Photo Credits

Mark Cipra is an actor, director, theater administrator, educator, and the principal of Cypher Productions, which creates and manages entertainment events and productions, and provides educational services.

Classically trained (Circle-in-the-Square Theatre School) and classically educated (Yale University, BA, Drama), Cipra has acted and directed at many theaters in Cleveland and New York, in works spanning the breadth of theatrical forms from classical to experimental, and genres from farce to tragedy.

Among his most recent projects:

  • Known to passers-by in downtown Cleveland as Mayor Tom Johnson, a role he performs regularly for the Historic Gateway Neighborhood Association, among others.
  • Directing Spamalot at Geauga Lyric Theater Guild and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) at Rabbit Run Theater.
  • The one-man Mystery of Charles Dickens, in which he portrayed over 50 characters from the life and works of Dickens. The Rabbit Run Theater production was the first, worldwide, since Simon Callow performed the show (written for Callow by Peter Ackroyd) in London and New York.
  • Voiced the leading character Girard Lambert (and others) in the role-playing game Rathunas (a player-developed mod to The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion).

He has been celebrated in dozens of classical roles, including King Lear, Henry IV, Julius Caesar, Claudius (Hamlet), Capulet (Romeo and Juliet), Lovewit (Jonson's The Alchemist) and Everyman. 

Modern roles include Willy Loman (Death of a Salesman), Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird), Henry Drummond (Inherit the Wind), Ebenezer Scrooge (Scrooge! The Musical), Pap Finn (Big River), Captain Hook (Peter Pan), and many more.

His directing credits include musicals, dramas and comedies.

(See Resumes and Reviews for more details.)

He has also had another career in information systems and project management, drawing on an MBA from Case Western Reserve University, and has worked in commercial businesses, government service, and both paid and volunteer positions in not-for-profit businesses (primarily theaters).

Involved in education throughout his career(s), he has taught acting, writing, and information systems at Lake Erie College, Case Western Reserve, Cleveland State, and Myers Universities, and elsewhere, and has appeared as a Guest Artist at several local universities.