artistic director

After graduating from the University of Massachusetts Lowell with a degree in Music Education, Culture*Park Artistic Director, Patricia A. Thomas, entered the Trinity Repertory Conservatory in Providence Rhode Island to pursue a career as a theatre artist. Upon graduation from the Trinity Rep Conservatory, Patricia was awarded the Kaplan Memorial Acting Fellowship and invited to join the Trinity Rep Acting Company. She appeared in numerous main stage productions over several years as a company member. While at Trinity, she taught voice and speech in the Trinity Rep Conservatory. In Providence, Patricia appeared in productions at Perishable Theatre, of which she was a founding company member. She was Musical Theatre Director with the All Children's Theatre Ensemble of Providence. Patricia has worked regionally and internationally as a director, teacher, actor, and performer - including time spent in Switzerland, Japan, and Moscow, Russia, where for two years she lived and worked teaching music and directing plays and musicals with young people and adults. Patricia later moved to Boston where, in addition to performing and directing, she co-created original plays with teens and young adults, including Love and Mosquitoes at the Theatre Offensive, and Island of the Beholder at the Boston Center for the Arts. In Boston, she worked as a teacher, director or performer with City Stage, The Theater Offensive, Boston Center for the Arts, Coyote Theater, Theatrics! At Hasty Pudding, and Emerson College. She was Director of Emerson College Boston Summer Stage from 1999-2003. Patricia resides in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where she is Artistic Director of Culture*Park Theatre and Performing Arts Collaborative, and part-time visiting lecturer in theatre at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.