Author: Walter Borden
Profile: Walter Marven Borden better known as Walter Borden is a Canadian actor, playwright and poet. He was born in Halifax, Canada and is originally from New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. He gained prominence as a stage actor and later in 1972 he joined Halifax’s Neptune Theatre Company. The Event, Lexx and Platinum, Gerontophilia, Nurse, Fighter, Boy includes his television and film credits.
Right from 1972 Walter Borden has appeared in many state productions all across Canada including The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Djanet Sear’s Harlem Duet, Richard III, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, The Merchant of Venice, Tennessee Williams’ Orpheus Descending, Henry VIII, James Weldon Johnson’s God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse and Jean-Paul Sartre’s The Flies. Besides this he has collaborated with Paul Martell, a classical guitarist and recorded and released an album, Walter Borden Reads Shakespeare’s Sonnets to the Music of Fernando Sor.
Writing style: Walter Borden was an openly gay poet, playwright and actor who wrote and also performed his very own autobiographical play, Tightrope Time: Ain’t Nuthin’ More Than Some Itty Bitty Madness Between Twilight and Dawn. In literature history of Black Canadians, this was one of his first plays, which presented male homosexuality themes, in the most direct manner. Tellin’ It Like It Is and Testifyin are his later writing credits.
Published Texts:
Books
Tightrope Time: Ain’t Nuthin’ More Than Some Itty Bitty Madness Between Twilight & Dawn
1997-2002 – Lexx
2004-2005 – Da Boom Crew
2013 – Gerontophilia
2015 – The Hexecutioners
Film
1998 – One Heart Broken Into Song
2000 – Our Daily Bread
2000 – Blessed Stranger: After Flight 111
2001 – The Feast of All Saints
2001 – Passion and Prejudice
2003 – The Event
2008 – Nurse.Fighter.Boy
2012 – 100 Musicians
2013 – Gerontophilia
2003 – A Dark Matter
2015 – Grandpa Was Here
2015 – The Hexecutioners
2012 – GUION
Television
1996-1997 – Lexx: The Dark Zone Stories
1997-2002 – Lexx (TV Series)
2003 – Platinum (TV series)
2020 – Coroner (TV Series)
Awards and Acknowledgements:
Portia White Prize
Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal
African Nova Scotia Music Association (ANSMA) Music Heritage Award
Member of the Stratford Festival of Canada since 2003
2006 – Member of the Order of Canada for his services to theatre arts in Canada.
2007 – Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award