Mark Cuddy

Interim Artistic & Managing Director - Send Message

Mark Cuddy joined Cleveland Play House as Interim Artistic Director in July 2022. He served as Artistic Director of Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, NY for 27 years. He led Geva through a renaissance of artistic and institutional growth with a diverse repertory, topflight artists, wide-reaching educational programs and a commitment to new play development. Mr. Cuddy is a founding member of the Board of Directors for the Rochester Fringe Festival that just concluded its fourth year, and served on the Board of Directors of the only national service organization for non-profit theatres, Theatre Communications Group. As a director, Mr. Cuddy is known for his productions of musicals, contemporary comedies and premieres. He also directed the CPH/Geva co-production of Clybourne Park. His Geva productions include Once, The Humans, Ring of Fire, Good People, To Kill a Mockingbird, You Can't Take it With You, Superior Donuts, A Midsummer Night’s Dream co-directed with Skip Greer, and Company, as well as his adaptation of A Christmas Carol with music and lyrics by Gregg Coffin. Among his many other Geva credits are The Music Man, Sweeney Todd, Fences, Five Course Love, A Christmas Story, and Pride and Prejudice (co-adaptor), and the world premieres of Convenience (musical) by Gregg Coffin, Theophilus North by Matthew Burnett from Thornton Wilder (also at Arena Stage), Splitting Infinity by Jamie Pachino, Famous Orpheus by Oyamo (choreography by Garth Fagan), House and Garden by Alan Ayckbourn (East Coast premiere), and That Was Then (American premiere). Mr. Cuddy has also served as Artistic Director of Sacramento Theatre Company, Producing Director of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival and on the directing staff of the Denver Center Theatre Company. He has served on the review panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts. He received his B.A. in Theatre/Honors from the University of Massachusetts where he was a Commonwealth Scholar.