PERFORMANCE PRACTICE
Research Based Performance / Professional and Pedagogical Theatre Activities /
Note: “Unpublished” Documents The following includes reference to documents produced as a part of the research/creative process, which have been printed and distributed by means other than traditional publication. These include: reports related to a research project; plays, play-texts and other creative written work (as playwright or editor); photographs and edited video (as photographer or videographer/editor), and other documentation; program notes and other contextual writing for productions of theatre and performance projects. Unless otherwise indicated, all such material was made available by publication on-line.
1996-2016 Artistic Director, Handmade Performance, an informal co-operative performance group exploring the multiple interpretative possibilities that artists and academics together can generate from historical and documentary texts, whether written for the stage (Doctor Faustus, The Last Judgement, The Insect Play), or the accumulated documentation of a “brute” event (a life in Juba, Faker; death in A Little Grief)
For materials on Handmade Performance, see https://handmadeperformance.weebly.com
[Formerly http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/~sjohnson/handmade ]
For materials related to The Juba Project, see https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/~w3minstr/index.html
http://library2.utm.utoronto.ca/otra/minstrels/
[Formerly http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/~w3minstr/index.html ]
2018 Co-convenor, Gatherings, a cabaret celebration of the publication (above), presented at the Imperial Pub, 25 March). With presentations by contributors and guests. In collaboration with Handmade Performance.
2010 Production of The Insect Play, by Karel and Josef Capek, adapted from a literal translation by Stephen Johnson, produced by Hanover Theatre, Hanover County, Virginia, 18-20 November 2010. Part of an International Baccalaureate School curriculum.
2009 Dramaturg/Co-Producer, Minstrels in the Parlour, a recording of 19th Century minstrel music from piano vocal scores. Results posted on web July
2008 Co-Curator, A Cabaret of Futurist Performance (with Moynan King). Document: “Program Note”
2004 Dramaturg, Co-creator, Channelling Juba’s Dance, a 15-minute movement/dance based on academic research into the eyewitness accounts of the 19th century dancer. Produced by Handmade Performance at the Festival of Original Theatre, Robert Gill Theatre, March 2004. Documents: “Program Note: Dramaturgs Don’t Dance”; Performance Documentation; video published on web
2004-16 Dramaturg/Project Director, Artists Respond to Juba. See Web Based Publications above, and http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/~w3minstr/artistrespond/index.html
2003 Playwright, Juba, produced at the Players Ring, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, January 2003 (revival of play written in 1997). Consulted with Producer/Director, attended performances, participated in post-performance talks
2001 Playwright and Co-Director of Faker (Possessions of Maggie Fox), a 20-minute monologue with movement based on academic research into the performance of spiritualism. Produced by Handmade Performance at the Festival of Original Theatre, Glen Morris Studio Theatre, January 2001. Documents: Script; “Program Note”
1999 Director, Doctor Faustus, co-produced by Handmade Performance and the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama. October, Glen Morris Studio Theatre, Toronto. Documents: “Introduction,” published in the LMDA Newsletter in revised and abbreviated form. See Non-refereed Publications – Articles
1999 Playwright and Co-Director of A Little Grief (goes a long way), a 50-minute exploration of grief in words, paintings, movement, sound, and character work. Produced by Handmade Performance at the Festival of Original Theatre, Robert Gill Theatre, April 1999. Documents: Script; “Program Note”
1998 Producer/Director, The Last Judgement, the final play in the complete York Mystery Cycle, presented at the University of Toronto on 20 June by Poculi Ludique Societas and Records of Early English Drama. Produced by Handmade Performance. Documents: Article in Early Theatre, see Publications – Articles
1998 Director/Playwright, The Insect Play, based on the work by Josef and Karel Capek. Produced by Handmade Performance, with support from the Toronto Arts Council. March, Glen Morris Studio Theatre, Toronto. Documents: “Program Note”
1998 Playwright, Juba, Radio Drama commissioned by CBC Radio for Sunday Showcase. Recorded January 1998 for broadcast March 22&23. Directed by Mladen Ovadija. Cast included Greg Edward, Douglas Campbell, Cedric Smith. Documents: Script distributed through Playwrights Guild of Canada. See <http://www.playwrightsguild.ca/pgc/>. Excerpt of play and audio recording available on Handmade Performance website. 1999 Finalist, Writers Guild of Canada Top Ten Awards (ceremony 19 April 1999)
1998 Director, staged reading of Princess Turandot (selections from the Czech adaptation), for a Symposium on Turandot, Graduate Centre for Study of Drama, University of Toronto, January 10. Organized by Veronika Ambros, Slavic Studies/Drama Centre
1997 Playwright/Director/Performer, Juba (and the souls of white folks) (revised), Handmade Performance, performed at the Edge Festival of the Ripple Effect, Annex Theatre, Toronto. June. Documents: Script distributed through Playwrights Guild of Canada. See <http://www.playwrightsguild.ca/pgc/>. Excerpt on Handmade Performance website
1997 Playwright/Director, Juba (and the souls of white folks), Handmade Performance, performed at the Festival of Original Theatre, Robert Gill Theatre, Toronto. March
1996 Director, Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, and Director/Facilitator, …and bound again, a collective by the cast based on “Prometheus,” a co-production of the Environmental Theatre Workshop and the McMaster School of Art, Drama and Music. November. Documents: “Program Note”
1996 Dramaturg/Playwright-Adaptor, The Insect Play, directed by Glenys McQueen-Fuentes, Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, St Catherines, Ontario. November. Revival of adaptation of the 1992 adaptation (see below).
1992-1996 Founder/Artistic Director/Administrator, the Environmental Theatre Workshop, an advocacy theatre group working with scientists, social scientists, and the general public to raise awareness about environmental issues around Hamilton Harbour. Funded for $90,000.00 through Environment Canada’s Green Plan/Tri-Council Eco-Research Secretariat. Included a series of creative workshops, and a full-time summer company in 1994 that created plays, environmental interactive events, and a series of site-specific monologues performed in schools, public parks, at the Royal Botanical Gardens and in Cootes Paradise, Hamilton. Many other events 1994-1996.
1996 “ETW — The Environmental Theatre Workshop: An Anthology,” a collection of Monologues, Playtexts and Performance Interventions developed 1992-6. Published on web by McMaster project, reprinted 2005; includes “Introduction: ‘Common Sense’ and ‘Dead Metaphors’ in the Environmental Theatre Workshop,” revised and expanded from 1996 reports to Annual Workshop of the McMaster Eco-research Program for Hamilton Harbour, April
1996 Playwright/Director/Design-concept, Six Puppets and a Fish (not to mention the Fisherman), an Environmental Folktale, produced by the Environmental Theatre Workshop at the McMaster Summer Arts Festival, Hamilton, Ontario. This production employed seven puppets ranging up to twelve feet in height. July. Documents: “Program Note”
1996 Director, Waters of Paradise, a collective performed by the Environmental Theatre Workshop at the International Association of Great Lakes Researchers, Annual Conference, Erindale College, Mississaugua, Ontario. May
1996 Director/Dramaturg, It Takes All Kinds, a collective performed by the Environmental Theatre Workshop at the Ecoresearch Project for Hamilton Harbour Annual Workshop, Robinson Memorial Theatre, Hamilton, Ontario. April
1996 Producer/Dramaturg, Harmony, a dance on environmental themes choreographed by Jennifer Johnson, performed at the Ecoresearch Project for Hamilton Harbour Annual Workshop, Robinson Memorial Theatre, and locally. April
1995 Dramaturg/Acting Coach, Three Monologues, three dances based on monologues with environmental themes–”The Hypochondriac,” “The Tree-Hugger,” and “Cholera.” Performed by the McMaster Dancers in the Robinson Memorial Theatre, Hamilton, Ontario. December
1993 Director, Seven Stories by Morris Panych, Robinson Memorial Theatre, Hamilton, Ontario. October
1992 Playwright-Adaptor/Director/Producer, The Insect Play, based on the classic Czech Drama by Karel and Josef Capek, at the Robinson Memorial Theatre, Hamilton, Ontario. November. “Program Note”; full article on the process published in Theatre Topics, see Publications – Articles. This playtext has had subsequent productions in Hamilton, Guelph, and London high schools.
1990 Director/Producer, Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, at the Robinson Memorial Theatre, Hamilton, Ontario. November
Stephen Johnson 