Who Am I?

My name is Cole Johnston and I’m an Auckland, New Zealand based singer/performer. My performing career began at the age of 9 with the National Youth Theatre Company. I spent the majority of my youth performing in over 20 full scale productions with NYTC and throughout this time played several leading roles, some of which include Joesph in Joesph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Captain Hook in the NYTC original production of Peter Pan and Troy Bolton in High School Musical 1 and 2.

My professional career began in 2017 with Tim Bray Productions, where I played Jackie Paper in their original production of Puff the Magic Dragon. I then went on to be Featured Ensemble in 2018-2019 resident SkyCity show of City of 100 Lovers. I then took up the role of Mungojerrie in the 2019 New Zealand tour of Cats the musical.

Along with performing, I’ve also had the chance to learn internationally from various different learning providers. I travelled to London to train in YMT UK’s Musical Theatre Bootcamp 2018 and then successfully auditioned for the Guildford School of Acting and MountView.

In August 2019, I travelled to New York to participate in the Broadway Dreams Intensive. I spent a week learning from industry professionals and then was lucky enough to make my ‘Broadway Debut’ by singing “She Used to be Mine” on the ‘Waitress’ stage after a performance with Todrick Hall and Colleen Ballinger hosting.

Towards the end of 2019, I began working on the creative team for NYTC as the Assistant Music Director (Vocals) on their production of ‘Wizard of Oz’.

2020 became quite a challenging year for the Musical Theatre industry, however I was fortunate enough to be able to continue Vocal Coaching over Zoom, I sang for a couple of online events such as Sofa Sessions - Stage It and also as a Guest Artist for MetLife Care’s Happy Hour.

My role with the National Youth Theatre Company (now known as ‘National Youth Theatre’ changed to Assistant Director for The Little Mermaid, which was unfortunately then cancelled due to COVID-19. I then became Musical Director for the Online Musical of Alver & Doy’s Wendy in a Bubble which we ran over Zoom for 3 months. I was then offered Programme Director for the end of year variety showcase ‘Keeping the Lights On’ and Programme Director for the 2021 production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

Towards the end of 2020, I launched my own artistic venture, ‘Auckland Artists Network’. AAN produces workshops, masterclass and theatrical opportunities for Auckland based Artists, both professional and emerging. More info is to come for this one soon.