Mr. K. O. Johnson
K. O. Johnson is a longtime theater director and filmmaker residing in Austin, Texas.
A native of Port Arthur, Texas, he majored in English and Theatre Arts at the University of Minnesota, where he won the Creative Arts Festival’s Best Play Award for directing and writing “The Last Man Home.”
In the Air Force, he organized the first little theater in the Air Defense Command, and won honors for his work with the youth of Silver Bay, Minnesota, directing a Summer production of “The Boy Friend.”
In Austin, he produced and directed over 100 productions including three seasons for the Austin Civic Theatre. The name of the theatre was changed to Zachary Scott Theatre during his tenure as Artistic Director. He established his own theatre company, Center Stage, where he produced cutting edge theatre. He was the first to produce Broadway caliber musicals in the old Paramount Theater, helping in its restoration. His production of “West Side Story” was the highest grossing community theatre production at the time.
For the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library’s symposium of “Women in Public Life”, he directed “Women Through the Ages”, starring Texan Sandy Duncan. Also for the Johnson Library, he directed the first evening of “Lady Bird Johnson’s Eightieth Birthday Celebration,” starring Carol Channing and many of Mrs. Johnson’s friends, including daughters Linda and Luci Johnson.
In Los Angeles, California, Johnson directed his autobiographical play, “Final Touches”, starring Dana Elcar and Christopher McDonald. The production was nominated for 15 L A. Drama Critic Awards, winning Drama-Logue Awards for Best Play, Best Director, Best Lead Actor and Best set. Returning to Austin with his play it won all 5 of the Austin Circle of Theater Awards in the Drama category. The play was later staged in regional theaters.
Back in Austin, Johnson founded the Hyde Park Theater, producing and directing a variety of work including productions of his own plays, “Duet In B Flat”, “American Realism”, “A Way Back Home” (a musical version of Hansel and Gretel) and “An Evening of Short and Briefs”, a series of short plays and skits.
Most recently, Mr. Johnson has been making independent films. His short “One Small Step for Mankind” was shown on the PBS series “Egg, The Art Show”. His play “Jesse’s Closet” received three Best Actor Nominations in its stage production before Johnson turned it into his first feature length film which won a Jury Award at the Hollywood Black Film Festival. His second feature - a Spanish language film - “El Abandonado” ( The Abandoned) screened at the Cine Los Americana Film Festival where it was picked up for distribution by Vanguard International Cinema and can be rented on Netflix.
Mr. Johnson has written eight novels, three of which - “A Killer Waits,” a detective thriller, “Texas Dames,” a serio/comic novel, based on character hr met in his mother’s bar in Port Arthur, Texas, and “Crime Scene/Sex Scene” an erotic thriller, can be found on Kindle and in print on Amazon.com.
A filmscript of his detective novel, “A Killer Waits” was in the top ten percent of 3,000 entries in The Austin Film Festival.
Mr. Johnson can be reached at kayoproductions@att.net.
