Welcome!
Julianna Bloodgood, originally from California, USA, has resided in Poland since 2009, immersing herself in the unique theatrical genre of post-Grotowski Polish Theatre. Julianna is a vocalist, actress, movement artist and teacher whose work includes anthropological performance research and she has traveled the globe extensively in search of different cultural perspectives on the body, voice and the ritual of performance. The core of her work is a detailed practice in the relationship between body and voice and how this can be brought to performance and composition. Aside from performing, Julianna composes and records her own music and is a facilitator and director of original theatrical works.
Julianna was an actress in the award winning and critically acclaimed Polish theatre company Song of the Goat Theatre from 2009-2018. She was an integral part of the development, devising, premiers and world tours of seven productions; Songs of Lear; Portraits of the Cherry Orchard; Return to the Voice; Umilowanie: Dead Walk Love; Crazy God; Island and Hamlet: A Commentary. Her research and performance with Song of the Goat was focused around integrating movement, polyphonic singing and text through dynamic interpretations of classical plays and during her time with Song of the Goat the company won various awards for these ensemble devised pieces. With this company she has performed throughout Europe, Asia, South America and North America. In Wrocław she was also a founding member of the pedagogical and performance research company Odra Ensemble and developed the piece Eurydice: We Will Leave Only Bone, based in part on her research into Somali Buraanbur traditions as well as Bulgarian rituals and vocal traditions.
In 2019, Julianna was awarded a scholarship from the Poish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage for her research and development of a script based on Saint Catherin of Siena. The same year, she also represented Poland in Creative Europe’s Make A Move project which selected 10 independent theatre makers from Europe for a year-long initiative designed to strengthen the skills of artists in the Independent Theatre sector.
Julianna is a resident artist with New York based Theater MITU and has collaborated with the company internationally since 2012. Julianna has performed A Dream Play; Death of A Salesman and was involved in the initial research and development of JUAREZ: A Documentary Mythology. With Theatre MITU she has also researched in Thailand and India tradition forms cultural performance practices.
In 2019 she collaborated with the Slovakian theatre company Honey and Dust and was the singing director and co-creator of the performance Uninteresting Scream which toured in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In 2020 Julianna was invited to collaborate and perform in the piece The Bacchae, Body without Body which premiered in the 4th International Laboratory of Ancient Drama in the Ancient Theatre of Filippoi in Kavala, Greece under the direction of Rinio Kyriazi. She is currently the music director and composer for Bru Theatre’s, Gol, a piece based on traditional Irish lamentation in Galway, Ireland.
One important aspect of Julianna’s professional life is in community based projects and artistic outreach, using art as a vehicle for healing and change. Julianna is the co-founder of The Dadaab Theater Project, a youth based theater project in Dadaab, Kenya, formerly the world’s largest refugee camp and is a founding member and co-artistic director of The Great Globe Foundation, a non-profit organization utilizing the power of creativity to inspire and empower the individual voice and to help build bridges between people and communities.
Julianna holds an MA in Acting, Magna Cum Laude/ High Honors, from Manchester Metropolitan University and graduated in conjunction with Song of the Goat Theatre of Poland. She earned a BFA in Dramatic Performance from the College Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati; and is a graduate of the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, California. In 2005, Julianna received the prestigious award and scholarship from the College Conservatory of Music “Sustained Excellence in Achievement and Performance during a College Conservatory of Music Career by a Graduating Senior”. In 2017 she was the recipient of the University of Cincinnati’s “Julia Winter Cohen Career Excellence Award” and in 2018 she was given a “Distinguished Alumnus Honor” also from the University of Cincinnati. Julianna is regularly invited to teach, collaborate and perform internationally.