While at ECA, I took a course with Joan on “alternative minds”, including exploring characters with mental illnesses. I later played The Woman in the Safari Outfit in Arthur Kopit’s “Chamber Music” (directed by Peter Loffredo, 2006), a play about a group of patients living in the women’s ward at an asylum for the mentally ill.

Over the past few months I have seen my sister Michelle Johnson (Simone) make great strides as both an actor and a compassionate human being through her work with Joan. As both teacher and director, Joan consistently pushes her students to investigate their characters as more than just stereotypical “crazies”. As a young director, my work at ECA has exposed the unfortunate truth that few theatre artists truly understand the depth in which they must approach characters with alternative mindsets.

It is our duty as artists for social change is to engage audiences in experiences that they may not come across in their daily lives, and I believe and hope that the young artists at ECA will bring their experiences through this production to continue to break stigmas against people of all walks of life.

Look out New Haven: these immensely talented kids are just the beginning of a shift in how we as theatre artists approach the shattering of stigmas!