He was Director at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago from 1988 until 2005. Recent work as a Director includes HBO's Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, Big Love, Hung, and True Blood as well as Marco Polo, Jessica Jones and numerous other projects for Netflix. Other recent projects include The Alienist and Warrior. He worked as an executive Producer on Those Who Kill, ABC series Eli Stone and the Lifetime series Drop Dead Diva.
In 1996, Petrarca was chosen by the Chicago Tribune as a "Chicagoan of the Year".
In 2006, he completed filming Save the Last Dance 2 for Paramount Pictures. As of mid-2014, he was working on the screenplay of Wendy MacLeod's Schoolgirl Figure, and a film adaptation of David Lindsay-Abaire's Fuddy Meers.
