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Theatre UAF is pleased to announce the arrival of two new faculty members to our team: Director Stephan Golux and Costumer Bethany Marx! We're very excited to have them join our team!
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Johnson has been involved in over a dozen productions over the past four years in Fairbanks including leading ladies (“Picnic” directed by Lee H. Salisbury), movement artist numerous times where she’s often also choreographer; including “No Exit’s” accompanying Butoh piece and one-half of a “movement chorus” for “Oleanna” in which she, and fellow student Adam Gillete “attempted to show the eternal, archetypal journey of Man and Woman. It is one of the top few theatrical works of which I am most proud”. She also played Esmerelda in Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre’s “Camino Real”. She co-founded the campus group Righteous Ladies Rebelling with (past Student of the Year) Anna Gagne-Hawes to provide a forum for women’s art. Their first production was “To Reign in Hell” by Juneau playwright Dave Hunsaker. Though written as a one-woman show, Johnson and Gagne-Hawes transformed it into a 2 voiced exploration of narrative through movement. “Through the harmony and balance which we were able to find between abstract and illustrative movement with voiced verbal narrative, ritual with performance, and the trust developed through a total collaboration between two people, I discovered the beauty and power of physical storytelling and created a life-long friendship.” She also played Julia in UAF’s “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.” Shakespeare is one of Johnson’s main passions. “Ever since first reading “Twelfth Night” in 8th grade, I have dreamed of playing one of Shakespeare’s cross-dressing heroines. Though I still hope someday to play Imogen or Viola, I have acted my first and greatest theatrical dream. It was an amazing experience.” When asked to share advice to other students, Johnson had this to say: “To be a true artist you have to understand your medium. Any painter or sculptor will tell you this. To be a theatre artist you must understand all aspects of your medium. I certainly recommend that all serious theatre artists (that’s all you theatre majors!) should absolutely try out all areas of production. You’d be surprised how much you learn about being an actor, and about acting, from pressing ‘go’ on a light board every night for 3 weeks; seriously.” Johnson was light-board operator for UAF’s “Three Days of Rain”. Johnson’s current goal is to get a graduate degree in English, focusing on either renaissance or medieval literature – and eventually hopes to teach High School in Alaska – including the bush for a few years. In the short term, however, she’s finalizing her summer wedding plans; as she’s recently engaged! Johnson is an outstanding student with a solid GPA, so I had to ask: how do you manage that while being a double-major (Theatre and English), waitressing to support yourself, and working on productions? “The short answer: coffee. My current stand-by is a three shot Americano with cream. The long answer: Most important is having faith in yourself that you WILL get everything done: the less you stress about it, the more energy you have to put towards actually doing your work. I am blessed in that I have such a strong, supportive group of friends who have helped me through the most stressful periods: moral support, laughter, late night ice cream, and the occasional load of laundry…Find balance within yourself: doing yoga, weaving, eating chocolate, enjoying red wine, and taking walks in the woods with our dogs keeps me sane.” |
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Stephan Golux
Bethany Marx
