Colloquy Collective presents theatrical works in contexts that both examine and redefine those works' relationship to the identity politics, historical baggage, and community representations of patrons and participants.
Darren Edward Johnston and Courtney Harge
Photo Credit: Anita Shevett
Darren Edward Johnston
Artistic Director
Darren Edward Johnston is a director, producer, dramaturge, community organizer, and Artistic Director of Colloquy Collective. Recently, he assistant directed Mike Bartlett's Love, Love, Love at the Roundabout Theatre Company, with Michael Mayer, and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Head of Passes at the Public Theater, with Tina Landau, whom he also assisted on the pre-Broadway premiere of The Spongebob Musical in Chicago.
Collaborating with the Dirty Blondes, Darren directed Ashley Jacobson’s The American Play for the New York International Fringe Festival (which sold out its initial run, extended Off-Broadway into the Fringe’s Encore series, and won the 2015 FringeNYC Award for Overall Excellence in Playwriting) and served as Festival Artistic Director for DETROIT, NY, a collaborative performance between New York City and Detroit artists, featuring seven short plays, historical footage, short films, performance art, and live music.
Productions under his direction have performed at the Atlantic Theater Company, Ugly Rhino Productions, the Fire This Time Festival, the Dirty Blondes, the Brick, the Fresh Fruit Festival, Mastodon Theatre Company, and more. Additionally, he has served on the staffs of the Public Theater, assisting Artistic Director Oskar Eustis in his producing Shakespeare in the Park, Broadway, and Off-Broadway theater in addition to his leadership of the Public’s inaugural capital campaign, and Tectonic Theater Project, where Darren helped shepherd multiple new play development processes--including an Afro-Cuban jazz adaptation of Bizet’s Carmen by Artistic Director Moises Kaufman and Grammy Award-winner Arturo O’Farrill, choreographed by Sergio Trujillo, and Daniel Beaty’s The Tallest Tree in the Forest.
From 2012-2014, Darren left the theater to work in politics. During that time, he served as Campaign Manager for Jenifer Rajkumar for City Council in NYC, a Field Organizer with Obama for America, Chief of Staff to the Manhattan Young Democrats, New York Grassroots Fundraising Manager for Organizing for Action (the nonprofit, community organizing project which advocates for the agenda of President Barack Obama), and the Sub-Account Secretary for the New York State Young Democrats Downstate Region Fund. In 2016, he served as a Staging Location Director for Hillary for America in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Darren received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre Performance, with an emphasis in Directing, from Western Michigan University. Additionally, he was honored as the Zachary L. York Scholar, the Katherine Larsen Directing Scholar, and for Conspicuous Achievement in Theatre.