Meet the Director

Timothy Johnson is a master acting teacher, director, performer and playwright.

Timothy has honed his approach to actor training over four decades, including tenures as Associate Professor of Theatre Arts at Marymount Manhattan College, Assistant Professor of Acting/Movement at Ohio University, and Artistic Associate at Rosie’s Theater Kids.  

By vote of Marymount Manhattan College’s 2022 Senior Class, Timothy received the Outstanding Faculty Member of the Division of Fine and Performing Arts Award. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Acting from the University of Washington School of Drama and a Bachelor of Music Education from Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music.

His performance highlights include the following: Original cast of the U.S. National Tour of James Kirkwood’s play Legends! starring Mary Martin and Carol Channing;“Jazz” in REGINA at the Scottish Opera House in Glasgow, Scotland with John Mauceri as conductor, also recording the role for London/Decca Records; on Broadway in A Chorus Line for the 1983 record-breaking performance directed by Michael Bennett and in the show’s National Tour (U.S. and Canada); The Original Cast of Zora Neale Hurston at The American Place Theatre, Off-Broadway, directed by Wynn Handman, one of the iconic pioneers of the creative explosion of American plays in the 1960’s to the early 1980’s.

He was a member of the Chorus in The Metropolitan Opera’s first production of Porgy & Bess; At the Melbourne International Arts Festival and in Milan, Italy, he appeared as “Adonis” in The Temptation of St. Anthony written by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock, and directed by the avant-garde artist extraordinaire Robert Wilson. Timothy made his Carnegie Hall debut singing amongst a chorus of glorious African-American artists in Spirituals in Concert starring the incomparable duo of Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle, with maestro James Levine as conductor. DOONI, a short film by Claudrena N. Harold and Kevin Jerome Everson, in which Timothy plays the Reverend Walter Hawkins, recently had its World Premiere at the 2025 BlackStar Film Festival, along with premiering in New York City at 2025 The New York Film Festival.

Timothy made his Off-Off Broadway directorial debut at the Obie Award-Winning Metropolitan Playhouse with his production of On Strivers Row by Abram Hill. The New York Times said of his work that “Timothy Johnson has shaped 16 striking performances here.” This production received Four coveted AUDELCO award nominations including Best Direction of a Dramatic Production for Timothy and Best Revival. For the past three years he has been extraordinarily blessed to work on various productions across the country, as Associate Director for the anointedly inspired artist, Tony Award-Winning Actor & Director Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Most recently Timothy has worked with Mr. Santiago-Hudson at The Public Theater Off-Broadway for the NYC premiere of John Leguizamo’s Latin family drama The Other Americans. Timothy is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab.

As a flutist, Timothy was the First Place Winner of Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory’s Annual Concerto Competition.

He achieved Semi-Finalist Status for the 2012 Eugene O’Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference for his play Listening to the Trees. Timothy is humbled, happy, and in a state of constant gratitude that his deeply passionate & personal work on actor training can now be shared through the publication of his first book, How To Rehearse A Scene, Progressive Exercises to Enhance Scene Work, Routledge Press, Oct, 2025.