Anne Johnstonbrown
Anne Johnstonbrown is an actor, songwriter, teacher and author. She has a Master’s Degree in Theatre Arts and has worked as an Adjunct Professor of Theatre Arts at several Southern California universities, including The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles where she taught Acting, Auditioning and the Business of Acting. As an internationally-renown songwriter, many of Anne’s compositions can be heard worldwide, from Canada to Africa, on radio and beyond. She is also the author of several books of varying genres, including children’s and mainstream fiction and non-fiction. Her most celebrated works are The 10 Commandments of Theater and True to archeType: A Guide to Characterization in Comedy, both published by Smith & Kraus, the world’s largest publisher of theatre arts books. Of Commandments, Theatre Topics Magazine (Sept., 2008) and American Theatre Magazine (Jan., 2008) each gave the book glowing reviews and highly recommended it to readers learning the art of method acting. It is currently a required text in dozens of theatre arts departments nationwide. Over the past 30 years, Anne has enjoyed an illustrious career on the stage. As an Equity actor, Anne appeared on the famed Kodak Theatre stage (now The Dolby Theatre) as the Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and has toured the U.S. with other national shows. She is also an award-winning audiobook producer and has released nearly 100 published projects over the past decade, many of which are the works of New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors.
In 2007, Anne had an encounter with a homeless man in Redlands, California, that changed her life forever. Through the inspiration of that one event, altering society’s perception of the homeless became her life’s mission. She chronicled her experience in a novel entitled, My Name’s Lyman, which she wrote under her grandmother’s name, Lily-Marie Taylor. Soon, there was demand that she turn the book into a screenplay. However, as Anne’s training was in theatre, she chose to go the theatre route instead. She called her show LYMAN The Musical and got involved with Paul Avila of Pauly’s Project of Los Angeles, feeding and clothing the homeless of Skid Row. She made it her secondary mission to see that this great organization got exposure and the resources they needed to facilitate their most worthy endeavors. As of 2018, the show is preparing for its fifth iteration, having already performed in such notable venues as The Hollywood Fringe Festival, The Long Beach Playhouse, The Grove Theatre and, as of August of 2018, the historic El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood, California. For show information, go to https://lymanthemusical.com.
