Who We Are

An award-winning actor, director, playwright, and teacher, Blake studied with Sanford Meisner and William Esper 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. His first play Eb & Flo (co-written with Amy Whitman) was produced at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia. He traveled throughout FL, GA, AL, SC, and NC with FST’s first “Write-A-Play” Workshop introducing play writing to nearly 20,000 middle and high school 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 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 and plays including: his play The Better Man (Chain Fest NY, Awards: "Best Ensemble" "Best Supporting Actress", Noms: "Best Play", "Best Director"); 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. Locally as an actor he has appeared at FST, Theater Works Sarasota, The Golden Apple, The Players (as a Guest Artist) and Tampa Bay at American Stage, Central Stage and the Gorilla Theater. He has been honored with the SAMMY for Best Actor, Sarasota Magazine Best Actor /Musical, several HANDY Nominations, and 2 Best Premiere Awards from the United Solo Festival in New York.

Maren is a Sarasota native and during her high school years she was a part of the Booker High Visual Performing Arts program, as well as a member of the Sarasota Youth Opera, which she continued to support as a member of their educational staff when she was in college. She was a dwarf in The Hobbit and a choir boy in Tosca, as well as a number of other productions. Maren has participated in a number of productions of Shakespeare, in which she had the honor of playing Richard III in Henry VI Part 3 and Volumnia in Coriolanus. Last year she was a part of the 2018 Tampa International Fringe Festival as Macbeth in Weyward Sisters which won Best in Fringe as well as Tech’s Choice Award. Maren went to school for English and Theatre at Warren Wilson College where she worked both in the theater office and backstage in multiple forms for a dozen productions over two years, including as Stage Manager for The Importance of Being Earnest. This past year she was the Operations Assistant and Assistant Stage Manager for the 2018 SaraSolo Festival.

Jan has been a resident of Sarasota for 45 years having a stellar career in finance and human resources, most recently with the City of Sarasota. She brings many years of expertise in Board Work for nonprofit organizations, including serving on the Board of the Directors of Key Chorale for 14 years. While there she contributed in many areas, including development, event planning, marketing, and community outreach. She has had a lifelong love of the arts and has been involved in community theater productions on stage and/or backstage in Sarasota, Bradenton, Venice, Anna Maria Island and local dinner theaters. Some of her favorite roles are Golde in Fiddler on the Roof and Jenny Lind in Barnum. She was a soprano section leader and sings in the choir at St. Boniface Church. Jan is also a participant in the SaraSolo pilot education program SOLOSYNERGY.