The Artistic Parenting Series Special Guest: Isaiah Johnson

On the show today I’ll be sharing parts of my conversation with Isaiah Johnson. Isaiah is an actor, professor at SCAD (Savanah College of Art & Design), married to singer, songwriter Stacie Orrico and they have two little munchkins together. Isaiah has appeared on and off Broadway, working with actors such as Al Pacino in The Merchant of Venice, Kevin Spacey in Richard III, Kelli O'Hara in Far From Heaven, Roger Rees in Peter and the Starcatcher, Lin-Manuel Miranda in Hamilton, and so much more. He received his BFA from Howard University and his MFA from NYU's Tisch Grad Acting program. 

In our conversation today we talk about failure, fatherhood, being a citizen, trust, being of service and of course we’ll get a magical moment with each of his kids. 

​Where to reach Isaiah
Website:  https://www.legomyankles.com/
Instagram: @isaiahslament

Ways to show love and support to this show: Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mfaparenting)


​Full transcript still being edited, please check back later


Welcome to MFA: The Parenting Edition, I’m Taisha Cameron. These lessons from the theatre for raising ourselves and our kids came about when I realized my MFA in acting trained me for life as a mommy better than life as a full-time actor. Today I’ll be talking to actor, educator, and father of two, Isaiah Johnson. So, without further ado, this is MFA.

Episode 30 – Honoring the Process
 
 
Hello hello lovely! [singing] Welcome back to the MFA Parenting Edition podcast. I don’t know why I needed to sing that but it just felt right! [singing] I may be right, I may be crazy, but I just may be the lunatic you’re looking for! Am I a lunatic?! Aren’t we all?!!!
Moving on…or am I MOVING OUT (sing the music) – I don’t know Billy Joel has just incepted my brain… but here we are.
Today we have another Artistic Parenting artist conversation with actor Isaiah Johnson. The Artistic Parenting Series, for anyone joining in for the first time, is a collection of chats with artists on the lessons from the theatre they’ve learned in helping to raise themselves and their kids. My goal for this particular series of episodes is to share gifts from other artists to help us see the world, the arts, our kids, and ourselves with new eyes.  
 
Be Our Guest
On the show today I’ll be sharing parts of my conversation with Isaiah Johnson. Isaiah is an actor, he has also been an educator throughout his career most recently accepting a position at SCAD, Savanah College of Art & Design. He’s married to singer, songwriter Stacie Orrico and they have two little munchkins together. Isaiah has appeared on and off Broadway, working with actors such as Al Pacino in The Merchant of Venice, Kevin Spacey in Richard III, Kelli O'Hara in Far From Heaven, Roger Rees in Peter and the Starcatcher, Lin-Manuel Miranda in Hamilton, and so much more. He received his BFA from Howard University and his MFA from NYU's Tisch Grad Acting program. In our conversation today we talk about failure, fatherhood, being a citizen, trust, being of service and of course we’ll get a magical moment with each of his kids.
Let’s jump in.
 
 
The Responsibility of Fatherhood
Question – When did you know you wanted to be a father?
 
 
The Relationship to Failure
Question – You brought it up sir, so, what is your relationship with failure?
 
 
Integrity & Family Values
Question – How important are family values and what are yours?
 
 
The Art of Service
Question – How do you use your art to be of service to something bigger?
 
 
Lessons from the Theatre
Question – What lessons from the theatre have you learned to help raise your kids?
 
 
The Feel Response & Art Therapy
Question – Have the arts and your training in the arts made you more emotionally available as a parent?
 
 
Honoring Yourself
Question – How do you honor yourself as a parent and artist?
This question led us down the path of honoring the process, partnership, trust, being a citizen and speaking to your children about race.
 
 
Depression
Question – When you mentioned depression earlier, what does that look like or feel like for you?
 
 
This Magic Moment
A short story before you go about a magical moment with your kids
 
 
 
Raise a Glass
The Raise a Glass Series is a space for reflection and gratitude centered around the topic of the day and inspired by lyrics from Hamilton the Musical:
“Let me tell you what I wish I’d known, When I was young and dreamed of glory, You have no control: who lives, who dies, who tells your story”

Seeing as our guest today has g George Washington in Hamilton I felt it was fitting to use a Washington line in today’s Raise a Glass.

Most things in life, we don’t have control over. It sucks, I know. But we don’t. How we respond to life, the work we do on ourselves to grow and evolve, how present we are with the world around us are the only things we can control. As parents we can fall into the trap of thinking our job is to control our kids; by control I mean make them bend to our will about whatever we feel helps us more than it helps them. We are totally in control of building a healthy relationship with our children if that is what we choose. We are in control of creating our story. We might not be able to control who tells our story later but we can direct the narrative now by the choices we make in how we live our life.
Let’s raise a glass to choosing to create our story from a place of integrity and love. May we lay a foundation of a story worth sharing and aspiring to after we are gone.
 
 

That’s all for today guys and dolls. I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Isaiah this week, it was such a pleasure speaking with him and I’ve got many more conversations with other artists to come. But next week we’ll go back to a solo episode and we’ll be exploring gender. Dear God what a huge topic I’ve chosen to explore and I will by no means make a major dent in the discussion but we’ll start our conversation from a very theatrical place: actor vs actress and gender neutral casting. And yes this will all connect to parenting because that’s what we do here!
Quick shout-out before we go to Sarah, on Instagram @duchessofcalifornia, for winning this weeks Word Scramble Wednesday.
Congratulations Sarah and thanks for playing.
 

There are lots of different ways to support projects and people who you feel are making a positive difference in the world. Some ways are to support financially, and others are to give of your time and energy in little ways that say keep up the good work. I started a podcast supporter page through Buy Me a Coffee for those who are interested and able to show support to this artistic project financially. The link in the show notes allows you to Buy Me a Drink to say, “I support your!” If you’re interested in contributing drinks on a regular basis there is a membership option. But you don’t have to buy me drinks to show your love. Go to the show notes of this episode, like right now as your listening to this, and look at the links. The first free thing you can do to say thank you is clicking the Rate and Review link and review the episode you just listened to. Next free act of love is to follow the podcast on Instagram @mfaparentingedition. Yup, that link is in the show notes too – I made this very easy for you. The final shminal thank you that you can do is to share this episode or other episodes you’ve enjoyed with a friend.
I appreciate you for taking the time to listen today and want to say thank you for showing up to learn with me different ways we can build the best relationship possible with ourselves and our kids. 

The world needs you. Go forth and kicketh some ass!
 

Again, thank you and I’ll see you on the other side