JoAnn Johnson

Actor, Director

JoAnn’s directing credits for Artists Rep include Ballerina, Birdsend, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Vanya, Blackbird, The Gin Game, Grand Concourse, and I and You. Other directing credits include The School for Lies and Boom (Theatre Vertigo); Macbeth (Quintessence Theatre Group); Richard II and King Lear (Northwest Classical Theatre Collaborative); Precious Little (defunkt theatre); Big Love and Eurydice (University of Portland); The Detective’s Wife (Hellfire Productions); and The Turn of the Screw (Portland Shakespeare Project). 

Among JoAnn’s many roles for Artists Rep are Katherine Gerard in Mothers and Sons, Hattie in Ten Chimneys, Vivian Bearing in Wit, Flora in Humble Boy, Leo in Indiscretions, Agnes in A Delicate Balance, Mrs. Rafi in The Sea, Margaret Civil in A Perfect Ganesh, Alice in Retreat from Moscow and Rev. Chausable in The Importance of Being Earnest. Other favorite roles include Sister Aloysius in Doubt and Kate Keller in All My Sons (Arkansas Repertory Theatre); Big Mama in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Portland Center Stage); Leni Riefenstahl in Leni (Insight Out Theatre Collective); Sarah Bernhardt in Memoir (CoHo Productions); Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit, Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest and Judith Bliss in Hay Fever (Tacoma Actors Guild); and Meg in The Birthday Party, Nancy in Seascape and Aunt Sally in Fifth of July (Profile Theatre). 

Other theatres include Many Hats Collaboration, Shaking the Tree, Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble, The Old Globe, Sacramento Theatre Company, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Liminal, The Empty Space, Pioneer Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Theatre, Imago Theatre, and many seasons with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. JoAnn toured internationally with Artists Rep in the role of A in Three Tall Women. She is proud to be a Resident Artist at Artists Rep and a member Actors’ Equity and of SAG-AFTRA.