Janessa Johnsrude
Director, Prison Arts Theater Program
& Dell’Arte Abroad: Bali
Janessa Johnsrude is a collaborative performance artist and teacher currently serving as the Director of Dell’Arte’s Prison Arts Theatre Program and the Dell’Arte Abroad: Bali Program. In addition, she serves as Associate Faculty (Drama) for the College of the Redwood’s Pelican Bay State Prison Scholars Program. She is a graduate of Dell’Arte’s MFA program in Ensemble-based Physical Theatre.
For the last 15 years, Janessa has been happily focused on creating, producing, and performing original actor-created theatre and teaching the craft of storytelling, embodied character, cabaret, and ensemble generated performance rooted in exploration of the natural world. She has toured her original work from scrappy San Francisco nightclubs to off-Broadway to International Theatre Festivals to the Cairo Opera House (and in between!). Janessa has been a guest lecturer/teacher at universities/academies/colleges in Canada, Zimbabwe and throughout the U.S and has designed theatre curriculums and created original performances with and for an extensive variety of populations and age groups. Her teaching practice with individuals experiencing incarceration has become focused on trauma-informed healing through storytelling.
