Julie McKee grew up in New Zealand and like most Kiwis traveled at an early age. During the Movida in Madrid, she met for the first time artists and people of the theatre including Eusebio Poncela and Pedro Almodóvar. It was a time of amazing artistic freedom and Julie was inspired to follow suit. First as a dancer then actor.
Her plays, which include The Adventures of Amy Bock, Will Sacrifice, Ron’s Garden, Dig ‘n Arch, Free Ascent, A Backward Glance, The ‘Far-Flung’, Invitation to a Funeral, Get it While You Can, Play By Ear, Haere Mai Ki Aotearoa and The Sleeper Awakens, have been produced and/or developed at such theaters as Yale Repertory Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre/Marathons, HB Playwrights Foundation, Women’s Project, Auckland Theatre Co., via Playmarket NZ and Sundance Playwrights Lab. Recent plays are The Secret Life of Seaweed (Commissioned by EST/Alfred P, Sloan Foundation Project), co-produced by EST Satellite First Light, HB Playwrights Foundation and Collider Theatre Co. and A Holiday on Ice in a Warm Climate commissioned / published by CCTA Climate Change Theater Action, produced in New Zealand, London, Heidelberg, Montreal, and all over the US.
She received a second commission from EST/ Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Project for Fringe Benefits, grants from the HB First Floor Project and Theatre Emory, Emory University, and fellowships from New York Foundation for the Arts, MacDowell Colony, VCCA, and International Exchange St. James Center for Creativity, Malta. She was awarded a Silver Medal by EST for contribution of theatrical excellence to the EST Marathon.
She has been published by Smith & Kraus, Playscripts Inc. including Great Short Plays, Monologues for Women, was nominated for Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and reached the finals for Chesterfield Screenwriting Fellowship many times.
A high school dropout, Julie received the Truman Capote Fellowship and Eugene O'Neill Scholarship from Yale School of Drama where she studied with Richard Gilman, Mac Wellman, Mark Bly, Marlene Meyer, María Irene Fornés, Ming Cho Lee (yes), and Donald Margulies.
She is a playwright member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and it’s Playwright Unit, member of Honor Roll, Dramatists Guild of America, and AEA/SAG/AFTRA.
www.juliemckee.info
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Playmarket New Zealand
Director@playmarket
www.playmarket.org