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Julia Whitten

@jwhittenmakes

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✨Educator, Theatremaker, & Scholar specializing in Inclusive Arts Education //ATL Opera Educator ✨
💜MFA, Theatre Ed & Applied Theatre💛

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Happy #internationalliteracyday from the @theatlantaopera Storytime Squad! We kicked our 2026-2027 series off with a bang at @stillelementary @labelle_lions_es and @sanderselementary. ✨Grazie mille✨ to our friends at @cobbschools for ensuring that EVERY Cobb kindergarten student laughs, plays, and learns with us this year! PS- Swipe to the end to see my reaction to a group of friends at LaBell that dressed up in full costume, hair, and makeup to meet THE Diva Delores 🤩 by @jwhittenmakes

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a month ago

We are ready to ✨spark some imaginations✨ during year THREE of @theatlantaopera Opera Storytime program! Over the past two days, these powerful storytellers have been hard at work unraveling what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like when play comes first with new books, new artists, new regions of Georgia, new community partners, new props, new modalities….but always the same dedication to #operaisforeveryone 🐱🦊🪱🌙🐭🎭📚 by @jwhittenmakes

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2 months ago

Opera is for Everyone (Pt 1): ✨Spark Your Imagination✨ One of my absolute favorite programs will always be Opera Storytime! From a two day PD with our WONDERFUL teaching artists, to dozens of #communityengaged storytimes for grades PK-2, to collaborating with my friends at @oakland.meadow.school, my own imagination has been sparked, and I cannot wait to expand our offerings to performances for #earlychildhoodeducation, #ELL learners , and #accessibleeducation classes! Many thanks to the Edu team at @theatlantaopera and our community partners at @cobbschools @fultoncoschools @gcpsboard , @atlbotanical , Atlanta Public Schools, @lenoxsqmall, and many many more! #operaforeveryone #sparkyourimagination #atlopera #earlylearning #creativeyouthdevelopment #earlyliteracymatters taken in The Atlanta Opera by @jwhittenmakes

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9 months ago

I proudly present my ins and outs from my first summer as The Atlanta Opera Community Engagement Associate:
✅ a department of gal’s gals, ASM show costumes, and making baby Julia proud(always been a Penzance fan)
❌me ever being an ASL interpreter, boring PDs, and sweating like it’s my full time job

Image descriptions in alt text!
#atlopera #communityengagement #operaeducation #operaforyoungaudiences Julia, Jessica, Jonesia, and Amy smile and pose together on a stage in front of a gold curtain with two decorative poles on either side of them. taken in The Atlanta Opera by @jwhittenmakes

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a year ago

And the 2024-2025 Season at @chhs_theatre comes to a close! Before joining on as assistant director and tech consultant under @tarabw317 last summer, I had the brief worry of “working at your old theatre program is cringe!” But the TALENT, passion, and heart from these young people speaks for itself. From more scenic painting than I’ve done in years, to sourcing motorcycle parts, to hand stitching the day away, to hopping back onto an @electronictheatrecontrols ion, to lots of “you can make this, right?”, to collaborating with our AMAZING costume community partners at @assemblyatlanta…it’s been nothing but a gift to pop back into a place that’s given me so much.

Productions Shown: “The Lightning Thief” (@concordshows ), “Sense and Sensibility”. (@katastic29 )and “Hadestown: Teen Edition”
Direction: Tara Weintraub
Music Direction: Catie Cawley
Vocal Coaching: @holtmccarley.mp3
Choreography: @mojackson89 and @thecourtneylocke
Fight and Movement Choreography: @krankykristin
Additional Scenic Artistry: @erinndriscoll_
Sound Engineering: @aimmedu / Lighting: @chitwoodstudios taken in Collins Hill High School by @jwhittenmakes

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a year ago

“Farewell until we meet again” Studio Tour! It was challenging, invigorating, frustrating, empowering, and nourishing all wrapped together. Cheers to fighting the good fight of inviting everyone to the table(that’s not just for old dead white guys)….and me taking a break from parallel parking this behemoth of a van. [📷 ID in the alt text!]
Cast: @leviadkinsmusic @mintydkalu @sarahmchansoprano @alexandra.sopranaa @thejessicawax
Direction: @ricaponte Collaborative Piano: Nyle Matsuoka, Andy Bayles, Erika Tazawa, and Rolando Salazar
Education Management: @jessica_kiger , @musiclover85 , Jonesia Williams
Photography: Brian Bohannon and @raftermen_llc
Technical Direction: Bram Sheckles
Props Direction: Paige Steffens
Costume Management and Direction: @tao_costumeshop Julia, Alex, Sarah, Jess, and Michael make tough serious poses leaning against a large white sprinter van taken in The Atlanta Opera by @jwhittenmakes

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a year ago

Oh the difference a year can make…this time last year, my favorite collaborators and I explored @centerforpuppetryarts for the 2024 TYA conference. One year later, I am back as a full time teaching artist living in Atlanta. Our short Magic Flute residency was nothing short of a dream. From making arts and crafts in a preshow room, to the chorus of soft “yays!” as @thejessicawax popped out as Papagena, to the collaboration of the mighty CPA staff, I’m honored to do this work. #bravitutti Atlanta Opera Studio Tour team! One more week of this adventure…. [ID in the alt text!] #atlopera #centerforpuppetryarts #operatour #childrensopera #theatreforyoungaudiences Julia sits smiling on top of a large purple box with red fabric coming out the sides on stage. Behind her are three large curtains. Sarah Gordon peeks out from behind one of the curtains. taken in Center for Puppetry Arts by @jwhittenmakes

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2 years ago

Happy #worldpuppetryday! It was a blast to celebrate today, during #theatreinourschoolsmonth with our friends at Norton Elementary! It’s no surprise that as a teaching artist, performer, and just all around silly person, I’m always DOWN for puppets! A good day on the planet can be marked by the presence of the three core values of puppetry: weight, focus, and breath. While my experience of puppets today on tour is radically different than how it was just one year ago with my young artists, you can always catch me making something out of nothing! [#sarastro and #queenofthenight puppets brought to life by our friends at @centerforpuppetryarts in partnership with The Atlanta Opera] #theatreeducation #tios #atlopera #gcps taken in Norton Elementary School by @jwhittenmakes

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2 years ago

Happy 50th show Magic Flute! Touring with @theatlantaopera Studio Tour has brought so much love, laughter, and play into my life! The purpose of #operaforyoungaudiences is to demystify this stereotypically cloistered art form and bring to light that #operaisforeveryone ! Every young person deserves excellent, accessible, representative, and joyous creative experiences and that’s exactly why our education and #communityengagement department has been on the road for FIFTY SHOWS (and counting) 🐉🌞🌚👑🪈🐥 [ID in the alt text!] #atlopera #teachingartist #touring #artseducation #operaontour Julia standing next to Jessica on a brightly lit stage in front of an audience. The audience is in the dark with their hands raised, Julia is raising their hand with a microphone, and Jessica is holding a thunder sheet. On stage there is an opera set with curtains, vines, and large boxes taken in The Atlanta Opera by @jwhittenmakes

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2 years ago

She’s back (back on headset), back again (back in opera) // After a rigorous but thrilling prep period, @theatlantaopera studio tour production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute hits the road for the next 15 weeks! Not only does opera for young audiences root itself in accessibility practice, this weekend producing our VIRTUAL TOUR expands our reach as artists, filmmakers, and practitioners, making opera not just a “fine” art, but a conscious and communal art!

ID:
1. a smiling Julia, Sarah McHan, Jessica Wax, Levi Adkins, Michael Ntwa, and Alexandra Watson group together in a dressing room, looking up at the camera
2. Nyle Matsuoka as the focus of the image, playing on a grand piano on a warmly lit stage. Taken from the backstage area, which takes up the left half of the photo
3. A large blue queen puppet operated by two people in front of hanging drapes and a large purple box in a rehearsal hall. Alexandra Watson is posing downstage of the puppet, in a pink dress, holding a prop dagger

#atlopera #operaforyoungaudiences #TYA #theatreforyoungaudiences #diezauberflote taken in Clayton Cnty Performing Arts Center by @jwhittenmakes

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2 years ago

Anyone that followed the #curtainsproject knows that I’m always psyched to create and collaborate with disabled adults of all profiles. Recently, I’ve been able to collab with the awesome folks at the Better Together Adult Social Club, an program tied with @exceptionalfuturesga 💙I’ve gotten to reconnect with one of my besties since KINDERGARTEN, who is actually an elephant at heart apparently, experience adaptive story dramas, adapt sound design using @ablenetinc switches, and as always- create lots and lots of sensory activities! I’ll die on the hill that adults of ALL profiles deserve high quality, responsive, and AFFIRMING experiences, and #bettertogether has been a wonderful example of how we can support and engage our #disabledadult community members! taken in Snellville's Church on Main by @jwhittenmakes

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2 years ago

Me 🤝 #criticallyorienteddramaeeducation // I’ve had a blast working as a teaching artist with @forefrontarts From preschool #storydrama, to #ballet positions hopscotch, to play #devising with middle schoolers where we are making a legitimate #spaghettiwestern, I am once again living laughing and loving as a lifelong Jo Beth Gonzalez stan. Critically conscious teaching is responsive, patience, JOYFUL, and is exactly what we need in education right now. Young people are smart, they are complex, and are capable of so much more than grownups take them for.

#dramabasedpedagogy #danceeducation #earlychildhood #TVY #TYA #teachersofinstagram #artistsofinstagram #teachingartist #specialeducation #creativeyouthdevelopment #artsintegration #STEAM #youthdevising #playatplay #playwrighting #theatreeducation #accessibletheatre #disabilitytheatre #teachersofatlanta #artistsofatlanta #techincaltheatre #creativedramatics #operaeducation #artsforall Julia in black overalls and a blue staff shirt does a silly leap in an empty rehearsal room taken in Atlanta, Georgia by @jwhittenmakes

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2 years ago