J Ranelli
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J Ranelli, of Old Lyme, stage director, writer, translator and educator died peacefully
on November 29, 2019, at Yale New Haven Hospital after a brief illness.
Born in 1938, at the home of his grandparents, in New Haven, CT, the eldest son of Joseph and Dora (Pagnotti) Ranelli, he grew up in Old Saybrook. A graduate of the University of Rochester and Wesleyan University and a veteran of the United Stares Air Force (Strategic Air Command), he began his writing career as a reporter for the Hartford Courant but quickly changed course after graduate school to writing and directing for the stage. He was a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and the Directors Guild of America and most proudly, the Billy Mitchell Irregulars. In his long career, he was committed to the development of new plays and playwrights. J was a founding member of the Tony Award-winning Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, where he served as a director for the National Playwrights Conference and on the Center's board of trustees and executive committee. At the O'Neill Center he also created and developed the experimental undergraduate program (The National Theater Institute) and the annual Eugene O'Neill Celebration of the playwright's work and creative spirit. He contributed to the development of the National Theatre of the Deaf (NTD). His production of Under Milk Wood for NTD was hailed by critics on Broadway and at international festivals in Europe. His television credits include Law & Order, and work at PBS. His plays have been performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and regional theater venues. His productions included plays at the Actor's Studio, The New Dramatists, The Manhattan Theater Club, The Roundabout Theater, The American Place, Long Wharf, Hartford Stage, The Goodspeed and many others across the country and internationally. As an educator he served on the faculties of Wesleyan, Stanford, Pomona, the University of Rhode Island (chair), Juilliard, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, Manhattanville and Connecticut College and, as a guest artist at several other institutions. He taught, coached and consulted privately in New York, Los Angeles and Paris working primarily with feature film actors in preparation for production. He is survived by his children Gabriella Ranelli de Aguirre and her husband Aitor of San Sebastian, Spain; Damian J Ranelli of Westbrook; Gian Matthew Ranelli and his wife Kendra of New Haven and Valinn Ranelli of Old Lyme; his partner Nancy Foy of Los Angeles and five grandchildren, Allegra, Natalie, Thea, Aidan and Juliette Ranelli. He is also survived by siblings Philip Ranelli and wife Betsy of Old Saybrook; Anne Miller and husband John of Hamden; Paul Ranelli and wife Carla of Duluth, Minnesota and special cousins Angela Bosnak of Ivoryton and John Ranelli of Niantic.
Funeral arrangements are private.