Blake Walton

An award-winning actor, director, playwright, and teacher, Blake studied Bill Esper, Phil Gushee, and had a rare opportunity to work with Sandy Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse School in NYC. In New York he played Mark in the original, now historic, production of Doric Wilson’s The West Street Gang and a dozen other original productions Off Broadway (Ham, Rain Kisses, Young Bankers In Love, The Wooden Whistle, Family Comes First). His first play Eb & Flo (co-written with Amy Whitman) was produced at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia. Other plays include Out of My Mind (one act and full length versions), The Better Man, The Caregiver, Heard There Was a Party...Came (co-written with Ann Morrison) as well as the short plays Going Up, Like Father Like Sun, and Bad Reception. He traveled throughout FL, GA, AL, SC, and NC with FST’s first “Write-A-Play” Workshop for middle and high schools, introducing play writing to nearly 20,000 students culminating in the Edward Albee Young Playwrights Festival. Blake helped develop the original Players Performing Arts School housed on Main Street in Sarasota and became the Director of Acting and Musical Theater. He created a curriculum for acting students aged 5-80 years, encouraged other artists to teach and present workshops, taught acting and playwriting for teens and adults, and developed a summer musical theater camp for teens at the Players Theater. His workshop “That’s My Story And I’m Sticking To It”, encourages others to write solo plays based on life stories. He wrote and performed his first solo play Leading Men (2013 United Solo Festival Award “Best Premiere”) after performing Ann Morrison’s Trevor’s Fire (2012 United Solo Festival Award “Best Premiere”) in the United Solo Festival in NYC. Directing credits include many large musicals (42nd Street, Big River, Singin' In The Rain) and plays, including his play The Better Man (Chain Fest NY, Awards: "Best Ensemble" "Best Supporting Actress", Noms: "Best Play", "Best Director"); His play Out Of My Mind and a concert of Huck Walton's musical The Charm (the Theater Building, Chicago), many solo plays including: Ann Morrison in Linda Lovely Goes to Broadway and Word Painting; Heather Massie in Hedy! The Life and Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, Katherine Michele Tanner in Mann's Last Dance, and Sharon Ohrenstein in Rhapsody For Golda. In Sarasota as an actor he has appeared at FST in The Sum of Us and Veronica's Position; Theater Works in I Do, I Do! (Sarasota Magazine Award Best Actor/Musical, HANDY Nom) and as Bette Davis in Me and Jezebel (SAMMY Award Best Actor); The Golden Apple in Oklahoma!, Stop The World..., Forum, Funny Money, Wonderful Life! the musical, Don't Dress For Dinner, and Anything Goes; The Players (as a Guest Artist) in Rags (HANDY Nom), Anything Goes (SAMMY Nom), City of Angels, and Into The Woods (Sarasota Magazine Nom); and at Tampa Bay theaters, American Stage, Central Stage and the Gorilla Theater. His film credits include the featurette Rex, and shorts, 89 Likes, The Gulf Stream, A Movie With Bad Guys, Tommy's Idea of Bliss, The Depths of Love, Run, To Die For, A Brother's Keeper, The Secret, Never Have I Ever, Quietus, Two Sisters, and Apocolypse Mambo.