ACTING METHODS
Sharing Stories, Building Bridges By Ca ro l Bada r acco Padge t t
S tories seemed to find Jonna Johnson, an Atlanta-based accredited acting instructor and executive producer, long before she went in search of them. Growing up on a farm in the Tennessee town of Lebanon, her favorite time of the year as an elementary student was when the local library invited special guests to read and tell stories to the children. “I would often be told, from my eagerness to participate and [my] expressed interest, that I would one day be a great storyteller,” Johnson says. “That stuck with me to this day.” By the time Johnson enrolled at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) in Murfreesboro, TN, she’d developed a deep passion for theatre and the arts. And it was here at MTSU that two important stories unfolded in her life—a fairytale and a drama. First, she met her husband, football player Thomas Johnson, on campus outside the athlete’s study hall. Just before graduation, he walked her to the exact spot they met for a surprise proposal with rose petals, candle- light on the sidewalk, and her family and friends gathered around. The couple would go on to have three children (two of them actors), and Johnson would begin building her career as an acting coach and a certified coach practitioner (CPP) of The Chubbuck Technique, an acting method developed by American acting coach Ivana Chubbuck and used by Brad Pitt, Charlize Theron, and others. By 2005, Thomas was a defensive tackle in the NFL, where he played for the Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans, and the Atlanta Falcons. But the couple’s story took a dramatic turn when Thomas retired from the sport in 2011 with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated head injuries. Using her coaching skills, including a certification as a life coach, Johnson pulled herself and her husband through the difficult times of memory loss, psychological effects, and behavioral challenges that come with CTE. “I did not and will not give up on adapting [or] finding tactics and solutions to help,” Johnson says. She has used the challenge to grow stronger, both as a person and as an acting coach. “The impact this has had on my art shines through in my teachings. I’ve been there, I can relate, and I can understand the feeling [of
being] at rock bottom,” she says. “But with that, there is only one place to go… and that is up.” She tells her students, “Keep moving forward. Keep your head up. Push through, and I promise you, you’ll be much stronger.” It’s this outlook on life that Johnson credits for the love and admiration her acting students have shown her over time. “To have that relationship, the genuine love from my students, is simply fueling and priceless,” she shares. Over the years, Johnson developed casting skills, as well. “I’m often asked to cast projects by my producer and director friends. I don’t advertise this, and I only take it on when asked,” she says. ‘The beautiful thing about this is… my Chubbuck students will always have first dibs on auditioning for these roles, and they most likely will be cast.” Today, Johnson’s Chub- buck Technique instructor
Jonna Johnson and Ivana Chubbuck
accreditation includes Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, Florida, and, most recently, Africa. During a groundbreaking trip to Ghana to coach acting students in the Chubbuck Technique—a “first” for the West African region—Johnson met an influential Ghanaian film director, Confidence Losu. “His [past] films received great recognition in the Ghana Cinemas,” Johnson says. The two are working together on a feature film that will begin filming in August 2020. Johnson’s role will be assistant director and executive producer, her first involvement in a feature film outside of casting or on-set coaching. Another first will come out of the collaboration between Ghanaian film and Johnson’s coaching: an
acting school in Ghana. In future trips, Johnson plans to find a plot of land for the school, as well as contractors to build it. From there, it’s Johnson’s vision that her work in Ghana will serve as a bridge between her students in the United States and her future students in Ghana. Across this bridge the students will share ideas and even trips to one another’s countries and acting studios. “I look forward to traveling multiple times a year, back and forth, bringing new Americans to absorb and grow as people, entertainers, and artists … and to provide the same in return for my African students,” Johnson closes.
www.COACHEDbyJonnaJohnson.com | @jonnajohnson1
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