Julie H. Smiy
Board Member at Large
Julie Smiy’s love of theatre began with a needle and thread. As the creative seamstress for her high school drama club, she discovered a passion that followed her through college, deepened when her children found their place on stage, and never let go.
Musical theatre holds a special place in her heart — she is drawn to its creative demands and the remarkable way music breathes life into a story. Her favorite productions include The Music Man, Hairspray, Sweeney Todd, and The Addams Family. Among her proudest achievements: coordinating costumes for a Disney Spectacular featuring 100 children, each requiring multiple quick changes. It was exactly the kind of challenge she was made for.
Costuming is Julie’s specialty and her greatest strength. She runs an in-home seamstress business and brings that same meticulous, professional care to her role as the Operating Board’s Functional Leader for Costumes at Tellico Community Playhouse, where she also serves as a Member-at-Large on the Board. Energetic, discerning, and deeply artistic, she has a quiet way of elevating every production she touches.
What keeps her coming back, though, is something beyond the craft. A committed volunteer for more than 25 years, Julie sees community theatre as family — a place that entertains, educates, and inspires, while giving people meaningful ways to contribute to something larger than themselves. She is eager to help TCP grow its reach across Tellico and neighboring communities, build cooperative relationships with other theatres, and cultivate an image that feels even more vibrant and welcoming to all.
Outside the Playhouse, Julie and her husband Alan are enthusiastic travelers with a taste for music, culture, and good food, embracing the adventures that come with the empty-nester chapter of life. She treasures time with her grandchildren, enjoys amateur decorating, and holds an engineering degree from Michigan State University — a detail that perhaps explains her remarkable precision with a pattern. Family research has even uncovered a distant connection to Betsy Ross, which seems wonderfully fitting.
She sums it up best herself: “Community theater is like a vacuum — it will suck you in and hold you there!”