Miami Valley residents Gil Martin and Blake Sensemen have been chosen as the 2009 Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame Inductees, recognized as individuals who have dedicated themselves to theatre arts in Dayton. The ceremony will be held in conjunction with the annual DayTony Awards on August 16, 2009 at the Dayton Marriott Grande Ballroom. The event is open to the public with tickets at $32 each. Contact Fran Pesch at 937-654-0400 for more information or to make a reservation.
Actors' Equity Association and American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers member, Gil Martin, holds a Bachelor of Music from Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey. He has toured in 1776 on the Bicentennial Tour and Oh, Coward on the National Tour. In addition, Mr. Martin also served as a designer, arranger, and conductor on the Off-Broadway productions of Oh, Coward, Broadway Encore, And the Band Played On, Here's a How-De-Do, and Silver and Gold. As an actor, Gil performed eleven consecutive seasons at the summer stock theatre, The Merry-Go-Round, in Sturbridge, Massachusetts appearing in over 120 productions. Mr. Martin has also appeared in a number of Dayton Theatre Guild productions including A Doll's House (Mr. Rank), Plaza Suite (Borden Eisler), The Beaux Stratagem (Archer), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (George), Equus (Dr. Dysart), Gross Indecency (Marquess of Queensbury), The Dice House (Dr. Rattner), and most recently, Outward Bound (Rev Thomson) and The Paris Letter (Anton Kilgallen). Gil has directed two OCTA award-winning shows: Pinter's The Birthday Party and Guare's The House of Blue Leaves. Mr. Martin is a pianist, organist, and musical editor/composer for The Exaltation Series and The Sacred Music Press published by the Lorenz Corporation in Dayton. He is the composer of over 400 published pieces of sacred and secular choral, piano, organ, instrumental and ballet music. With renowned author John Jakes, Mr. Martin has composed the music and wrote lyrics for Mother Goose...Now! Chicken Little One Family, Some Friends, Doctor, Doctor!, Shepherd Song, Pardon Me, Is This Planet Taken?, and Sleeping Beauty (The Real Story).
Blake Senseman is a long time Dayton Theatre Guild member and volunteer. He has served on Guild's Board of Directors for a number of years and currently is their Properties Master. In addition to the many sets he's designed and built over the years he has appeared in numerous productions with the Dayton Theatre Guild, Firstage Productions, The Dayton Playhouse, Sinclair Community College, Illumination Theater and the Tipp City Players amongst others. He was last seen on stage playing Mr. Lingley in the Guild's first production of the 2008-9 season Outward Bound and designed and built the sets for both The Cashier and Fuddy Meers, the final two productions on Salem Avenue. This summer will keep him active with the design and construction of the Guild's first show at their new home on Wayne Ave., Les Liaisons Dangereuses. He owns and operates Buggy Whip Antiques in Tipp City where he also resides.
