20 South Street is an independent theatre company creating bold, collaborative work. Artistic Director Julia Stubbs leads the company alongside her freelance theatre directing work. Founded in 2010, 20 South Street comes from the address of the house where Julia was born and grew up.

The company has evolved through Julia’s admiration of practitioners Robert Lepage, Katie Mitchell, and Declan Donnellan, and the collective ethos behind Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

At 20 South Street and as a freelance director, Julia seeks to create collaborative projects that explore the form of theatre with a breadth of vision, creating an environment which enables the actor’s freedom on stage to give emotionally resonant performances. Julia is also passionate about new writing and new work.

The philosopher Gaston Bachelard saw a house as

“the shelter of our imagination itself, a nest for dreaming”

Julia has a background in acting, devising, new writing, new work, adaptation, classical texts, and an extensive knowledge of film. She trained as an actor at the Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre. New writing and collaborating with writers to develop their work have been a core part of her career as an artist. This began as a theatre actor working on new plays between 1990 and 2005, and continued as Joint Artistic Director of the acclaimed new writing/new work company Weaver Hughes Ensemble from 1997 to 2009. A new play was also the catalyst for Julia to begin directing in 2007 when she read Thin Toes by Laura Stevens.

Julia’s theatre directing credits have since included fringe and Off-West End productions in London and at festivals in Edinburgh, Europe and South Africa. She has directed the debut plays of writers Louise Buchler, Laura Stevens, Steven Hevey, Andy McQuade, Mari Lloyd, and Tim Stubbs Hughes, as well as the UK Premiere of the landmark play by Catalan theatre’s most celebrated writer, Josep Maria Benet i Jornet, which was 20 South Street’s first production in 2010.

Recent theatre directing credits include the premieres of John Bevan: Team Player by Mari Lloyd and Saving Myself by Tim Stubbs Hughes for 20 South Street. The 2025 revival of Mari Lloyd’s Still Here for 20 South Street, which toured to South Wales, London and Liverpool to universal acclaim and was named by The Edit as one of ‘The Top 20 Shows We Saw Across Wales’ in 2025. The revival of Sparks by Simon Longman, which she directed for Upper Hand Theatre Company in 2024, received excellent reviews, as did her production of Mark Glentworth’s Seven and a half Years for MMG Productions, which saw it receive widespread acclaim for its national tour and an OffFest Award Nomination from Off West End.

Julia works with writers assisting in the development of their plays, short film scripts and ideas. She has most recently collaborated on new work by Kelly Long, Brian Coyle, Laurel Green, and Andrew Bruce-Lockhart.

Although Julia works primarily in theatre, during the 2020 lockdown, she had the opportunity to begin directing short films. This trend has continued over the last few years, and her latest project is the original short film To Womb It May Concern by emerging writer Georgia Lovell. Julia produced and directed it, shooting on location in Cornwall. The short film is currently receiving awards and recognition on the festival circuit.

Julia’s work as a writer includes Summer, her stage adaptation of Edith Wharton’s groundbreaking novel, which Playdead Press published for its premiere, and Hamlet our brother, her reimagining of Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a solo piece from the perspective of Horatio. Wanting to continually grow as an artist, Julia is also exploring an ever-growing interest in photography.

Julia became the Literary Associate at the award-winning London fringe venue, the Jack Studio Theatre, in 2019 and an Artistic Associate in 2021. She has been a member of the Genesis Network at the Young Vic since 2007 and an associate director with the South London-based film, theatre and community company for young people, Broken Hearted Youth, since 2022.

To see all of Julia’s credits, please view the CV