Marina Johnson is a theatre scholar and director whose research examines contemporary Palestinian performance. She earned her Ph.D. in Theater and Performance Studies from Stanford University, with minors in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, and holds an M.F.A. in Directing from the University of Iowa. She was a 2025–2026 Stanford Humanities Center Fellow, a 2021–2022 Graduate Public Service Fellow at the Stanford Haas Center, and served as co-artistic director of the Nitery Experimental Theatre during the 2022–2023 season. Johnson is the co-host of Kunafa and Shay, a MENA theatre podcast produced by HowlRound Theatre Commons, and a member of Silk Road Rising's Polycultural Institute.
Marina recently co-directed Al Manshiyya (Palestinan National Theatre El Hakawati), Al Akhbar M3 Manar, Nazira, and Qirshekl Abyad (Al Harah Theatre), and gave workshops at ASHTAR Theatre. At Stanford, she directed the TAPS Winter 2024 mainstage The Wolves. She regularly works on community-engaged theatre projects in the Bay Area. Johnson has worked as a dramaturg with Golden Thread Productions, Silk Road Rising, Penn State University, and on several Stanford mainstage productions. Select additional directing credits include: The Shroud Maker (International Voices Project), Shakespeare’s Sisters (Stanford), and The Palestinian Youth Monologues (Stanford).
Johnson’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Jerusalem Quarterly, Theatre/Practice, TDR, Theatre Topics, Arab Stages, Milestones in Staging Contemporary Genders and Sexualities (Routledge), and Women’s Innovations in Theatre, Dance, and Performance, Volume I: Performers (Bloomsbury). Prior to her PhD, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Beloit College for three years.