Julie McNamara 
 

Performance:

 

Julie McNamara

Julie McNamara first performed in public with punk band The Plague. It was 1977 and the world was going mad. In the same year she was voted Actress of the Year in a Merseyside Drama Festival for her performance of the Second Comedian in A Resounding Tinkle. She went on to work with The National Student Theatre Company (NSTC) alongside John Godber and Stephen Jeffries and was a regular at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

By 1987 she was working for Banner Theatre, a socialist company focusing on topical political issues.She left theatre to go it alone. She continues to write and perform her own shows and teaches stagecraft and voicework internationally. In 2002 she teamed up with Jessica Higgs, Director of In Tandem Theatre Company.

Julie was commissioned in 2002 by Jackson's Lane Theatre and Oval House Theatre to create a piece for the Xposure London Festival of Disability Arts. The play was a roaring success and the highlight of the festival. Pig Tales earned her a Theatre People award from London Arts.

Recent performances include: Pig Tales at Jackson's Lane, Oval House Theatre in London, Alverton Manor (Cornwall) and the Edinburgh Festival.

Keep a look out for the sequel - Pig's Sister.

Julie has also recently appeared in The Vagina Monologues at The Cochrane Theatre, London. The Cellar Bar, Manchester Town Hall and Womenspace, all at Europride Manchester, The Citadel St. Helens and Women In Tune Festival, South Wales.

Appearances since December 2000 have included:

  • The Feast Festival in Australia
  • Auckland Festival in New Zealand
  • Good Health in Wanganui
  • Ao Prao in Thailand
  • Skyros Island in Greece
  • London's Sadlers Wells
  • The Spitz
  • National Film Theatre, South Bank
  • The Astoria Theatre
  • London Weekend Television
  • Questors Theatre Studio
  • Theatre Workshop Edinburgh
  • Holton Lee in Poole
  • Ithaca Oxfordshire
  • Libertas Festival
  • The Barbican York
  • aLAF Festival Dublin
  • Waughton Theatre, Milton Keynes
  • and the infamous Hemingford Arms in Islington.

------------------

"Julie McNamara is an amazing artist, a fantastic teller of tales and singer of songs. She took control as soon as she stepped onstage in a stunning performance. Julie does not just play characters on stage, she becomes them, delivering stories and poems with a power and intimacy which is daunting. Her greatest strengths are twofold, the first is the fact that she is telling the truth and from experience lived or observed and the second is her wonderful voice. A wonderful performance from a talented and extraordinary lady."
MAGNUM ARTS review of a show at The Citadel, St. Helens

Described by Libby Purvis as 'Utterly reprehensible!' (BBC Radio 4)

'The highlight of the evening came with Julie McNamara, a brilliant performer...star of the night!'
(Sandra Barwick The Independent)

'She has that rare skill of capturing an audience through the instant rapport she strikes up.'
(Sandra Britton, Bristol Disability Arts)

'She takes her audience through extremes of emotion, magnetises us with a mixture of songs and torrid tales that reveal an outrageous sense of humour and a repertoire of rapid gob fire.'
(Kath Gillespie Sells, Regard)'

One of the finest Lesbian artists on the circuit.'
(Richard Dean, Riverside Studios)

'Julie McNamara is one of the most talented performers I've seen for a long while. She has a tremendous range, power and poise.'
(David Hill, West Midlands Arts)

-----------

For details of Julie's award winning show: Pig Tales touring nationally, click here

Click here to email Julie

-----------

Julie McNamara in  'Life's a  Drag'
Julie McNamara & Hetty May Bailey in the Vigina Monologues
Julie McNamara and Hetty May Bailey in the Vagina Monologues. Cochrane Theatre, London. March 2003. Directed by Jenny Sealey

Julie performs at the Women in Tune festival 2003
At the 'Women in Tune' Festival 2003. Photo by Tess France
Julie in Pigtales

Home | Performance | Pig Tales | Pig's Sister | Drag | The Voice
| Poetry | Insanity Fayre | Gigs | Contact Julie & Links

© Julie McNamara, 2003 - 2005

Website Design by: Email Sian