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Dana Lee Block
Comedy, Performance Art, Solo Show, Storytelling & Spoken Word, Theater
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My parents didn’t understand what was happening and didn’t know what to do with him, so they hospitalized him, and that didn’t work, they put him on medications and a radical regime of Mega-Vitamin Therapy, and that didn’t work either. Finally, desperately trying to come up with a cure, they set him up in his own musical instrument business in the back of my father’s furniture store–hoping that would help him define a direction in his life. But one night he left home with a backpack full of socks and a sandwich and a beer and he never returned. He had made up his mind, he was going on the road. He hitchhiked miles and miles across the country, constantly reinventing himself, sometimes as “Military Man” or sometimes as “Highway Man.” He stayed in roadside Motels, but when the voices in his head got too loud, he tore up the place and ran. He was arrested, beaten up, put in jail, taken to psychiatric wards, but with his charm and wit, “he always talked his way out of it..." "Behavioral problems,” they told my parents.
No one in our family had seen him for 20 years. I decided it was time to go get him, help him get medication and therapy. What I found out was that he was living life on his own terms, and I was not in charge.
Reviews:
ALL ABOUT SOLO, “Parsing Out a Story About Schizophrenia” November 7, 2019 United Solo Festival:
“It is a privilege to be let into her world. When this raw honesty is revealed, its gravity is gripping.”
HI-DRAMA, William Cataldi United Solo Festival
“Ms. Block’s performance was brilliant.”
September 18, 2026 8.30pm
1400 N American St
General Admission: $25
PWYC Options
September 26, 2026 3.30pm
1400 N American St
General Admission: $25
PWYC Options
September 27, 2026 8.30pm
1400 N American St
General Admission: $25
PWYC Options
About the Artist
Dana Block is a classically trained actor and writer who has created and toured 4 original solo shows, and developed a full-length play under the tutelage of Edward Albee, acting Master Playwright at Road Less Traveled Theater in Buffalo, NY, 2010. Other credits include: lead in Richard Foreman film "Once Every Day, " awarded Best of NY Independent Film; BroadwayWorld Best Supporting Actress, Silda "Other Desert Cities;” multiple regional theater productions; work with Michael Kahn in D.C., The Shakespeare Theater Co. (MFA); Lucille Ball Comedy Festival "My Favorite Husband, " direction Greg Oppenheimer, on SIRIS Radio; radio host for "We Are Vermont."
Eric Tucker (Director) is a multi-award winning Director and Actor, and Artistic Director of Bedlam Theater Company, an Off Broadway Theater Co. in NYC. He is currently directing "Music City, " (book by Peter Zinn and music and lyrics by songwriter JT Harding) which will open June 15 at Theater At St. Lukes. "Are the Bennet Girls OK?, " a critically acclaimed, irreverent stage adaptation of Pride and Prejudice by Emily Breeze, will open at The Public Theater in early 2027, also directed by Tucker.
Bob Stachel's career spans theatre, film, and technology. He has directed many professional productions in the Boston area; served on the Advisory Board of Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, MA; collaborated with local playwrights and produced several festivals of new work as co-director of Shadow Boxing Theatre Workshop in Cambridge, MA. Most recently, he relocated to NYC and co-produced "Other, " which ran at Greenwich House Theatre and is headed to Broadway, summer, 2026.
- Dana Block
- Actor
Eric Tucker - Director
Bob Stachel - Producer
Accessibility & Content Considerations
Contact the Fringe Festival Box Office for up to date accessibility information.
This event is appropriate for ages 13+
Adult Language
There's definitely some cursing in the show, so if that is objectionable to parents, please don't bring your age 13+ kids. However, the subject of mental illness, which commonly affects kids starting as early 9, is an important subject to be brought out into the open. I have performed this show for a number of schools who found it incredibly resonant.
Covid-19 Safety policy
This event does not require masks to be worn
Copyright © 2026 Philadelphia Fringe Festival
140 N. Columbus Blvd.
(at Race St.)
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Directions
Tickets: 215.413.1318
Admin Office: 215.413.9006
