Robert Cacioppo
Robert Cacioppo, Florida Rep’s Founder, was honored by the Florida Professional Theatres Association with the Richard G. Fallon Award for Excellence in Professional Theatre for his tenacity, vision, passion, and leadership for his work of creating professional theatre in the state of Florida. Other honors: Gulfshore Business Magazine as one of the Top 40 Influential Leaders; The News-Press’s 125 Influential Local Leaders in the past 125 years” and the recent “130 People of Influence” in Fort Myers; Angel of the Arts Award for Arts Organization Leader of the Year; Men and Women of the Year by Gulfshore Life Magazine, and that same publication has named Florida Rep Southwest Florida’s Best Performing Arts Group six times. Under his leadership, Florida Rep has received seven glowing reviews from The Wall Street Journal since 2009, most recently in January 2015 for Lewis Black’s romantic comedy, One Slight Hitch.
Robert was born and raised in New York City and began his professional career in 1978 with The Passion of Alice at New York City’s famous Greenwich Mews Theatre. He directed extensively in New York City before coming to Florida 28 years ago, and since that time has become a leader in Southwest Florida’s Theatre movement. He became Artistic Director of the Pirate Playhouse in 1990 turning that company, at the time, into the area’s only resident Actors’ Equity Association Company and directing over 60 productions.
Selected Florida Rep directing credits include over 85 productions since founding the company in 1998: Fascinatin’ Gershwin (which he also wrote, conceived, and directed. Performed in Florida Rep’s inaugural season and in January through March of 2015), Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Murder at the Howard Johnson’s, Clybourne Park, Social Security, Miracle on South Division Street, Camping with Henry and Tom (which inaugurated the ArtStage Studio Theatre in 2012), Red, August: Osage County, 2010’s nationally-acclaimed production of You Can’t Take It with You, Boeing–Boeing, The Last Romance, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Rainmaker, Greetings!, Tuesdays with Morrie, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Soldier’s Tale (with Southwest Florida Symphony in 2003), Proof, Company, Over the Tavern, Over the River and Through the Woods, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Breaking Legs, Inherit the Wind, and Noises Off (1998 inaugural production and in 2010). Selected New York credits include: Hamlet at the Judith Anderson Theatre on Theatre Row, Our Town and Hair at Queens Theatre in the Park, and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest at Town Hall. He is a proud member of SDC (Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers).
Robert’s favorite direction is home, where he happily lives in Fort Myers with his wife, actress/producer (and co-founder of Florida Rep), Carrie Lund. They are the proud parents of Matthew and Julia, who appear to be happy, healthy, and wise.
Carrie Lund Cacioppo
Carrie Lund Cacioppo a longtime resident of Southwest Florida, Carrie founded professional theatre on Sanibel Island by opening the Pirate Playhouse in 1984. She received a distinguished citizen award in 1987 and a lifetime achievement award in 1997 from the Sanibel-Captiva Chamber of Commerce, as well as Florida Weekly’s 2011 Best Actress and 2012 Power Women of Lee County.
Carrie also served as a theatre faculty member at Florida Gulf Coast University for three years, taught theatre for Cypress Lake Middle School for the Arts, and directed SOURCE Teen Theatre for Planned Parenthood. After Carrie received a BFA in Acting and Directing from Ithaca College, she initiated services for the visually and hearing impaired that received international attention as Resident Artist at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. She served as Company Manager and acting member at the American Ibsen Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA and Managing Director for the Player’s Circle at LaGuardia College in NYC. Regionally she’s performed with theatres in New York, Vermont, North Carolina, Pennsylvania at Three River Shakespeare Festival, was Narrator for Ellis Island with the Naples Philharmonic and several PBS Untold Stories in Florida.
Her dedication to theatre for young audiences is realized through the many programs she developed and performed over the years: touring children’s theatre throughout New England with the Green Mountain Guild in 1978, 1982, and1983, and the tri-state area from her hometown of Erie, PA with The Company she created in 1977, the 1996-98 Pirate Playhouse Shakespeare Initiative, Co-Chair of the 2000 Lee County Arts for a Complete Education Coalition.
In the past 30 years, Carrie produced and starred in over 100 productions. She’s appeared in all nine of Florida Rep’s nationally acclaimed productions reviews by The Wall Street Journal: The House of Blue Leaves, The Cocktail Hour, One Slight Hitch, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Little Foxes, God of Carnage, Sylvia, You Can’t Take It With You, and Dancing at Lughnasa, as well as the regional premieres of Heart Song, The Last Romance, and Miracle on South Division Street. Other selected Florida Rep credits include: Doublewide, Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End, Becky’s New Car, The Unexpected Guest, Tribes, Clybourne Park, August: Osage County, Other Desert Cities, Enchanted April, Rabbit Hole, To Kill a Mockingbird, Noises Off, The Tale of the Allergists Wife, Rumors, All My Sons, I’m Not Rappaport, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Same Time Next Year, and Private Lives.
Carrie is married to Florida Rep Founder Robert Cacioppo, and proudly produced two independent college graduates: her son, Matthew, and daughter, Julia.
