Joe John Battista is an Off-Broadway director, producer, Artistic Director, and founder of Screaming Mimes Theater Company.  He was Artistic Director of the 13^th Street Repertory Theatre until the death of its founder Edith O’Hara.  He is also a fashion photographer and worked with such modeling agencies as Ford, Elite, Legends, Zoli, and Wilhelmina shaping the careers of many through his art.  As a musician, he has been the lead guitarist for the bands Razor Engine and Electric Landlady, as well as appearing and playing blues in the movie Lone Star starring Matt De Rogotis.  Battista was the production consultant/designer for DRESS OF FIRE with Austin Pendleton. 

Joe John Battista grew up in New Jersey.  His dad was the most tenured driver/seller of Coca Cola in the company’s history.  Showing an early passion for music, photography, and theater, his mother drove him back and forth to auditions and rehearsals in New York City.  Ås he grew older, after working with his father during the day, in the evening he continued his studies in New York at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and New York Institute of Photography.  “I see people as planets in a universe,” said Battista who made his first money taking head shots of his classmates.  Soon he was photographing models for high end fashion agencies, and his gift for revealing the true nature of his subject led him to realize that his true calling was to help people to become their better selves, either through photography or directing.  Producing his own show at the age of 20, IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT, YOU CAN LEAVE, gave him immense experience and technical knowledge.  His skill at reshaping a play brought him recognition at the 13^th Street Repertory Theatre where he was entrusted with its future as Artistic Director in 2015.  Many of the plays done there include: GREY STREET: THE ROCK OPERA (2013), INERTIA IN MOTION (2015), BEAUTY KNOWS NO PIAN (2015), BED BUGS AND BEYOND (2015), A LIFE IN THE RYE (2019), THE MILKMAN’S SISTER (2015), BLACK PANTHER WOMEN (2016), RETURN TO LA LA LAND (2017), BEFORE WE’RE GONE (2018), WOMEN BEHIND BARS (2019), HELP A HANDICAPPED GOD TROT ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (2020), LARRY AND LUCY (2022), THE UNAMERICAN (2022).