Julia Magnasco

Education

MFA, Theatre for Youth, Arizona State University

Biography

Julia Magnasco is an experienced theatre educator, currently teaching various courses in the Theatre Education program at UW-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts. Prior to her work at UW-Milwaukee, Julia served as the Education Director at First Stage for just over 16 years. In this position, she tripled the size and scope of the programming, serving an average of 16,000 students in over 600 classrooms throughout the Milwaukee area yearly. In 2019, Julia managed the merger of First Stage’s Education and Academy departments, which led to substantial growth in staff, programming, students served, and both contributed and earned streams of revenue.  During her time at First Stage, she also served as a key member of the leadership and author teams for three strategic planning terms. Julia has significant experience in non-profit management – including supervising multiple departments and establishing systems within those teams, managing budgets that align with strategic goals, and working closely with Development teams to apply, facilitate, and assess grant-based programming. Julia’s work in theatre for youth has allowed her the privilege to cultivate deep and impactful relationships with community activists, government and corporate leaders, artists, youth workers, and educators on a local and national level. She served as a member of the Theatre for Youth/USA (TYA/USA) board for seven years and chaired the American Alliance for Theatre and Education’s (AATE) National Conference held in Milwaukee in 2015. In 2017 Julia was recognized as a 40 Under 40 recipient by the Milwaukee Business Journal. Julia currently serves on the Board of Directors for First Stage. Julia holds an MFA degree from Arizona State University in Theater for Youth and a BFA degree from the University of Miami in theatre performance.