SC actor, playwright and friend of Chadwick Boseman opens art conservatory | Charleston Scene

Javon Johnson and the late Chadwick Boseman share a career and a hometown.

The two actors – Boseman best known for his role as Marvel’s Black Panther and Johnson for his character in Tyler Perry’s political novel “The Oval” – grew up in Anderson, a place where the textile and automotive industries grow and dream of starring on screens large are few and far between.

However, somehow, both turned their eyes to stardom and were successful.

“There was no one in Anderson really saying, ‘I want to grow up and be an actor,'” recalls Johnson. “I thought the other side of TV was an invented world that didn’t exist, that wasn’t possible. That was the mindset.”

Johnson – an award-winning playwright, arts advocate and actor whose credits include “The Hate U Give” and “American Soul” – now hopes to make Anderson a place where aspiring artists like him can hone their craft and find their big break, without necessarily having to leave town for that.

He founded a nonprofit performing arts school called Bear Fruit Conservatory. He, alongside a team of almost all Black creatives, will offer industry knowledge, training and accessibility to the community. In addition to classes, there will also be productions written and performed locally to stage.

A branch of the for-profit project, Bear Fruit Entertainment, will provide the next step: building a resume and starting a career, building connections within Johnson’s own entertainment industry network.

Development and use of a local film infrastructure is also underway, with an undisclosed film set to shoot in the north of the state this fall.

“The goal is to start small and expand to the entire Southeast,” said Johnson.

Johnson particularly hopes to spark interest and show what is possible to young people in the community, to give them something he didn’t have when growing up.

At that time, Johnson had a feeling he was destined to achieve something bigger than Anderson could offer, but he wasn’t sure how to get there.

His initial desire to act and write was cultivated by the high school drama club and by the speech and debate tournaments. He was almost overwhelmed by the easy and safe promise of a 40-year career at a local factory or the idealized fantasy of playing professionally, two popular perspectives.

“Most young African Americans at the time I was growing up were thinking about sports or spending 30, 40 years in a factory somewhere,” said Johnson. “There really wasn’t much.”

Through a scholarship to the State University of South Carolina and an endless search for theater, once on campus, Johnson freed himself from the mold he thought had cemented his destiny.

Boseman was another spark that did the same, and the two connected as soon as they reached the bright lights of Hollywood.

“We have worked together over the years,” said Johnson. “He performed on my programs, directed my short films. We had a strong relationship because we got together about where we came from.”

For Johnson, Boseman is another symbol of what a small town in South Carolina can not only produce, but cultivate. The newly announced Golden Globe nominee, who died at 43 years of age from colon cancer in August, continues to leave his lasting impact and legacy.

Johnson hopes that Bear Fruit can now follow in his footsteps and elevate southern black talent.

“If you can get Chadwick and me out of Anderson, you need to know that there’s a lot more here,” suggested Johnson.

In fact, Boseman’s tragic death was a reflection for some.

Johnson not only meets a handful of kids in the upstate whose parents are taking them to New York City for weekend acting classes, but there are also residents in their 50s and 60s who have left their own dreams centered in entertainment escape from the cracks.

The interest, although still growing, is there.

“It’s like building a lake in the desert,” said Johnson of Bear Fruit.

The conservatory’s goals include instilling autonomy and self-esteem; identify individual gifts; and maybe, most of all, just offering a place to help people find their voice.

“Getting together to tell a story collectively as one voice is powerful, but individual voices that have something to say through a piece of work are what attracted me,” said Johnson. “It can have a lot to do with being a young black man in America and having a way of expressing himself and living it, through characters and stories.”

The first character that really caught his eye was Cory in “Fences”. August Wilson’s play, which turned into a successful film starring Viola Davis and Denzel Washington, was Johnson’s first professional performance. It was at the Hilton Head Playhouse, now the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, when he was still a college student.

“(Wilson) had such a profound effect as a young black man with his writing – the pride, conscience and responsibility to be young, talented and black,” said Johnson.

With the grand opening of the conservatory in late January right behind him and the 2nd season of “The Oval” just ahead with a February 16 premiere date at BET, Johnson has a lot going on.

He hopes that, soon, Anderson’s performing arts scene can too.