Julie Lyn Barber
Literary Arts; Performing Arts: Actor/Actress, Dance, Music, Theatre, Vocal
Dr. Barber is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Western Kentucky University. She has received IAC grants to perform with the Hot Jazz Preservation Society in Indiana State Parks, and to write and produce a new musical, Indiana Squirrel Stampede and two new children’s plays, The Elves and the Shoemaker and The Frog Prince. She has written many stage adaptations of fairy tales in the British panto style, which have been produced locally at the Minnetrista Faeries Sprites and Lights Festival (Muncie, IN), Nettle Creek Players (Hagerstown, IN) and IndyFringe (Indianapolis, IN). Two of her plays have won inclusion in the juried festival, DivaFest of Indianapolis: the ten-minute fable, Tamlane, and the one-act musical parody, Madwomen’s Late Nite Cabaret.
As a stage director, her experience ranges from opera to children’s theatre, directing outreach productions for the Bloomington Early Music Festival of Indiana, and the Marjorie Lawrence Opera Theatre in Carbondale, IL. Other directing credits include Working (American Heritage Theater Project, Portland, OR), Clue: The Musical (Farmland Dinner Theatre, Farmland, IN), and Guys and Dolls (Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY)
She has served as music director and choreographer for many schools and theatre companies in Oregon (American Heritage Theater Project, Cathedral School, Valley Catholic High School) and Indiana (Taylor Theatre, Muncie Civic Theatre, Monroe Central High School, Farmland Dinner Theatre), recently music directing Guys and Dolls at the Round Barn Theatre in Nappanee, IN, and choreographing The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Western Kentucky University.
She is an AEA membership candidate, and has performed the role of “Berenice” in Cabaret Poe every October since 2009 with Q Artistry (Indianapolis, IN). She has played numerous roles in theatre and musical theatre productions in Canada and the United States, including Vancouver B.C.’s Theatre Under the Stars, Portland Oregon’s Northwest Classical Theatre Company, and Portland Center Stage. While in Portland, she co-founded the American Heritage Theater Project.
