Growing Together: How Inclusive Theatre Builds Lifelong Connections

Julia Grace, whose recent performance in Red Stitch’s The Comeuppance has drawn praise for its emotional depth and raw honesty. Our conversation unpacks her creative journey, one that began not from a grand childhood dream of stardom but from a simple desire to connect. As a kid, Julia admits she felt out of place during school lunchtimes and was often looking for somewhere she felt she belonged. That search led her to audition for a school play on a whim, which in turn opened the door to a world she had never expected to enter: acting.

🎭 The Comeuppance 🗓️  30 April to 25 May 📍 Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre 🎟️  redstitch.net

The Australian premiere of The Comeuppance, a masterful new work by acclaimed American playwright Branden Jacobs Jenkins, is set to captivate audiences at Red Stitch. Described by The Stage as his “third masterpiece”, Jacobs Jenkins is known for bold and provocative works including Girls, Everybody, War, Gloria, Appropriate, An Octoroon and Neighbors.

Following its acclaimed world premiere at Off-Broadway’s Signature Theatre, this haunting, darkly comic and strikingly relevant play will be directed by multi-award winning Gary Abrahams. With celebrated productions such as Iphigenia in Splott at Red Stitch, Yentl at Arts Centre Melbourne, and Admissions with Melbourne Theatre Company, Abrahams returns to Red Stitch to bring this compelling new story to life.

The Comeuppance centres on five former classmates reuniting on the night of their 20-year high school reunion. What begins as an evening of laughter and shared memories soon unravels into confrontation and reflection, as long-held secrets surface and the presence of mortality casts a shadow over the gathering. With unflinching honesty and emotional depth, the play explores friendship, identity and the inescapable passage of time.

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JULIA GRACE is an accomplished actor, teacher and director’s consultant who has worked across Australia, New Zealand and the United States for more than fifteen years. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Dramatic Art from the Victorian College of the Arts. Julia is also a graduate of the School at Steppenwolf in Chicago, where she completed a mentorship in teacher training. In 2017, she was awarded the 16th Street Foundation’s Teaching Scholarship, allowing her to further develop her teaching practice in the United States.

Julia is currently a core teacher at 16th Street Actors Studio in Melbourne and also teaches sessionally at the VCA Drama School. As a performer, she has worked with companies including the Sydney International Arts Festival, Melbourne Theatre Company, Darlinghurst Theatre Company, The Hayloft Project and Red Stitch Actors Theatre. Her screen credits include Offspring, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Love Me and numerous commercial campaigns. In 2018, her original work Turtle, which she wrote and performed, was nominated for Best Performance at the Melbourne Fringe Festival.