Ted Lange: Award Winning Actor, Director, Educator, and Playwright (Love Boat, Fam)

TED LANGE  certainly exemplifies the Renaissance Man Theatre Award that he received from the NAACP in Los Angeles and the Heroes and Legends HAL Lifetime Achievement Award.  A prolific author, educator, and director and actor of stage and screen comprise the talents that have created a revered career and worldwide recognition. On May 10, 2018, Lange received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in recognition of his Contribution to the History of Television for his work on The Loveboat. A graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Lange has written twenty-five plays and has been labeled The Black Neil Simon, The Brown Bard, and The Footnote Historian.  These nomenclatures reflect the nature of the plays that he has written and produced around the country in black theatres to rave reviews and numerous awards.  Lange is passionate about comedy, Shakespeare, history, and character driven theatre.  His quest is to weave the African American experience into stories that entertain and educate by using current events as the touchstone for timely stories and characters, by discovering little known historical facts and bringing alive lost moments of black history, and by using the timelessness of Shakespearean tales to reflect what is still relevant in today’s culture. His Shakespearean based play written in verse, The Cause, My Soul, the Prequel to Othello, the NAACP Theatre Best Play of 2017, was presented at the Odyssey Theatre on the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death and at the North Carolina Black Theatre Festival.  The Tears of Shylock another Shakespearean based play was read at the Matrix Theatre in April 2019. Lange’s most current play, Blues in My Coffee, is a relationship comedy/drama that entertains and enlightens audiences in the relevant political issues surrounding Black Lives Matters.  Four Queens – No Trump played garnered critical acclaim in Los Angeles, Cleveland, Omaha, and Chicago and won the NAACP Best Play – 1997.  The Valley Theatre Awards nominated his play, Lemon Meringue Façade, in five categories and played off Broadway in New York at the New Perspectives Theatre. Another respected play, Soul Survivor, was staged at the National Black Theatre Festival at the 1996; The Olympics in Atlanta, and at the Lee Strasberg Institute in Hollywood, which co-starred Yolanda King. As a star of the television classic The Love Boat, Lange’s ten seasons as Isaac Washington earned him global recognition. His television acting career also includes That’s My Mama, Mr. T and Tina, and guest appearances on Evening Shade, Half and Half, Family Matters, In the Heat of the Night, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Oprah Winfrey Show.  He hit the reality TV genre running on Celebrity Fit Club. Combining all his talents, Lange wrote, acted, directed, and produced his play, Let Freedom Ring in Los Angeles. A historical dramedy about how the Liberty Bell was cracked. The play is based on a true story…almost When asked about the diversity of his career, Lange states, “The duty of the Artist is to find his muse, then let her rip.”