ANTHONY JOHNSON, M.F.A.

Educator • Performing Artist • Director • Designer • Entrepreneur • Student-Driven Mentor • Advocate for the Arts

Anthony Johnson, M.F.A., is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, designer, performer, mentor, and entrepreneur whose career has been shaped by one enduring belief: the arts have the power to educate, connect, inspire, and transform lives and communities.

A graduate of Utah State University, where he earned his Master of Fine Arts, Johnson brings nearly three decades of professional experience spanning music education, vocal performance, theatre, opera, technical production, lighting design, artistic direction, student-driven instruction, and mentoring. His career has taken him from classrooms in rural Montana to stages and production venues throughout the United States and abroad.

Johnson currently owns JJ’s Diner in Dillon, Montana, bringing the same creativity, energy, leadership, and commitment to community that has defined his artistic and educational career into the world of hospitality and small-business ownership.

EDUCATOR, MENTOR & ADVOCATE

Education has remained one of the defining threads of Johnson’s professional life. His teaching career has included music, choir, and band with Dillon Middle School, as well as six years serving as the K–12 Performing Arts Specialist for the Sheridan School District in Sheridan, Montana.

At the heart of Johnson’s educational philosophy is a student-driven approach to teaching and mentoring. Rather than viewing students simply as recipients of instruction, he believes they should be active participants in their own educational and artistic development. His classrooms and performance spaces emphasize student voice, individual strengths, creative exploration, collaboration, personal responsibility, and meaningful leadership opportunities.

Johnson believes the most effective educators do more than teach a subject—they mentor the whole student. Through music, theatre, and the performing arts and Guidance Counseling, he works to help young people discover their individual talents, develop confidence, learn from challenges, and recognize possibilities within themselves that they may not yet see.

His mentoring philosophy is grounded in building authentic relationships with students while maintaining high expectations. He encourages students to take creative risks, develop independence, accept constructive feedback, and understand that success is measured not simply by a final performance, grade, or award, but by growth, perseverance, character, and the willingness to continue learning.

Throughout his career, Johnson has also been a passionate advocate for maintaining strong, fine, and performing arts programs in public education—particularly in rural communities, where students may have fewer opportunities to experience music, theatre, dance, technical production, and other creative disciplines.

For Johnson, arts education extends far beyond the stage. It develops creativity, discipline, confidence, collaboration, communication, resilience, leadership, and belonging. As schools face increasing pressure to reduce or eliminate arts programming, he continues to champion the belief that rural students deserve access to meaningful artistic experiences, exceptional mentorship, and high-quality arts education.

PERFORMER

As a vocalist and stage performer, Johnson’s work has taken him internationally to Italy, Greece, London, and New York, where he has showcased his talents as a singer, director, and performing artist. He has also produced two CDs featuring his vocal work.

His stage credits demonstrate an exceptional range across musical theatre, operetta, and opera, including:

His operatic experience also includes productions of Madama Butterfly and Sweeney Todd with Spokane Opera.

DESIGNER & THEATRE ARTIST

Johnson is equally at home behind the scenes. His extensive background in lighting design, technical direction, and theatrical production has allowed him to work across theatre, opera, dance, musical theatre, and live concert production.

His design and production portfolio includes work associated with artists and productions ranging from Peter Cetera’s America Salutes concert and the British Invasion Band of New Jersey to theatrical productions across the country.

Among his numerous theatre and design credits are:

New York
Blood Wedding and The Real Inspector Hound — Molloy College

Washington, D.C.
Macbeth — Kennedy Center

Utah
Guys and Dolls and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat — Music Theatre West
Little Shop of Horrors, Blithe Spirit, and The Elephant Man — Old Lyric Repertory Company
The Magic Flute — Utah State Opera
Firebird Ballet — Cache Valley Ballet Company

Idaho
Seussical the Musical, High School Musical, and All Shook Up — Idaho State Repertory Theatre

Alabama
Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Godspell, and Eurydice — University of West Alabama

Johnson has also worked extensively with the Old Lyric Repertory Company in Logan, Utah, and the Idaho State Summer Repertory Company in Pocatello, Idaho.

His work in lighting design received national recognition when he was named a 2010 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival National Award Finalist for his lighting design of Issun Boshi.

CREATOR & ENTREPRENEUR

Johnson’s creative work has never been confined to a single discipline. He co-founded Darkmoon Lighting Industries, a professional production company developed to provide multiple aspects of technical and production support for the performing arts.

Today, his entrepreneurial interests continue to expand. In addition to owning and operating JJ’s Diner, Johnson is working toward opening a recording studio, creating another avenue through which musicians, performers, students, and emerging artists can develop and share their work.

A CAREER BUILT AROUND PEOPLE & THE ARTS

Whether standing beneath the stage lights as a performer, designing the world surrounding a production, conducting musicians, teaching students, mentoring young people, directing performers, operating a business, or advocating for arts education and career opportunities for young people, Anthony Johnson has built a career around helping people discover what they are capable of becoming.

For Johnson, the greatest measure of an educator is not simply what students accomplish while they are in the classroom, but whether they leave believing they have the confidence, voice, resilience, and ability to shape their own futures.

His professional journey crosses disciplines, institutions, communities, and continents—but its purpose has remained remarkably consistent:

Create boldly. Teach with purpose. Mentor with compassion. Perform fearlessly. Empower students to find their own voice. And make certain the arts continue to have a place in the communities that need them most.