Chair of Visual and Performing Arts, Community College of Aurora
The C-CHEP Team
Julie Rada is a theatre artist, educator, and scholar with over thirteen years of experience in prison-based arts across four states. In 2017, she founded ACT Ensemble in Colorado’s prisons through Grapefruit Lab and has since facilitated programming at over 12 facilities.
Previously, as Director of Programming for the DU Prison Arts Initiative, she led The Inside Report newspaper and directed major productions like Antigone and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. With ACT, she continues to direct full-scale theatre, including Twelve Angry Men and Sylvia. Her scholarship is featured in Prison Pedagogies and Into Abolition Theatre, and she currently serves as the Chair of Visual & Performing Arts at the Community College of Aurora.