BIOGRAPHY & COMMENTS

John de Lancie is a consummate actor whose wide-ranging career encompasses stage, film, and television.  Also a versatile writer, director and producer, Mr. de Lancie segues ingeniously into the classical music world as opera stage director, narrator, and creative producer.

Recently delving into opera direction, Mr. de Lancie brings a fresh perspective to this art form with a proven acting and directing foundation and a personal interest in acting for singers.  He has directed Tosca for The Atlanta Opera, La Cenerentola for Sacramento Opera and The Abduction from the Seraglio for the St. Paul’s Chamber Orchestra.  His recent return to The Atlanta Opera for a production of Cold Sassy Tree in February of 2008 was hailed as “an evening of effective theater” by Pierre Ruhe of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Mr. de Lancie has performed with renowned conductors and major orchestras including: the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Kurt Masur and Sir Colin Davis; Esa Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Charles Dutoit and the Philadelphia Orchestra and The Montreal Symphony.  His narration repertoire includes: "Peer Gynt,” "King David,” "The Bourgeois Gentleman,” "The Lincoln Portrait,” "St. Joan,” “Midsummer Night's Dream,” "Oedipus Rex,” "The Young People's Guide to the Orchestra,” “The Soldier’s Tale,” “The Nightingale” and, of course, "Peter and the Wolf."

Mr. de Lancie was the host of the Los Angeles Philharmonic "Symphonies for Youth" for four years where he helped conceptualize student concerts: “Don’t Educate – Stimulate.”  In addition, he has written and directed ten Symphonic Plays.  These ninety-minute programs are fully staged productions with orchestra.  Titles include:  “Romeo and Juliet,” “Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Korngold score), “Bourgeois Gentleman” and “The Abduction from the Seraglio.”  They were produced with the Milwaukee Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Ravinia Festival Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Pasadena Symphony.

Mr. de Lancie was also the writer/director/host of "First Nights,” an adult concert series at Disney Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic that explored the life and music of Stravinsky, Beethoven, Mahler, Schumann, and Prokofiev. These were fully staged, integrated productions.

Mr. de Lancie has performed and directed for L.A. Theater Works, the producing arm of KCRW-FM, as well as  National Public Radio, where the series, "The Play’s the Thing,” originates.  He recently returned from a national tour of the “Scopes Monkey Trial.”

His film credits include: soon-to-be-released “Empty City” with Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler, “The Hand that Rocks the Cradle,” “The Fisher King,” “Bad Influence,” “The Onion Field,” “Taking Care of Business,” “Fearless,” “Multiplicity,” "Woman on Top,” "Nicholas,” "Good Advice,” “Patient 14,” “The Big Time,” and “Teenius”.

Mr. de Lancie has appeared in numerous television shows including: “Hill Street Blues,” "West Wing,” "Sports Night,” “Judging Amy,” "The Closer,” “Star Trek,” “Legend,” “LA Law,” “Picket Fences,” “Civil Wars,” “The Practice,” and “Touched by an Angel.”

He has been a member of The American Shakespeare Festival, The Seattle Repertory Company, The South Coast Repertory, The Mark Taper Forum and the Old Globe where he recently performed Arthur Miller’s “Resurrection Blues.”  His favorite plays include: “Man and Superman,” “The Common Pursuit,” “Childe Byron,” “Art” and the recent world premiere of Richard Greenburg’s “The Naked Lady on the Appian Way.”

With Leonard Nimoy, Mr. de Lancie was co-owner of Alien Voices; a production company devoted to the dramatization of classic science fiction.  Mr. de Lancie produced, co-wrote and directed dramatizations of: “The Time Machine,” “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” “The Lost World,” “The Invisible Man,” and "First Men in the Moon,” as well as three television specials for the Sci-Fi Channel.

Mr. de Lancie is a graduate of Kent State University and The Juilliard School.