actor spotlight: Julie anchor

Actor Julie Anchor

​SPOTLIGHT ON ACTOR JULIE ANCHOR

This month, actor Julie Anchor will join SOSS to read "Before You Blow," a story by Jess Walter, and “After the Operation,” a story by Naomi Williams.

Listen in as our casting director Jessica Laskey talks to Anchor about how she got started, how her work as a director informs her acting and how she uses her skills in different media.

Jessica: Julie, you’ve been acting in the area for more than 30 years. What first got you started?
 
Julie: I acted in high school and then I got completely out of it until 1990, when I saw an ad for the Actor’s Workshop with Ed Claudio. I decided to take a class and fell back in love with acting and studied for over 10 years with Ed and did shows with him. I owe a lot to him—he really did help shape me as an actor. (Claudio passed away in January.) As far as what drives me as an actor, it’s storytelling that I love, touching people emotionally, making them laugh, think or moving them to tears. It’s something I’m grateful I’m able to do. … I get a wonderful sense of satisfaction doing the work.
 
Jessica: You’re also an experienced director and associate artistic director of Main Street Theatre Works in Jackson. How does your experience on one side of the stage inform the other?
 
Julie: Directing helps me as an actor because you study and break down scripts to learn how to mold yourself into a character. As a director, you’re looking at all aspects of a play. I’m a better director because I'm an actor—it helps me talk to actors in a way that hopefully they’ll understand. I know what helps me as an actor so I can help them. Being a director also helps you have patience (as an actor)—you know how many balls the director is trying to keep in the air, which gives you grace and mercy for the process because we know everybody’s dancing as fast as they can.
 
Jessica: You’ll be directing “The Outsider” this summer at MSTW. Tell us about the show.
 
Julie: It’s really a wonderful play. It has a political setting but I don’t consider it a political play—it doesn’t take sides and takes place in no specific location. It speaks to how the media influences us and the decisions we make. It’s very funny, there’s a lot of great comedy, but at the end it will get people thinking about everything we see and hear and how our decisions affect other people. As soon as I finished reading it, I knew I had to direct it. I liked what it had to say.
 
Jessica: You’ve also done quite a bit of work in film and voice over. How do those varied skills help you when it comes to performing?
 
Julie: I did a film where I had to dig deep for a really traumatic scene. Now, in a play, you have a whole play to build to that (emotion). In a film, you’re often working out of sequence and you have to be able to turn it on when they say “Okay, go!” and then do it again, do it again, do it again—you have to keep hanging on to that emotion. That’s why I find film way more difficult. Having to get to an emotion quickly and recreate it over and over again and then let it go is really hard sometimes. Voice over is not as difficult, I find it’s something I can just gear into. You have to create emotion with your voice, which is where my theater training comes in handy. I can look at a script, break it down and get it more quickly.
 
For more information about Main Street Theatre Works, visit mstw.org.

COVID PROTOCOLS FOR OPENING NIGHT:

• Vaccination (paper or digital) will be checked at the door.
• Guests and staff will wear masks. 
• On stage, actors and facilitator will be maskless.
• Audience size will be limited. We will reserve spots for people who order tickets in advance.
• Email notifications will go out If Covid status requires us to move the performance online.

Jess Walter
“Before you Blow” 
performed by Julie Anchor
​
​Naomi Williams
“After the Operation”
performed by
Julie Anchor

The Auditorium at CLARA
1425 24th Street
Sacramento, CA 95816
Contribute $10 at the door,
subscribe to the 2022 season, or
preregister for this event.
Doors open at 6:30 pm.
Performance begins at 7:00 pm.