Julia Hayes Welch (she/her) is a freelance scenic designer based in Seattle, Washington. She uses an evocative visual vocabulary to engage with text, audience, and world at large. Her design philosophy revolves around creating emotional resonance that deepens our experience of story. She is fascinated by the way we humans move through and interact with the world both on stage and in our lives.
In the Seattle area, Ms. Welch has designed with ACT Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Village Theatre, Seattle Children's Theatre, The 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Book-It Repertory Theatre, Seattle Opera, The Seagull Project, ArtsWest Playhouse, Seattle Public Theatre, Washington Ensemble Theatre, Ghost Light Theatricals, 14/48, Centerstage Theatre, Live Girls Theatre, and numerous others. She is a founding member of Handwritten Productions and was their resident scenic designer from 2010-2013.
Regionally, she has designed for Theatreworks UCCS and Kentucky Opera. Her associate work has been seen across the Pacific Northwest as well as in Utah and Minnesota.
She is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829.
Ms. Welch has been a guest lecturer at the University of Washington, her alma mater. She has also taught scenic design as a guest faculty member at Pacific Lutheran University, and other institutions.
2022-2023: This season Ms. Welch made her Seattle Children's Theatre debut, designing Jacqueline E. Lawton's new adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. She also returned to Seven Devil's New Play Foundry as their design-dramaturg.
2021-2022: Ms. Welch collaborated on and designed the world premier of And So That Happened..., a new musical about the extraordinary challenges faced by our community during the Covid-19 pandemic. This new work was created under the direction of Desdemona Chiang and produced by the 5th Avenue Theatre.
2020-2021: The COVID-19 pandemic forced Ms. Welch to take a hiatus from in-person theatre. Instead, she spent time developing a passion for world-building through collaborative storytelling, exploring new art mediums, and reflecting on the sustainability of the theatrical design model. She was the Designer in Residence for the Seven Devil's New Play Foundry 2021 conference, working alongside four playwrights to help envision their worlds.
2019-2020: Welch's season including her first collaboration with Kentucky Opera (The Marriage of Figaro), first main stage production at Village Theatre (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), and a beta-series production of the new musical XY by Oliver Houser and Hunter Bird. She was honored to design the scenery for ACT's Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu, under the direction of Tim Bond. The Seattle Times listed this piece among its top "7 Memorable Seattle Theatre Moments of the 2010s".
Welch's ongoing work with Verlane & McCann Present was seen in the burlesque productions Land of the Sweets and Through the Looking Glass.
2019-2018: Welch's season featured heavy involvement with Seattle Shakespeare Company designing scenery for 3/5th of their season (Arms and the Man, She Stoops to Conquer, and As You Like It). She worked on two productions under the direction of ACT's artistic director John Langs (Skylight at ACT, Uncle Vanya with The Seagull Project). She returned to Seattle Opera (The Odyssey), Book-It Repertory Theatre (My Antonia), and Seattle Public Theatre (designing the world premier of Fire Season, by Aurin Squire, the winning script of the Emerald Prize, directed by Kelly Kitchens).
Her design for Skylight was nominated for the 2019 Gregory Award: Excellence in Scenic Design.
2017-2018: Welch's season involved the design of three new plays (Alex and Aris at ACT Theatre under the direction of artistic director John Langs, Howl's Moving Castle with Book-It Repertory Theatre, and Big Rock by Seattle local playwright Sonya Schneider), three productions with Seattle Opera (An American Dream, The Three Feathers, O+E: a new adaptation of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice), an all female production of Shakespeare's Coriolanus (Rebel Kat Productions), the classic The Government Inspector (Seattle Shakespeare Company), and three contemporary plays focusing on complex and present social issues (An Octoroon at ArtsWest, HIR directed by Intiman Theatre's artistic director Jennifer Zeyl in collaboration with ArtsWest, and Ironbound at Seattle Public Theatre).
2018 also saw the culmination of a year long collaboration with dancer and performance artist Peggy Piacenza. The residency program worked to develop The Event, an evening of contemporary dance, short film and song tackling the meaning of life, the inevitability of death, and how we experience everything in between.
She was honored at the 2018 Gregory Awards, winning "People's Choice: Outstanding Designer" for her entire body of work during the 2017-2018 season.
2016-2017: Welch received both a Seattle Times Footlight Award as well as the Gypsy Rose Lee Award in 2016 for her set design of The Things Are Against Us with Washington Ensemble Theatre. Her design for Rebel Kat Productions' Coriolanus: Fight Like A Bitch was nominated for the 2017 Gypsy Rose Lee Award.
2015-2016: Welch made her ACT debut in collaboration with ACT's artistic director, John Langs, on his Seattle production of Bad Apples. She also debuted at ArtsWest Playhouse with a production of Really Really. She designed a number of new works including The Dead Man on the Drugstore Floor and Death on the Supermarket Shelf, all in the Pacific Northwest.
2015: Ms. Welch received her Masters of Fine Arts in Scenic Design from the University of Washington.
While attending the University of Washington she designed scenery for William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (Thesis Production), Cold Empty Terrible (directed and devised by Whit MacLaughlin of Philadelphia's New Paradise Laboratories), The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard (directed by Desdemona Chang), Stop Kiss by Diana Son, and Cowboy Mouth by Sam Shepard and Patti Smith (directed by Jeffrey Frace). She designed costumes for William Inge's Bus Stop.
During her course of study, she had the honor to learn from and be mentored by Thomas P. Lynch, one of the theater industry's most prolific scenic designers. Her master's thesis, Nights One Through Eleven: The Creation of Twelfth Night, seeks to explain her experiences, growth, and design process which developed during her time in graduate school.
As a requirement for his graduate degree Ms. Welch spent ten weeks interning with noted designers in the Seattle community. She assisted scenic designer Walt Spangler on the The 5th Avenue Theater's new musical production A Room with a View and acted as a scenic design intern to Matthew Smucker on The Invisible Hand at ACT Theatre.
2012: Prior to studying at the UW, Ms. Welch was chosen to participate in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's FAIR program where she served as a scenic apprentice for ten weeks of their season.
2009: Ms. Welch received her Bachelor's of Arts from the University of Puget Sound in Theater Arts, studying under scenic and lighting designer Kurt Walls. While at UPS she designed scenery for The Woman in Black and Beyond Therapy.
Additionally, she was part of the Seattle Children's Theatre Education Internship program in 2009.
She lives in Seattle with her husband, children, and dying collection of house plants.
In the Seattle area, Ms. Welch has designed with ACT Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Village Theatre, Seattle Children's Theatre, The 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Book-It Repertory Theatre, Seattle Opera, The Seagull Project, ArtsWest Playhouse, Seattle Public Theatre, Washington Ensemble Theatre, Ghost Light Theatricals, 14/48, Centerstage Theatre, Live Girls Theatre, and numerous others. She is a founding member of Handwritten Productions and was their resident scenic designer from 2010-2013.
Regionally, she has designed for Theatreworks UCCS and Kentucky Opera. Her associate work has been seen across the Pacific Northwest as well as in Utah and Minnesota.
She is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829.
Ms. Welch has been a guest lecturer at the University of Washington, her alma mater. She has also taught scenic design as a guest faculty member at Pacific Lutheran University, and other institutions.
2022-2023: This season Ms. Welch made her Seattle Children's Theatre debut, designing Jacqueline E. Lawton's new adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. She also returned to Seven Devil's New Play Foundry as their design-dramaturg.
2021-2022: Ms. Welch collaborated on and designed the world premier of And So That Happened..., a new musical about the extraordinary challenges faced by our community during the Covid-19 pandemic. This new work was created under the direction of Desdemona Chiang and produced by the 5th Avenue Theatre.
2020-2021: The COVID-19 pandemic forced Ms. Welch to take a hiatus from in-person theatre. Instead, she spent time developing a passion for world-building through collaborative storytelling, exploring new art mediums, and reflecting on the sustainability of the theatrical design model. She was the Designer in Residence for the Seven Devil's New Play Foundry 2021 conference, working alongside four playwrights to help envision their worlds.
2019-2020: Welch's season including her first collaboration with Kentucky Opera (The Marriage of Figaro), first main stage production at Village Theatre (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), and a beta-series production of the new musical XY by Oliver Houser and Hunter Bird. She was honored to design the scenery for ACT's Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu, under the direction of Tim Bond. The Seattle Times listed this piece among its top "7 Memorable Seattle Theatre Moments of the 2010s".
Welch's ongoing work with Verlane & McCann Present was seen in the burlesque productions Land of the Sweets and Through the Looking Glass.
2019-2018: Welch's season featured heavy involvement with Seattle Shakespeare Company designing scenery for 3/5th of their season (Arms and the Man, She Stoops to Conquer, and As You Like It). She worked on two productions under the direction of ACT's artistic director John Langs (Skylight at ACT, Uncle Vanya with The Seagull Project). She returned to Seattle Opera (The Odyssey), Book-It Repertory Theatre (My Antonia), and Seattle Public Theatre (designing the world premier of Fire Season, by Aurin Squire, the winning script of the Emerald Prize, directed by Kelly Kitchens).
Her design for Skylight was nominated for the 2019 Gregory Award: Excellence in Scenic Design.
2017-2018: Welch's season involved the design of three new plays (Alex and Aris at ACT Theatre under the direction of artistic director John Langs, Howl's Moving Castle with Book-It Repertory Theatre, and Big Rock by Seattle local playwright Sonya Schneider), three productions with Seattle Opera (An American Dream, The Three Feathers, O+E: a new adaptation of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice), an all female production of Shakespeare's Coriolanus (Rebel Kat Productions), the classic The Government Inspector (Seattle Shakespeare Company), and three contemporary plays focusing on complex and present social issues (An Octoroon at ArtsWest, HIR directed by Intiman Theatre's artistic director Jennifer Zeyl in collaboration with ArtsWest, and Ironbound at Seattle Public Theatre).
2018 also saw the culmination of a year long collaboration with dancer and performance artist Peggy Piacenza. The residency program worked to develop The Event, an evening of contemporary dance, short film and song tackling the meaning of life, the inevitability of death, and how we experience everything in between.
She was honored at the 2018 Gregory Awards, winning "People's Choice: Outstanding Designer" for her entire body of work during the 2017-2018 season.
2016-2017: Welch received both a Seattle Times Footlight Award as well as the Gypsy Rose Lee Award in 2016 for her set design of The Things Are Against Us with Washington Ensemble Theatre. Her design for Rebel Kat Productions' Coriolanus: Fight Like A Bitch was nominated for the 2017 Gypsy Rose Lee Award.
2015-2016: Welch made her ACT debut in collaboration with ACT's artistic director, John Langs, on his Seattle production of Bad Apples. She also debuted at ArtsWest Playhouse with a production of Really Really. She designed a number of new works including The Dead Man on the Drugstore Floor and Death on the Supermarket Shelf, all in the Pacific Northwest.
2015: Ms. Welch received her Masters of Fine Arts in Scenic Design from the University of Washington.
While attending the University of Washington she designed scenery for William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (Thesis Production), Cold Empty Terrible (directed and devised by Whit MacLaughlin of Philadelphia's New Paradise Laboratories), The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard (directed by Desdemona Chang), Stop Kiss by Diana Son, and Cowboy Mouth by Sam Shepard and Patti Smith (directed by Jeffrey Frace). She designed costumes for William Inge's Bus Stop.
During her course of study, she had the honor to learn from and be mentored by Thomas P. Lynch, one of the theater industry's most prolific scenic designers. Her master's thesis, Nights One Through Eleven: The Creation of Twelfth Night, seeks to explain her experiences, growth, and design process which developed during her time in graduate school.
As a requirement for his graduate degree Ms. Welch spent ten weeks interning with noted designers in the Seattle community. She assisted scenic designer Walt Spangler on the The 5th Avenue Theater's new musical production A Room with a View and acted as a scenic design intern to Matthew Smucker on The Invisible Hand at ACT Theatre.
2012: Prior to studying at the UW, Ms. Welch was chosen to participate in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's FAIR program where she served as a scenic apprentice for ten weeks of their season.
2009: Ms. Welch received her Bachelor's of Arts from the University of Puget Sound in Theater Arts, studying under scenic and lighting designer Kurt Walls. While at UPS she designed scenery for The Woman in Black and Beyond Therapy.
Additionally, she was part of the Seattle Children's Theatre Education Internship program in 2009.
She lives in Seattle with her husband, children, and dying collection of house plants.
Ms. Welch holding her daughter on stage during a tech rehearsal.