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INTRO
John was a professor, actor, playwright, screenwriter,
and stage director for over 20 years performing and producing most of his
own work. Now, he has turned his attention to his music.
EDUCATION
John received his B.F.A. in acting and Theatre from
N.Y.U. Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Program, and his M.A. in
Educational Theatre from Adelphi University graduating Magna Cum Laude.
He attended Dowling College for 2 years before moving to NYU, and there
he wont the American College Theatre Festival's Best Actor Nomination
for his performance in Eugene O'Neil's "The Hairy Ape".
ACTING
As an actor John received critical acclaim in The New
York Times and Newsday for his two solos -- PERFECTLY NORM-iLL PEOPLE which
he wrote, and THE DIARY OF A MADMAN which he adapted from the Gogol Classic
and also performed in New York City on Theatre Row. John performed his third
solo in Gary Kott's (Producer and writer for the Bill Cosby Show and many
others) HIM AND HIS LAST NIGHT OF SANITY at the Grove Street Playhouse in
New York City; Kott directed John. In addition to his solo pieces, John
performed leading roles in over 50 productions and has received critical
praise for his performances in such leading roles as Jerry in THE ZOO STORY,
Johnny in FRANKIE AND JOHNNY IN THE CLAIR DE LUNE, and many others.
PLAYWRITING & PRODUCTIONS
Nine of his plays have been produced, many by him but in
other theatres as well: HE AND SHE (Hudson Guild, New York City, 1988),
HOMESICK and THE BOX (William Redfield, New York City 1992 and staged
readings at the Total Theatre Lab, New York, 1991), DIARY OF A MADMAN
(Theatre Row Theatre, New York City). Other productions include: FARMLAND
(1989), SNAPSHOT (1989), CHARADE (1990), TOMORROW (1994), PERFECTLY NORM-iLL
PEOPLE, PRISONERS IN PARADISE and THE LAMP have received numerous
professional readings in New York City. He has directed numerous productions
including several of his own works.
SCREENWRITING
John has written several full-length feature screenplays:
TOP STORY, about the media in the 90’s, TIME KEEPER, about John Harrison and
Nevil Maskelyne's forty year war over the prize for Longitude in the
seventeen hundreds, HOME, a coming-of-age story about a boy growing up in
the Depression, MEN'S LIVES about the East End Baymen of LI's fight against
huge business and political corruption, WE THE PEOPLE, a high-concept comedy
about the Presidency, politics and its dirty laundry.
PROFESSOR AND ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCY
For 14 years he was the Artist-in-Residence and an
Adjunct Professor of Drama at Dowling College where he founded and developed
a professional repertory theatre, acting school and laboratory training his
actors who then worked in his plays. He founded a New Play Reading Festival
featuring distinguished and up-coming playwrights like Gary Kott, Joe
Pintauro, Keith T. Fadelici and numerous others, and offered a diverse
offering to the community: A Children's Theatre Touring Company, an
Improvisation Company, and numerous Symposiums interviewing legendary
figures such as: Budd Schulberg, Cliff Robertson, David Newman, and Murray
Schisgal. He also taught a full semester of various theatre classes. In 1999
John Co-Produced and acted a leading role in LIES IN LOVE, a full-length
independent feature film about following your dreams.
HIS MUSICHis music
offers instrumental guitar pieces he calls Sound Sculptures that are created
via jamming and editing from the jam a piece of music capturing the best of
the spontaneous creation and also writes songs. His songs explore portraits
of people, social commentary, personal experiences, and moments/situations
that seem simple enough from the outside but delve into the inner world -
such as a woman looking into a mirror but within she is seeing her
mortality, struggling with her vanity, and identity or a simple walk in the
rain exploring lost love, and trying to come to terms with it, the rain a
metaphor for soulful tears of loss and the struggle for re-identification
after a loss. His playing style explores the guitar as both a melodic and
percussive instrument, allowing the guitar to be interactive between the
guitar, the words, and the music/percussion. He uses a variety of styles on
an acoustic guitar such as finger picking, strumming and slap guitar
techniques working together and to support and interact with the poetry and
the story of his songs. There is a dramatic structure to the stories of his
songs integrating his long theater training and career with his new
discovery of musical performance.
He is a member of Actors Equity and The Dramatist Guild.
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