JOHANNA MIDDLETON is an artist and arts educator with a passion for creating spaces for others to share their own stories.
She is the creator of Girlie Stories, which provides a platform for women and girls to empower themselves via personal storytelling through monthly 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. She is currently the Student Program Coordinator at Greenway Arts Alliance. 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. She recently completed post-production on her short film, Joey. 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 even the Long Beach Transit! She has also worked with The Story Pirates as an actress, performing original stories written by elementary school students at schools around Los Angeles. She debuted her first solo theatre piece, Timeline:27, a participatory storytelling show, at the Santa Monica Playhouse.
Johanna holds a BA in Theatre from Northwestern University.
She is the creator of Girlie Stories, which provides a platform for women and girls to empower themselves via personal storytelling through monthly 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. She is currently the Student Program Coordinator at Greenway Arts Alliance. 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. She recently completed post-production on her short film, Joey. 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 even the Long Beach Transit! She has also worked with The Story Pirates as an actress, performing original stories written by elementary school students at schools around Los Angeles. She debuted her first solo theatre piece, Timeline:27, a participatory storytelling show, at the Santa Monica Playhouse.
Johanna holds a BA in Theatre from Northwestern University.
