Spitfire Grill), a three-time Jessie award nominee, and a founding member of the Honest Fishmongers. Julie is also the playwright, composer-arranger, and co-sound designer of Firepot’s The Out Vigil (2016 Jessie award with Jay Clift for Outstanding Sound Design / Original Composition). The Out Vigil was also featured in the 2015 New American Voices Festival in London’s West End, and received an all-new production this summer at Theatre Newfoundland Labrador’s Gros Morne Theatre Festival. Julie is currently developing a new multidisciplinary work with Firepot Performance (working title “The Circus Project”) and is also co-writing book & lyrics for the new trilingual musical Les Filles du Roi with composer Corey Payette (commissioned by Fugue Theatre). Les Filles du Roi will premiere in May 2018, and has recently been shortlisted for the Playwright Guild of Canada’s Stage West Pechet Family Musical Award.