Actor. Director. Teacher.
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: THE PORTERS OF HELLSGATE THEATRE COMPANY
CURRENTLY: Algernon Moncrieff in The Importance of Being Earnest, Barnardo in Hamlet, and Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie with Santa Cruz Shakespeare
UPCOMING: Hal in Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 with the Porters of Hellsgate and Hamlet in Hamlet with Ensemble Theatre Co, Santa Barbara.
Previous Roles include Romeo, Iago, Richard II, Posthumus, The Wooer, Ferdinand, Henry VI, Hally in Master Harold…and the boys, Macqueen in Murder on the Orient Express.
Regional Creds: Santa Cruz Shakespeare, Ensemble Theatre Co, A Noise Within, McCoy/Rigby Entertainment, Kingsmen Shakespeare Company, Sacramento Theatre Company, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Digital Work: Santa Cruz Shakespeare, The Show Must Go Online, Method and Madness, Coachella Valley Rep, &the R/18 Collective.
Film work: includes lead roles in the Buzzfeed original series Fix, Nick McDow Musleh’s Love’s Labour’s Lost, the award winning short film The Other Wayne, & Anagram Films freshman feature For the Night opposite Odessa A’zion and Aaron Holliday.
TV: Two whole words on the Season 6 Premiere of This is Us.
NEWS!
The Importance of Being Earnest Promo!
SUMMER IN SANTA CRUZ.
Will is playing Algernon Moncrieff in The Importance of Being Earnest, Barnardo in Hamlet, and Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie for Santa Cruz Shakespeare.
Undiscovered Shakespeare:
henry VIII
Will is directing Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s Undiscovered Shakespeare: Henry VIII reading.
The reading will be broadcast in three parts on February 21st, 28th, and March 6th.
Click the image below to register!
All’s Well that ends well rUNNING NOW-12/3
All Photos by Jesse Saler
All is True, or Henry VIII takes home StageRaw Award!
Many thanks to Steven Leigh Morris for his exceptionally kind words about my production of Shakespeare and Fletcher’s All is True, or Henry VIII, for remembering us in his year end roundup, and for honoring us with the reopening awards!
All’s Well that Ends Well
Chuffed to be joining the company of “All’s Well that Ends Well” at A Noise Within in Pasadena, CA. Directed by the indomitable Nike Doukas, opening February 6th and running through March 6th.
The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberly
Thrilled to be spending the winter as “Brian” in Ensemble Theatre Co’s production of “The Wickhams,” directed by the wonderful Michael Butler. First performance is December 2nd, and the show runs through the 19th.
Antonio Hernandez, William Monnot, and Viva Corless in Macbeth. photo by Charr Crail
MACBETH
Had the great privilege of directing Shakespeare’s Macbeth for the NorCal School of the Arts, with just the best group of teens. Keep your eye on this lot…they’re going places.
Resume.
Theatre.
Title.
HAMLET (upcoming)
HENRY IV, Parts 1 and 2 (upcoming)
THE GLASS MENAGERIE
HAMLET
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
THE THANKSGIVING PLAY
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
THE WICKHAMS
ROMEO AND JULIET
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (TWICE)
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS
CYMBELINE
TWO NOBLE KINSMEN
THE TEMPEST
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
RICHARD II
PERICLES
OTHELLO
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
GAMERS (WORLD PREMIERE)
DOUBLE FALSEHOOD
MASTER HAROLD…AND THE BOYS
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
TREASURE ISLAND
Role.
Hamlet
Hal
Tom
Barnardo
Algernon
Caden
First Soldier
Brian
Romeo
Young Scrooge
Macqueen
Posthumus
The Wooer
Ferdinand
Flute
Richard II
Lysimachus
Iago
Oberon
@Blaze22
Julio
Hally
Puck
Jim Hawkins
Theater.
Ensemble Theatre Co
The Porters of Hellsgate
Santa Cruz Shakespeare
Santa Cruz Shakespeare
Santa Cruz Shakespeare
Ensemble Theatre Co
A Noise Within
Ensemble Theatre Co
Porters of Hellsgate
Sacramento Theater Co.
McCoy/Rigby
Porters of Hellsgate
Kingsmen Shakespeare
Porters of Hellsgate
Disney Hall/LA Phil
Method and Madness
Porters of Hellsgate
UCLA
UCLA
UCLA/Hollywood Fringe
UCLA
Sacramento Theatre Co
Sac Shakespeare Festival
Sacramento Theatre Co
Director.
Margaret Starbuck
Margaret Starbuck
Charles Pasternak
Susan Dalian
Paul Mullins
Brian McDonald
Nike Doukas
Michael Butler
Gus Krieger
Michael Laun/Jenkinson
Sheldon Epps
Charles Pasternak
Elizabeth Swain
Alex Parker
Nancy Meckler
Margaret Starbuck
Charles Pasternak
Margaret Starbuck
Joe Olivieri
Jeff Maynard
Paul Wagar
Buddy Butler
David Harris
Peggy Shannon
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Immersive.
Title. Role. Production Co/Director.
STRANGER THINGS. Dustin SECRET CINEMA/Matt Costain
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Film.
Title. Role. Production Co/Director.
THE OTHER WAYNE* STARRING NICKEL PRODUCTIONS/John Paul Nickel
FOR THE NIGHT STARRING ANAGRAM FILMS/James Henderson
LOVE’S LABOURS LOST STARRING THEATRE WEST/Nick McDow Musleh
*WON: BEST ACTOR AZURE LORCA FILM FESTIVAL
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Television.
Role./Studio./Director
Title.
CO-STAR/NBC/KEN OLIN
THIS IS US
WEB SERIES.
Title. Role. Production Co/Director.
FIX: ANGER ISSUES STARRING BUZZFEED/Henry Loevner
HENRY VI, PART II HENRY VI THE SHOW MUST GO ONLINE/Rob Myles
HAMLET HAMLET METHOD AND MADNESS/Will Block
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Special Skills.
Dialects: Classic American, Cockney, RP, Yorkshire, Liverpool, Scottish, Northern Irish, Dublin, Afrikaaner, Russian, French, Jewish New York
Stage Combat: Jeet Kune Do, Bo Staff, Kali sticks, Rapier/Dagger, Cutlass, Shovel
Costume Construction
Training.
B.A. in Acting and Directing for the Stage: UCLA School of Theatre, Film, and Television
Shakespeare: Joe Olivieri, Paul Wagar, Amy Chaffee, Matt K. Miller, Michael Hackett
Directing: Angie Scott, Neil Peter Jampolis, Michael Hackett, Brian Kite, Marike Splint, Peggy Shannon
Stage Combat: Jeet Kune Do, Kali, Bo Staff--Ed Monaghan; Rapier/Dagger--Chris Uchmann-Douglas; Cutlass--Christopher Duval; Shovel--Matt K. Miller
Dialects: Paul Wagar, Gillen Morrison, Matt K. Miller
Psychological Systems: April Shawhan, Marilyn Fox, Michele Hillen-Noufer
Viewpoints: V.J. Foster
Oregon Shakespeare Festival Summer Seminar for High School Juniors. Instructors: Aldo Billingslea, Kyle Haden, Libby Peterson, Joan Langley, Jason Sanford, Christine Albright, U. Jonathon Toppo, Danforth Comins, Ted Deasy, Robin Goodrin Nordli, Bill Rauch, Richard Hay
press.
The Glass Menagerie.
Photo by Shmuel Thaler
Santa Cruz Shakespeare. 2024.
Christina Waters, Good Times Santa Cruz.
“Block is a powerhouse...channeling Tennessee Williams’ own sense of helpless rage over his literary aspirations.”
Photo by Shmuel Thaler
Jake Thomas, Santa Cruz Sentinel.
“Will Block brilliantly plays…Tom with an honest rage as he rails against the bars of his reality. The sympathy Block elicits for Tom’s situation makes the character’s actions that much more devastating…The burden he internalizes begins to force its way out of his discontented frame like steam streaming from a jumping and whistling pressure cooker…Block leads us through this journey with fidelity to the feeling of being stuck and incapable of acceptance.
The Importance of Being earnest.
Santa Cruz Shakespeare. 2024.
Jake Thomas, Santa Cruz Sentinel
“This rendition is sure to satisfy the most avid of the “Earnest” fans with a performance by Will Block that seems as though Wilde wrote the play knowing he would one day perform as Algernon…He takes the simple ingredients of Wilde’s language and distills it into an intoxicating liquor, spilling it like absinthe all over the stage with liberal flourishes.”
With Allie Pratt as Cecily. Photo by Kevin Lohman
Photo by Kevin Lohman
Christina Waters, Good Times Santa Cruz
“…highest praise for Will Block as the naughty, mercurial, muffin-loving Algernon. His nimble performance was everything Oscar Wilde had in mind when he penned this clever send-up of social pretense. Kudos to all, and an extra muffin for Block!”
With Grayson DeJesus as Jack. Photo by Kevin Lohman
The Thanksgiving Play.
Ensemble Theatre Co, Santa Barbara. 2023.
Photo by Zach Mendez
Daniel Kepl, Voice Magazine:
“Will Block escalates his character’s increasingly manic behavior by slow degrees, on a spit of comic edginess…Caden’s character is in a way the most genuine manifestation of emotional truth of the four principals…Block gave Caden an aura of real if fractious humanity.”
The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley.
Ensemble Theatre Co, Santa Barbara. 2021.
Photo by Zach Mendez
Maggie Yates, Broadway World.
“…one ridiculous wig…”
Terry Morgan, ArtsBeat LA.
“…Block is very good as the well-meaning Brian.”
Murder on the Orient Express:
McCoy-Rigby Entertainment. 2018
As Macqueen opposite Matthew Floyd Miller as Rachett in Murder on the Orient Express. Photo cred. Jason Niedle
Monique A. LeBleu, Los Angeles Beat:
“Will Block as Macqueen is both funny and tragic as the nervous and clumsy assistant to…the appropriately entitled and creepy Rachett.”
Hiko Mitsuzuka, Bello Magazine:
“The cast includes…a perfectly neurotic Will Block as Hector Macqueen”
The Two Noble Kinsmen:
Kingsmen Shakespeare Company. 2018.
As The Wooer with Rachel Seiferth as the Jailer's Daughter in The Two Noble Kinsmen
Ellen Dostal, Broadway World:
“Unrequited love, and losing him in the forest after freeing him, causes her to go mad (shades of Ophelia) until a Doctor advises the Wooer who loves her to disguise himself as Palamon to bring her back to her senses. The plan works and Block's heartfelt scenes as a sincere and caring young man are tender and affecting.”
The Tempest:
The Porters of Hellsgate. 2018.
As Ferdinand in The Tempest.
Ellen Dostal, Broadway World:
“Block mines the part for bumbling comedy...”
Audience reviews:
“[Block] has a beautiful grasp of the language and an obvious mastery of how to enhance his performance through physicality.”
A Christmas Carol: Sacramento Theatre Company.
As Young Scrooge opposite Monique Ward Lonergan as Belle in A Christmas Carol. Photo cred Charr Crail
Bev Sykes, Davis Enterprise
“[Block] definitely shows the beginnings of the cold, unfeeling Scrooge that he will become in later life.”
Othello: Shakespeare at UCLA.
As Iago, opposite Dennis Renard as Othello
Audience Reviews:
“[Block’s] Iago was incredible to watch and evocative of Gary Oldman at his most charming, angry, and unstable.”
”One of the most exciting things to watch were his eyes in the moments before he spoke.”
”Electric!”
Master Harold...and the boys:
Sacramento Theatre Company.
As Hally, with Michael J. Asberry as Sam in Master Harold...and the boys. Photo cred. Barry Wisdom
NAMED ONE OF THE FIVE BEST SACRAMENTO PERFORMANCES OF 2013.
Bev Sykes, Davis Enterprise
"Will Block ... is mesmerizing...Block hits all the proper nuances. He beautifully and poignantly portrays Hally’s struggles with his feelings about his father, and his convoluted relationship with Sam."
Marcus Crowder, Sacramento Bee
"Block gives a gripping performance as the complex, self-satisfied young adult who has come unaware to a turning point in his life."
Interview on Insight with Beth Ruyak
Listen to 'Master Harold and the Boys'
download link
Treasure Island: Sacramento Theatre Company.
Baby Block's first show...
As Jim Hawkins, with (clockwise from left) Patrick Murphy as Squire Trelawney, Matt K. Miller as Captain Smollett, Michael Stevenson as Long John Silver, and Barry Hubbard as Doctor Livesey in Treasure Island