Frank Torren began his professional career as an actor at the Robin Hood Theatre in Arden, Delaware for two seasons. Followed by Off-Broadway plays, he started singing for the first time in such musicals as Treasure Island, Jo, and Ladies and Gentlemen, opposite Delores Hall. Stock and dinner theatre roles range from Tin Man in Wizard of Oz to Capt. Von Trapp in The Sound of Music. His first of four Broadway National Companies was Hallelujah, Baby! with Diana Sands, followed by Show Boat with Robert Horton; then Seesaw with Liz Torres and John Raitt (also Mr. Raitt’s understudy). Frank’s favorite role was Loukas opposite Vivian Blaine and Michael Kermoyan in Zorba! He was in the longest running show at Paper Mill Playhouse, a 13-week run of Fiddler on the Roof (as Mendel, then Perchik), and then touring and playing opposite the likes of Jerry Jarrett and Fyvush Finkel. Mr. Torren is delighted to have created roles on all the New York TV daytime dramas during that time. He frequently performed his show in the New York cabaret scene!
Frank Torren was born and raised in the Latin Quarter of Tampa, Florida, known as Ybor City, famous for its Spanish/Cuban cigar-making industry. Born Frank Torreqlante, Jr. of Italian (Sicilian) descent, and his grandparents had settled in Florida around 1917. With his unique background Frank also became fluent in both Spanish and Italian. He always loved movies and became interested in acting while a sophomore at H.B. Plant High School. His Drama Teacher, Mrs. Margaret Haynes, introduced him to the basics of acting and theatre, and Frank eventually won the lead in the senior class play, The Little Dog Laughed. It was also during those high school years that Frank and his sister were a dance team, performing ballroom dances for local clubs and functions. Ultimately, as part of the Fiesta En Tampa cultural arts program, they were invited to perform in Cuba.
Frank got a lot of experience at the Tampa Little Theatre working with director, Maurice Geoffrey. His first acting part was Vito, the son, in Arthur Laurents’ play, The Time of the Cuckoo. During his first year as a student at the University of Tampa, Frank was cast in Ayn Rand’s Night of January 16th. Ushering at the Tampa Theater during the summers, he got to see just about every movie made and was really getting anxious to “try this acting thing seriously.” He asked for advice from people who knew the business. It was the time of the Actor’s Studio and the Stanislavski Method. But what finally made him come to New York rather than California was the fact that everyone seemed to tell him, “The stage is where you learn your craft.” Torren recalls a nice moment when the actress, Terry Moore, made a personal movie appearance at the Tampa Theater. The young usher asked her for advice and she recommended he apply to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. So the American Academy it was! Two years later, during the graduation ceremony at the ANTA Theatre, Frank was amazed to see such noted guest speakers, as Helen Hayes and John Cassavetes. The Academy had been a great experience and prepared Frank for summer stock and gaining membership in Actors’ Equity. He won a two-summer apprenticeship at the Robin Hood Theatre in Arden Delaware where he made a lot of good friends. The fourteen plays of those two seasons culminated with Frank obtaining his Equity card playing the part of Ernie
in James Leo Herlihy’s Blue Denim. From then on he would be known professionally as Frank Torren.
Returning to the Big Apple, Frank was thrilled to join the American Creative Theatre, a company begun by Eleanor Cody Gould to present new plays by new playwrights in an atmosphere that allowed Frank to study with outstanding teachers and coaches. A major role in ACT’s No Corner In Heaven gave Frank his first New York experience as an Equity actor. Before long he landed his first singing part in the lead role of Joseph Caruso’s musical for children, Away Out West. That was followed by more musical opportunities including Off-Broadway’s, Jo (based on Little Women), and the touring school musical, Treasure Island. Many off-off and Off-Broadway shows followed, including being cast in the lead for Open Season On Butterflies, one of the first musicals produced at the now universally renowned La Mama Experimental Theatre. Then the growing popularity of dinner theater’s led to lead roles in The Desk Set, Reluctant Debutante, Mary, Mary, and even the role of Capt. Von Trapp in The Sound of Music. Another breakthrough was working with Diana Sands & Julius LaRosa in the First National Tour of Hallelujah, Baby! In the two years that followed, Frank had additional supporting roles in Oh, Men! Oh, Women!, Stalag 17, The Wonder Hat, and also played the lead in Best Foot Forward.
Back in New York Frank created the role of Fritz Gribbleman in the Off-Broadway production of The Brownstone Urge at the Actors Playhouse, and was also featured in 1985’s centennial tribute: Ladies and Gentlemen, Jerome Kern. Frank was then lucky enough to get the chorus part of Joe in the National Tour of Show Boat. More wonderful acting opportunities included a three-month stint with the Flint Musical Tent in Michigan with such roles as the Jester in Once Upon A Mattress and Edward Moncrief in On A Clear Day. Then he appeared with Patrice Munsel & Ann Reinking in Anything Goes, and gained the featured role of Loukas in a national tour that starred Vivian Blaine & Michael Kermoyan in Zorba! He followed that by playing Mendel in Fiddler ‘on the Roof at such venues as the Papermill Playhouse, the Elitch Gardens, and even performing with Jan Peerce at the Cape Cod Melody Tent. Cast as Oscar in the national tour of Seesaw starring John Raitt, Frank was also selected by Raitt to be his understudy for the show. Frank even landed parts in two Equity Library Theatre shows, with the first being the role of Sir Francis Chesney in the Equity Library Theatre Production of Where’s Charley? As Frank began to focus more on work in NY there were commercials, print ads, and daytime TV assignments that were mostly on the “soaps.” These included Day Player roles in Ryan’s Hope, One Life To Live, As The World Turns, Guiding Light and All My Children. More recently Frank was one of six featured performers in the 2007 Lincoln Center production of I Gotta Make My Own Music: The Songs of Arthur Siegel. Frank’s popular cabaret act, First Times, has played such Manhattan venues Helen’s Hideaway Room, Regents, Broadway Baby and Don’t Tell Mama. Frank is a member of AEA, AFTRA, SAG and The Lambs and he would proudly tell you his picture has been featured not once, but twice on the front page of the New York Times Arts & Leisure section. Frank’s last show at Don’t Tell Mama in New York City was Moment to Moment.