About | Joseph Napolitano

Joseph Napolitano is an educator and designer for the stage and built environment. Based in New York City, his extensive portfolio encompasses live performance and architecture. His collaborators range from regional artists and institutions to global organizations like Google, Netflix and NBC. Outside of his work in the live theater industry, he serves as a creative director for multimillion-dollar entertainment, thematic and experience design projects.

Joseph maintains a practice of symbiotic academic and professional work, developing innovative, human-centered pedagogy for contemporary students. He teaches design as full time faculty, and is engaged in the independent research of sustainable design methodology, and deep convolutional neural networks.

His work with the Broadway League & ad hoc committee the Broadway Green Alliance spans multiple initiatives including the Bway Bike Program in Time Square, creative reuse/recycling programming on Broadway, and sustainable approaches to physical production in live theater and film.

PRESS:

"Joseph Napolitano’s elegant set augments the remaining look and feel of the production, providing an expensively produced “feel” to the play. Kudos."

- JK Clarke, Theatre Pizzaz (The Rape of Lucrece)

"Joseph Napolitano’s set provides a sense of dread to capture the imagination. The wall pieces—blue-grey, crumbling gothic, suggesting a historic city going to rot—hang from the ceiling. They are rearranged for each of the plays and provide a single aesthetic for all three."

- Julius Ferraro, Phindie (You Know My Name)

"Joseph Napolitano’s set design works well. The overall “feel” of the production works, making the technical aspects seem non-existent, like they should. We are never directly aware of these elements, which means that their job was done with skill. Every good piece of theater requires masterful production values that don’t draw too much attention to themselves, but let the actors shine. We know they’re present, but only when we consciously think about it."

- Nicholas Linnehan, Theater That Matters (Manuscript)