John is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts (’89), and of Temple University (’92). He also studied privately with scenographer and architect Josef Svoboda in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1988. He has designed in Philadelphia at the Arden, the Wilma, People's Light, and the Walnut Street Theatres, along with dozens of others. He designed over 20 operas for the Opera Company of Philadelphia and over 100 ballets for the Pennsylvania Ballet, including multiple national and international tours. He was on the design staff of New York City Opera, and was a Lighting Director at New York City Ballet. Nationally, he has designed for Luciano Pavarotti, Spoletto Festival, Pittsburgh Opera, Virginia Opera, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Folger Shakespeare, Cleveland Playhouse, along with numerous projects at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center. Internationally, he has designed and toured to all but one continent. In film he was an Associate Art Director for the movie "Center Stage,” where he designed all the theatrical sequences.
In 2005 John was the recipient of an Independence Fellowship grant and returned to Prague to work with Laterna Magika and the National Theatre. He has received two Best of Philadelphia Awards and five total Barrymore nominations with Barrymore Awards for the lighting design of Sweeney Todd at the Arden Theatre and for 9 Parts Desire at the Wilma Theater. He was given a Helen Hayes nomination for Measure for Measure at the Folger Theater in Washington, DC, two “Rockie” Awards for work in the Philadelphia Dance community and a Prix Millennium Award for Capuleti et Montegue at the Opera Company of Philadelphia.
John was named to the faculty at Temple University‘s theater department in 2006, where he was the head of the design program for several years. During those years he continued his professional profile in both the US and abroad, from live performance broadcasts for PBS, to continued engagements at the Kennedy Center and representing the United States at the Prague Quadrennial.
In August 2017 John relocated from the United States to Egypt to teach at the American University in Cairo. Since then he has worked as a designer and consultant for a filmed broadway style musical, live broadcasts, a television series and several concerts including a recent live streamed concert for 90,000 live attendees.
Along with developing new digital design techniques (New Design Approaches), he has also been working on a global arts outreach project called Discover the World, which has generated several other promising ventures (History of Cultural Expression, Why We Feel What We See, The Great Gig in the Sky).
