Made in Michigan at the Center for the Arts

Michigan is often thought of as a hub for producing many things, mainly cars, but also Faygo pop, Kellogg’s cereal, and even Gerber baby food. But the Midland Center for the Arts’ latest series, Made in Michigan, shines the spotlight on performing arts professionals from the mitten state.

Local actors, dancers, and choreographers who’ve had success on a national level take center stage to show their craft, and teach valuable life lessons they’ve learned from life both on and off stage. Essexville native Eric Anthony Johnson will perform on Sat,  Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m. for a night of song, dance, and stories.
Johnson is performing in the Center for the Arts "Made in Michigan" series.
Josh Holliday, director of communications at the Midland Center for the Arts says the series “is our opportunity to shine a light on the incredibly talented artists, philosophers and change-makers that grew up here in the great state of Michigan.”

“Artists such as Eric Anthony Johnson are growing up right in our backyard and taking their talents to the global stage – and we are so thrilled to have him for his homecoming performance, his last before returning to Broadway in Beetlejuice the Musical,” Holliday says.

Eric Anthony Johnson says his childhood in Essexville was super loving and fun,  “It was the time before everyone carried around a camera and a video camera at the end of their hands, so I feel like I really had a sense of play in the early 90s, listening to the radio, making up dances in the backyard, and singing along without the fear of that being broadcast anywhere.”

Johnson says writing silly songs and playing make-believe was always a big part of his life, which later led to community theater in high school. Upon graduation, his teacher encouraged him to pursue performing arts as a career, but Johnson thought he should get ‘a real job’ in graphic design. After flipping through the Broadway playbills of his first New York trip in 2000, he auditioned at different musical theatre schools.

He attended Boston Conservatory, earning a BFA in Musical Theater, and has performed in the first national tour of the 2009 revival of West Side Story, BEETLEJUICE the Musical, and more. Johnson began teaching choreography from West Side Story in privately-owned dance studios, universities, and training programs.

“Dance has always been a part of my life,” Johnson says. ”When I was originally supposed to do this Made in Michigan concert in 2020, there was an outreach aspect of dance classes and giving back and sharing my experiences in a hands-on way through being in a studio. Performances are the cherry on top of the sundae, but so much of the work that an audience sees is just what’s manifested out of a rehearsal room or a studio space.”

Johnson looks forward to sharing his choreographer experiences with aspiring performing artists, showing young people in studios that they can pursue a viable career path. 

“Everything feels accessible now, but growing up, Broadway and performing seemed like this intangible thing, like it was out of reach,” he says. “Now, you can open up Instagram and see what happened at Wicked at the Gershwin Theatre last night.”

Eric Anthony Johnson is a native of Essexville.

Johnson spent the first four months of the pandemic in Michigan back in March 2020 when Broadway went on an indefinite hiatus, but is happy to return to the state next week for this series. 

“I’m extremely flattered that they asked me to come, and I’m excited to share. I think my experience was super unique in that I came out very young. I was a very out, gay kid in the early 2000s. I had a safe haven through dance and the community theatre, and the Center, of just this wonderful network of people who loved doing this thing. It didn’t matter who you were, or what your identity was, there was this level of acceptance.”

“It feels like such an opportunity to give thanks, share, and open up a door that maybe people didn’t know that they opened for me,” he says.

For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit the Midland Center’s website.