Who We Are
We are artists, actors, musicians, storytellers, who have lived through addiction, and are still living the ongoing process of recovery.
Act 4 Recovery was born from that experience, not as a theory, but as a lived truth. We’ve discovered that the same tools used in acting—honesty, presence, vulnerability, connection—are the very tools that help us rebuild our lives.
This is not about pretending.
This is about telling the truth.
Through the creative process, we access something deeper than ourselves. A shared human experience, a collective consciousness where stories connect us instead of isolate us. On stage and in life, we learn to face what’s real, to speak what’s been buried, and to stand in it without running.
We take the moments we once wanted to forget, the shame, the fear, the darkness and we transform them. Not by erasing them, but by giving them meaning, purpose, and voice.
This is where identity is reclaimed.
This is where power returns.
This is where a new story begins.
We believe recovery is not just about getting sober.
It’s about becoming whole.
And through the courage to be seen, heard, and fully present we create something new.
Join us. Step into the work. Tell the truth. Reclaim your story.
This is Act 4 Recovery. This is the movement.
Our Founder
Program Builder and Trailblazer
Throughout his career, John has personally taught more than 15,000 students and developed programs that have reached over 100,000 individuals. His students have gone on to attend leading musical theatre programs and pursue professional careers as performers, writers, directors, and educators. He is the founder of Lighthouse Youth Theatre & Education, a nonprofit that became a benchmark for youth theatre in the region, and the creator of Standing Ovation Studios, a state-of-the-art performing arts facility built to support artists at every stage of their development.
From 2022 to 2024, John served as Artistic Director for Building Kidz Worldwide, a national and international preschool education organization with more than 70 schools. In this role, he wrote and deployed a comprehensive musical theatre curriculum across the entire network, created a national teacher training system, and led the expansion of performing arts programming across multiple regions—bringing high-quality arts education to thousands of young students nationwide.
John has also held leadership roles with the Westchester Broadway Theatre, where he created the Young Artists program and co-founded The Family Theatre Company, directing and producing sold-out productions including In The Heights, Ragtime, and Peter Pan.
He began his professional career in San Diego as Associate Artistic Director of the Metropolitan Educational Theatre Network under internationally recognized director Alex H. Urban, providing programs across the state of California and helping to launch the Auckland Musical Children’s Theatre in New Zealand.
John holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts from the University of California, San Diego.
Today, his work sits at the intersection of art and recovery—helping individuals move beyond shame, reconnect with their identity, and transform their most difficult experiences into something meaningful.
For John, recovery is not just about getting sober. It’s about having the courage to tell the truth and reclaiming your identity.
John J. Fanelli – Founder, Act 4 Recovery
John is an Artistic Director, educator, and program builder with more than two decades of experience using the performing arts to transform lives. He is also a person in long-term recovery—an experience that now stands at the center of his work, purpose, and voice.
After years of building award-winning arts programs and training thousands of young performers, John found himself facing the same truth many of his students had explored on stage: the need for honesty, vulnerability, and real change. Through his own recovery journey, he discovered that the tools of acting—truth telling, presence, connection, and emotional courage—were not just artistic techniques, but essential tools for rebuilding a life.
This realization became the foundation for Act 4 Recovery, a movement that uses the creative process as a pathway to healing, identity, and transformation.
John has brought this work directly into recovery settings, most notably through his ongoing collaboration with St. Vincent’s Hospital Outpatient Program, where over the past year he has led multiple 12-week Act 4 Recovery workshop programs. Through these workshops, clients engage in acting exercises, storytelling, and ensemble work, culminating in fully realized musical performances. These productions have received rave reviews from both clinical staff and participants, demonstrating the powerful impact of creative expression in the recovery process.
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