John Farrell

John is currently the Director of Production for New York City Opera. Since starting this position in 2015, he has been responsible for all aspects of the physical production of the company, and he has served as the resident Scenic Designer. During this time, he has designed more than 10 productions for the company.

Also in New York, John was the Resident Designer for Dicapo Opera where he created over ninety productions from 1992-2013. At Radio City Music Hall, he was the Scenic Supervisor for the Spring Spectacular Easter show for two years and the Christmas Spectacular show for one. He served as Scenic Supervisor for Radio City Christmas Spectacular shows in Chicago and Detroit, and as the Associate Designer for the Los Angeles show.

Mr. Farrell was the exclusive Set and Illusion Designer for the magician Criss Angel from 1993-2015. During that time, he designed three television specials (’MindFreak’ for ABC Family, ‘SuperNatural’ for  Syfy, and ‘Mr. Marick vs. Criss Angel’ for Tokyo Broadcasting), as well as nearly 100 episodes of ‘Mindfreak’ for A&E over the course of six seasons. ‘MindFreak’ was also an off-Broadway production in New York that ran for over a year with nearly 600 performances. John was the Director of Illusions for ‘Criss Angel Believe,’ produced by Cirque du Soleil at the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, which ran for seven and a half years, followed by ‘Criss Angel Mindfreak Live’ for three years before moving to Planet Hollywood. For Criss, John was also Production Manager for four years during which he oversaw his live show in Las Vegas, two live touring productions, and a TV series concurrently.

Other television credits include Supervising Art director for ‘America’s Got Talent’ seasons 7-10, the final season of ‘Gossip Girl,’ ‘For What It’s Worth’ for VH1 Classics, Toys”R”Us (commercial), ‘The Dream Team 1996’ Olympics Special for NBC, the 1994 and 1995 Tony Awards, HBO’s ‘Earthly Possessions,’ and for MTV, ‘Get Late with Kennedy’ and ‘Squirt TV.’

Internationally, John was the Scenic Designer for Turandot in Hong Kong, a co-production of Opera Hong Kong and New York City Opera; Emmeline and The Crucible for the National Theatre of Szeged with Mezzo Television; and in Mexico City, he has designed three productions for Morris Gilbert: Fiddler on the Roof, Sweet Charity, and Besame Mucho. He has designed regionally in the U.S. for such theaters as The Walnut Street Theatre (16 years) and Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera in Pennsylvania; Theatre Under the Stars and The Fifth Avenue Theatre in Washington; Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and Sarasota Opera in Florida; Chautauqua Opera in New York; and Maine State Music Theatre. John has designed touring productions with TheatreWorksUSA, Eric Krebbs, Jeffrey Finn, Troika, and National Lyric Opera.