Patrick Cuccaro
Patrick Cuccaro is an Associate Member of Working Title Playwrights in Atlanta, Georgia, and a member of The Dramatists Guild of America. His plays have been successfully produced throughout Atlanta and the surrounding area. As past Playwright in Residence for Theatre Decatur, audiences saw two of his newest works produced.
In 1978 his show at Showcase Cabaret – Something for Everyone – received the Atlanta Circle of Drama Critics’ highest honor – Best Production. He was also cited that year as Best Director and Best Choreographer by the now-defunct group of theatre critics comprised of the Atlanta Journal/Constitution, Creative Loafing and other publications.
Patrick has been a guest director at such well-known regional theatres as the Caldwell Playhouse in Boca Raton, Florida; the Harlequin in Washington, D.C, and Atlanta; and the Highlands Playhouse in Highlands, N.C. While at the Caldwell Playhouse, his work was nominated for 5 Carbonell Awards, including Best Director for his production of The Hasty Heart, which also won the Carbonell for Best Production. The Carbonell Awards are among the nation’s senior regional arts awards.
His production of Big Hair, one of Atlanta’s longest-running shows, played to standing room only crowds for over 350 continuous performances at the popular cabaret Upstairs (1991.) In 2003, it played again to critical acclaim at Canton Theatre in Canton, Georgia, and Libby’s in Atlanta.
Patrick was the creator, creative director and co-owner of Showcase Cabaret in Ansley Mall. That theatre produced the premiere productions of some of Atlanta’s most talked about shows including Della’s Diner, Something for Everyone, Tan Shoes and Pink Shoelaces and Scarlett Fever, a musical satire of Gone With the Wind, which garnered national attention. The Margaret Mitchell estate forced the closure of the popular show, after which it was rewritten to the satisfaction of the estate and renamed Typhoid Fever, playing to sold out houses for an extended run.
His theatre was committed to developing new audiences by hiring Atlanta’s best emerging talent – writers and actors, in particular. Some of those artists created or enhanced lifelong fan bases at Showcase Cabaret, including Libby Whittemore, Tom Edwards, Bernardine Mitchell, Megan McFarland, Robert Ray and Victoria Tabaka. Today those same artists delight audiences locally, regionally and nationally.
Recent projects include An Imperfect Order, a portrait of a gay man and his obsessive-compulsive father coming to terms with each other, and The Third Howl, the holiday musical that appeared on Theatre Decatur’s main stage. He is currently writing a one-man musical comedy about culture in Muskogee, Oklahoma.