John Iacovelli
I grew up in Reno Nevada, the son of an artist/art teacher and of a government manager. My father was a first generation Italian American and my mother was a fifth generation Nevadan (from before the gold rush.)
As a child my father made me an elaborate puppet theatre and my sister helped to create a backdrop with a perspective floor, which inspired me at an early age to become a scenic designer. I immersed myself in all things theatrical, both acting, directing, singing and building sets. I started theatre companies when none existed.
I was lucky to get a full theatre design scholarship to the Theatre Arts Program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. This was a great introductory program as I got to design at school many times and also to read the canon of great theatre literature. I then went to graduate work at NYU in the Tisch Design program where I was introduced to Art Direction from our professor the Production Designer Stephen Hendrickson. We had classes with noted Opera designer John Conklin and the Broadway giant Oliver Smith, whom I later assisted. It was a magical time at NYU. Some of my other classmates were Tony Kushner, George Tsypin, Linda Essig, Dan Bishop, and Jeff Sage.
So, to say I was both challenged and inspired by my professors and fellow students is an understatement. I struggled in NYC for the next two years, designing small shows and painting sets, and then moved west to Los Angeles, snagging an entry level job to run the blueprint machine at NBC. It paid very little. There I met many TV designers and eventually became an in-house Assistant Art Director working on many shows. By the end of that first year I spent three months on the Soap Opera Santa Barbara and then got a call from Designer Garvin Eddy to assist him on The Cosby Show, the number one show at the time. I worked briefly there and then got a job as the Art Director on the Disney hit, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids! From there I went on to design many films and TV shows, including Ashely Judd’s first film Ruby in Paradise and the landmark Sci-Fi series Babylon 5.
I have designed for both Theatre and Film & television. Much of what I have learned or tried to do in one form has influenced the others. We didn’t have a large budget on Babylon 5, so the training I had as a theatre scenic artist I applied to that show and had all the walls painted in a heavy theatrical textured scumble. It gave that show a magnificent look. When I was designing the Broadway production of Peter Pan starring Cathy Rigby (which I won an Emmy for the broadcast for) I needed to create sconce shades made of a stiff rubber because when Peter flies around the set he would accidentally smash the glass fixtures. So, to make it safer, I gave this problem to my prop staff at Babylon 5 and they created a mold and a hard-translucent rubber sconce for the night lights. These are but a few examples of how my working in cross disciplines has benefitted the other one.
I have taught design for stage and screen for the past thirty years in the University of California System. 10 years at UC Riverside and 20 at UC Davis. Many of my students have assisted me and all are working. Many are in the Art Director’s Guild, such as Claire Bennett, who is the Production Designer on Modern Family. I also use recent students from many other programs to assist me on projects once they are out of school.
