|
|
Robert Cucuzza, originally from Bradford, PA, is a 1990 graduate of Carnegie Mellon University where, after voluntarily transferring from the Acting Program in the Department of Drama to the English Department, he received a BFA in Literary and Cultural Studies. He was the recipient of a 1990 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for an independent study of theater in Europe. While basing himself in Paris, he traveled extensively in Europe for ten months seeing over 100 productions from all over the world and taking numerous workshops and classes with such theater directors as Peter Stein, Ludwik Flaszen, Monika Pagneux, and Philippe Gaulier. In 1992 he traveled to Costa Rica to work with the theater company Abya Yala, his stay culminating in a multimedia production of Peter Handke's Prophecy, which was presented as part of the 1992 International Festival of the Arts in San Jose, Costa Rica. In April of 1992 Cucuzza moved to New York City where he interned with The Wooster Group and subsequently, Richard Foreman's Ontological-Hysteric Theater. In 1993 he directed his first play, Love Clump, as part of the first Blueprint Series at the Ontological Theater, a festival for emerging directors, which later went on to win a Village Voice Obie Award. Love Clump was selected the following year to open the 1994 American Living Room Series at HERE and was also presented in Bradford, PA in conjunction with a week of workshops conducted at area high schools and the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. In 1993 Cucuzza founded Hangdog Theater and was made an artist-in-residence at the Ontological Theater where, over six years, he directed numerous original productions, including I Hate Women, Man Oh Man Ray, Parlour Problems, Be Emphatic!, Rich White Farmers, The Sticky Banister, and Speed Freaks, in which he also played a lead role. Other directing credits at the Ontological include Unconscious Motives of the Motion Picture Industry: Part I, a stage production of the first fifty pages of a previously unproduced, unpublished screenplay by Richard Foreman and Mean Rich White Ladies, an adaptation of Clare Boothe Luce's classic comedy "The Women." After an eight-year hiatus, Cucuzza has returned to the stage as a playwright/director with Confidence, Women!, a new play currently running in New York. As a actor, Cucuzza appeared in Richard Foreman's Panic! (How to be Happy!)at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, as well as at the Vienna Festival and the Zurich Theater Festival. Previously with Mr. Foreman, he has appeared in My Head Was a Sledgehammer and Permanent Brain Damage, which was also presented in Laurie Anderson's Meltdown Festival in London. He performed with Elevator Repair Service in the world premiere of Total Fictional Lie in the Berlin Festival, in New York at P.S. 122, and on a five-city U.S. tour, as well as the U.S. tour of their Bessie award-winning production, Room Tone. In addition, he played the title role in Axis Company's Listen Houdini, and has performed in dance theater works by David Neumann (Adirondack) at P.S.122 and Big Dance Theater (Plan B). He can currently be seen as Tom Buchanan in the world tour of Elevator Repair Service's Gatz — a complete staging of the entire text of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. On film, Cucuzza played the role of Dr. Emil Flechsig opposite Tony-award winner Jefferson Mays in the feature film Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, directed by Julian Hobbs, as well as the role of Martin DeNova in Tiger: His Fall and Rise, directed by Reid Rosefelt, starring Thomas Jay Ryan and Adrienne Shelley. He recently played a featured role in the upcoming feature film Charlie and played the lead in the short The Strange Case of Marie France. His feature-length film, Speed Freaks, an adaptation of his stage play, was shot on digital video and is currently in post-production. Cucuzza is the Founder and Director of ACME Acting Lab, a revolutionary new acting studio in New York City. |
|
