JOHANNA MIDDLETON is the creator of Girlie Stories, which provides a space for women and girls to empower themselves via personal storytelling through gatherings, workshops, and productions.
As an arts educator and arts-based facilitator, she has worked with students of all ages in Chicago and Los Angeles. She was a founding member of the participatory theatre collective, For Youth Inquiry, where she built skills as a teaching artist and facilitator while touring Chicago middle schools and high schools. In Los Angeles, Johanna served as the Program Manager for Bluepalm, a professional development arts-integration program, teaching Montebello Unified School District elementary school teachers how to use the performing arts in their language arts lesson plans. Most recently, she served as the Interim Director of Student Programs at Greenway Arts Alliance, where she developed Arts Circle, an art therapy initiative for students at Fairfax High School. She has facilitated storytelling and theatre workshops for UCLA, Black Women for Wellness, WeRise LA, and more.
As an artist, Johanna creates for the stage, the web, and on screen. Favorite credits include Netflix's Dear White People and a web series she co-wrote and co-created, Bwitches, an intersectional feminist comedy about two women who happen to be witches. Her short film Joey, which she wrote and stars in, is an official selection for the LA Black Film Festival.
Johanna has performed her original pieces as a storyteller with KPPC's Unheard LA, Rogue Machine's Rant and Rave, iO West, Upright Citizens Brigade, The Last Bookstore, and beyond. She has also worked with The Story Pirates as an actress, performing original stories written by elementary school students at schools around Los Angeles. In 2017, she debuted her first solo theatre piece, Timeline:27, a participatory storytelling show, at the Santa Monica Playhouse.
She currently co-hosts the podcast, Gray Area Stories, which focuses on the healing journeys of survivors of sexual assault.
Johanna holds a BA in Theatre from Northwestern University and is currently pursuing a Masters in Communication Studies, with an emphasis in Performance Studies, at Louisiana State University.
As an arts educator and arts-based facilitator, she has worked with students of all ages in Chicago and Los Angeles. She was a founding member of the participatory theatre collective, For Youth Inquiry, where she built skills as a teaching artist and facilitator while touring Chicago middle schools and high schools. In Los Angeles, Johanna served as the Program Manager for Bluepalm, a professional development arts-integration program, teaching Montebello Unified School District elementary school teachers how to use the performing arts in their language arts lesson plans. Most recently, she served as the Interim Director of Student Programs at Greenway Arts Alliance, where she developed Arts Circle, an art therapy initiative for students at Fairfax High School. She has facilitated storytelling and theatre workshops for UCLA, Black Women for Wellness, WeRise LA, and more.
As an artist, Johanna creates for the stage, the web, and on screen. Favorite credits include Netflix's Dear White People and a web series she co-wrote and co-created, Bwitches, an intersectional feminist comedy about two women who happen to be witches. Her short film Joey, which she wrote and stars in, is an official selection for the LA Black Film Festival.
Johanna has performed her original pieces as a storyteller with KPPC's Unheard LA, Rogue Machine's Rant and Rave, iO West, Upright Citizens Brigade, The Last Bookstore, and beyond. She has also worked with The Story Pirates as an actress, performing original stories written by elementary school students at schools around Los Angeles. In 2017, she debuted her first solo theatre piece, Timeline:27, a participatory storytelling show, at the Santa Monica Playhouse.
She currently co-hosts the podcast, Gray Area Stories, which focuses on the healing journeys of survivors of sexual assault.
Johanna holds a BA in Theatre from Northwestern University and is currently pursuing a Masters in Communication Studies, with an emphasis in Performance Studies, at Louisiana State University.
