Stephen Johnson
Campus: St. George
Stephen Johnson Professor Emeritus (as of July 1, 2019) in the MA and PhD programs at the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Toronto, and in the undergraduate Theatre and Performance Studies Program at the University of Toronto Mississauga.
Originally from Lowville, Ontario, his university training was at the University of Guelph (BA), the University of Toronto (MA), and New York University (PhD). He taught theatre history and performance theory, cinema studies, dramatic literature, and performance studies, as well as acting and directing, for over thirty years, in undergraduate programs at the University of Guelph, McMaster University, the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM), and the University College Drama Program (UCDP), and from 1998 in the graduate programs of the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies (CDTPS). Over these years he has served in administrative roles, as program director of the undergraduate programs at McMaster, UTM, and UCDP, as Graduate Coordinator and as Director at CDTPS.
Education
- PhD, New York University
- MA, University of Toronto
- BA, University of Guelph
Research Interests
- Performing Arts History and Historiography in Canada
- History of Popular Performance in 19th Century United States, Canada, and Britain
- The Performance of Race on 19th Century North American and British Stages
- The Relationship between Historiography and Performance Practic
Publications (Since 2010)
- 2021 “Blackface Minstrelsy in Canada: Documents, Influences, Legacies,” in Canadian Plays and Performance Documents, 1606-1967. Ed. Allana C. Lindgren, Glen Nichols, Tony Vickery. In Press UAlbertaP [Invited]
- 2019 Co-Editor, Gatherings: Vol 2, a collection of creative work in the service of academic research (March). Printed by Jackson Creek Press in an edition of 100 copies. With Jenn Cole, Trent University.
- 2018 Co-Editor, Gatherings: Vol 1, a collection of creative work in the service of academic research (March). Printed by Jackson Creek Press in an edition of 100 copies. With Jenn Cole, Trent University.
- 2017 “‘Shield us from this base ridicule’: The Petitions to Censor Blackface Circus Clowns, Toronto, 1840-1843,” in New Essays in Canadian Theatre: Canadian Performance Histories and Historiographies, series editor Roberta Barker, volume editor Heather Davis-Fisch. Playwrights Canada Press, 2017.
- 2013 “Romulus and Ritual: A Dream of Theatre in Pre-Confederation Ontario.” Theatre Research in Canada 35:1 (Spring 2014) pp 9-30. Co-edited volume with Marlis Schweitzer. [Article]
- 2012 Editor and Contributor. Burnt Cork: Traditions and Legacies of Blackface Minstrelsy (University of Massachusetts Press, 2012). An interdisciplinary collection of essays by scholars from theatre & performance studies, cinema studies, cultural studies, diaspora/post-colonial studies, on the ‘blacked up body in performance.’ Includes two written contributions in addition to editing the whole: “Introduction: The Persistence of Blackface and Minstrel Tradition” pp 1-17; and Chapter Four, “Death and the Minstrel: Race, Madness, and Art in the last (W)Rites of Three Early Minstrel Performers” pp 73-103.
- 2012 “Blackface, Minstrelsy, and the culture surrounding Ain’t Lookin’,” Program note written for Study Guide, workshop production of Chappie Johnson and His (almost) All Colored All Stars, a new musical, Book/Lyrics by Robin Breon, Music/Lyrics by Joe Sealy. Workshop performance 14 May 2012 Hart House Theatre
- 2011 “Minstrels in the Classroom: Teaching, Race, and Blackface,” co-written with Natalie Alvarez, Brock University. Canadian Theatre Review 147 (Summer 2011) (3,000) 31-37
- 2011 Editor A Tyranny of Documents: The Performing Arts Historian as Film Noir Detective. Series: Performing Arts Resources, Volume 28 (Theatre Library Association, June 2011). A collection of forty historiographical essays in memoriam Brooks McNamara. 353pp. Includes “Introduction,” pp 1-5.
- 2010 “Everybody’s Elvis: Celebrity and the Church Social at the Collingwood Elvis Festival,” Canadian Theatre Review 141 (Winter 2010) (3,000 words) 28-32