Mon 8am, Wed 3pm, Sat 7pm

Sitting In for Susan this week is Kary Lynn Vail in conversation with

TODD BLAKESLEY

Todd Blakesley has worked in every strata of theater from administrative to creative: Managing Director of Bowery/Blackfriars Theatre and Women’s Repertory Theatre (which he co-founded). Dramaturge for Playwrights Project and ATHE. Artistic Director for the Actors Alliance Festival. Co-Creator with Write Out Loud of Twainfest, a free literary festival now in its 11th year. He served as Festival Coordinator for the San Diego International Fringe Festival from its founding (2013-17). His work as an actor, producer, director or playwright has been seen in California, Washington, Florida, Minnesota, New York and throughout the Canadian Fringe. Co-founder of Theatre Research & Development, Inc. and Artistic Director of its Crystal Palace Theatre (1971-76) where he developed his own brand of totally immersive theatre: blending actors and audience in to the same ethereal situation. Todd is a recipient of a 2015 Creative Catalyst Grant to develop his ninth immersive play.

He has been nominated by the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle for Best New Play (Cigars & Stripes” T:R&D – 1984); Outstanding Featured Performance (“Eurydice” Moxie Theatre – 2010); Outstanding Solo Performance as Truman Capote (“Tru” Diversionary Theatre – 2014).

WRITE OUT LOUD PRESENTS

AMERICAN LITERARY HEROES

Part of the Celebrating America 250 Arts Projects Honoring the National Garden of American Heroes funded by the NEA.

AMERICAN LITERARY HEROES, presented from mid-March through September 2026, is a unique program highlighting four iconic American writers who have left a lasting impact on the social consciousness of the United States, and across the globe.

Actors will bring Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, and Henry David Thoreau to life in libraries, schools, museums and other community venues across San Diego County, using selections of their works and bits of their lives.

WALT WHTMAN, whose focus on the common man and his break from poetic structures caused him to be known as “the father of free verse.”

Todd was commissioned to write a 45 minute piece on Whitman and to perform it at schools, libraries, community organizations throughout the spring and summer.

He organized the piece as a introduction to Whitman, covering his poetic themes (the body, the soul, nature, sexuality, democracy, technological innovation, the Civil War). Exploring his poetry style as a break from old world European rhyme and meter. The outcry against the perceived obscenity of his work.