Johanna Kasimow, MFA, BA

Assistant Professor
Biography

Johanna Kasimow is an Iowa City-based director, writer, and performer in the field of theater and performance. Her recent creative research focuses on the interplay of clown and affect in performance in a new play titled The Grüb, which probes the sensations of hiding, trans-generational inheritance, and the rhythms of survival in an underground pit.

Johanna has worked with artists and companies across the US, including: Pig Iron Theatre Company, The Eva Steinmetz Project, Antigravity Performance Project, Tiny Circus, New Paradise Laboratories, Nell Bang-Jensen, Talya Chalef, Lily Kind, and Alex Tatarsky. In 2023, Johanna was a participant in the NEH Summer Institute for Preserving and Transmitting American Ensemble-Based Devised Theatre hosted by the Pig Iron Theatre Company. Recently, Johanna premiered City In Heat, a site-specific live cinema performance piece, as part of the Open Air Media Festival at Public Space One in Iowa City.

Johanna’s teaching and research has focused on clown and mask; civic and social practice art; community-based theatre; theatre of the climate crisis; and contemporary performance. Johanna received an MFA in Devised Performance from the University of the Arts/Pig Iron School in Philadelphia and is an Assistant Professor of Directing in the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Iowa.

Research areas
  • Directing
  • Acting
Portrait of Johanna Kasimow, MFA, BA
Phone
Education
MFA, University of the Arts
BA, Colorado College
Contact Information
Address

University of Iowa
136 Theatre Building (TB)
Iowa City, IA 52242
United States