Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Mollins, Julie
Prop builder, jeweller, costume decorator, scenic painter, designer. Julie Mollins was born in Toronto; raised London, UK; Ottawa and Washington, D.C. She has worked as a prop builder, jeweller, costume decorator, scenic painter and designer in Toronto's professional theatre community from 1993 to 2000. Her credits include seventeen productions at the Stratford Festival (1995–1998), as well as work at the National Ballet of Canada, Canadian Stage, Native Earth Performing Arts, Theatre Passe Muraille and the Thousand Islands Playhouse, among others.
As a jeweller and costume decorator at the Stratford Festival (1995–1998), she created bijoux, jewellery and costume ornamentation for seventeen productions. Her credits include Julius Caesar (directed by Douglas Campbell, designed by Martha Mann); Man of La Mancha (directed by Susan Schulman, designed by Debra Hanson); A Man for All Seasons (directed by Marti Maraden, designed by John Pennoyer); Much Ado About Nothing (directed by Richard Monette, designed by Ann Curtis); The Cherry Orchard (directed by Diana Leblanc, designed by Astrid Janson); Camelot (directed by Richard Monette, designed by Desmond Heeley); Richard III (directed by John Wood, designed by Patrick Clark), Romeo & Juliet (directed by Diana Leblanc, costume design by Dany Lyne); The Taming of the Shrew (directed by Richard Rose, costume design by Charlotte Dean); and Amadeus (directed by Richard Monette, designed by Desmond Heeley), among others. She received a Tyrone Guthrie Award at the Stratford Festival in 1998 to pursue further studies in jewellery making.
As a prop builder, Mollins contributed to productions at the National Ballet of Canada (The Nutcracker, choreographed by James Kudelka, designed by Santo Loquasto, 1995); Canadian Stage (Into the Woods (directed by Bob Baker, designed by Leslie Frankish); Six Degrees of Separation (directed by Marti Maraden, set design by Phillip Silver); The Monument (directed by Richard Rose, designed by Charlotte Dean, 1994–95); Native Earth Performing Arts, (No Totem for My Story and Dinky directed by Herbie Barnes, 1995); Theatre Passe Muraille (The Freud Project, directed by Paul Bettis; Pretty Blue, directed by Lindsay Robinson); and the Thousand Islands Playhouse (Oliver! and You Can't Take It With You, 2000).
Mollins served as design assistant on productions at the Equity Showcase Theatre, Theatre Asylum and the University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Drama, and contributed to scenic painting and set construction. Her design credits include Female Parts: A Woman Alone and Alice in Wonderlessland for the Toronto Fringe Festival (directed by Josephine Le Grice, 1995) and Brasil: A Techno Samba Opera at the du Maurier Theatre Centre (1993). She designed props for the Metal Corset Company/Toronto Fringe/Tarragon Theatre/Grand Theatre production of Frida K. (directed by Naomi Campbell and Peter Hinton, 1994), for which she also painted a plaster cast replica of a bodice worn by Frida Kahlo.
Mollins has continued to work as a visual artist, designing three Nuit Blanche installations in Toronto with artist Rocky Dobey: Casting Yarns: Forest-Street Disequilibrium at Scadding Court (2017), Sword to Plowshare (2023) and Fragmented Devolutions (2024), both at 401 Richmond Street West.
She holds an Honours BA in Cinema Studies from the University of Toronto (2002), a post-graduate Bachelor of Journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University (2004), and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of King's College (2024). She is currently pursuing a career in international journalism and communications as an editor and communications professional; and collaborating on a quilt about homelessness.
Website: www.julie-mollins.com
Last updated 2026-05-27
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