Morgan Brie Johnson (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist, theatre creator, playwright, activist, teacher and co-artistic leader of Animacy Theatre Collective. She has trained in clowning, mask, and bouffon performance and creation with John Turner, Karen Hines, Martha Ross, Adam Paolozza, John Beale, Jon Davison, and Adam Lazarus. Her artistic work sits at the intersection of several disciplines of creation and performance, primarily: clown, mask, bouffon, devising, playwriting, dramaturgy, and creative writing. She is most excited by new work that is research-based, political, satirical, absurd, or darkly comedic, and her practice is driven by questions of boundary blurring and belonging, particularly around land, gender, and home. These interests in form and content are rooted in her experience as a bi/queer femme, settler, activist, and artist living in an era of unprecedented social and environmental precarity. She has a BFA in Acting from the University of Windsor, and did her MES and doctorate at York University, the latter of which included a research-creation project exploring methods, pedagogies, and critical reflections of theatre and performance practice on a land marked by ongoing legacies of settler colonialism.
Select recent credits as co-creator and performer with Animacy include: Finding Home (nominated for 5 Dora Awards, winning Outstanding New Play, TYA Division, 2023), produced by Theatre Direct and directed by Rebecca Northan (2021) and Adam Paolozza (2022-2024); Pest Me Pet Me, a new horror-comedy using mask and clown about housing precarity in Toronto, directed by Justin Miller with dramaturgical support by Brian Quirt (Undercurrents Festival 2023); Care (in development), at Public Energy’s Erring Festival (2022); In Search Of at Next Stage Festival Digital Shorts (2021); Upstream Downtown (Toronto Festival of Clowns, Toronto Fringe 2018), directed by Martha Ross. Currently in development: The Rhino Lassies, a bouffon satire of wellness culture (Tarragon Theatre Greenhouse Residency, 2023/4) and A Raccoon Solstice, an outdoor TYA show about urban interspecies relationships (Bad Hats Theatre New Bad Ideas Residency, 2023/4). For TV and film Morgan starred in the kids series Polkaroo Counts! (2020) and Polkaro Reads (2021) for TVO Kids, playing the popular Canadian TVO icon Polkaroo. Last year she was also the lead creator/ performer for Animacy’s first short film, an eco-horror on settler colonial histories called Land Hunger (Official Selection, Experimental Film Festival 2023).
Morgan also has a strong background in community outreach, facilitation, and activism. She has been an active volunteer in groups such as Grassy Narrows Solidarity Toronto and Rising Tide Toronto, as well as partnering past theatre shows with community and environmental groups such as Justice for Workers, Greenpeace Canada, First Story Toronto, and Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.