Creative Loafing Tampa Bay’s spring arts issue features more than a dozen artists to watch this year and beyond. Meet Lance Markeith Felton.
His first professional gig: Erica Sutherlin’s production of “Pass Over” at The Studio@620 four years ago. As Kitch, a young Black man contemplating escape to a better life, his performance was indelible—utterly natural, effortless, true.
Where you’ve seen him lately: As the fierce young civil rights warrior Dasher in Stageworks’ “When the Righteous Triumph.”
Coming up this spring: Stageworks’ “The Meeting” (in which he’ll play Malcolm X) and American Stage’s “The Hot Wing King.”
Where he got schooled: Howard W. Blake High School and Florida State Universrity, where he got a BFA in Human Rights & Film. Before high school, he performed in Black history plays produced by Hillsborough County educator Dr. Phyllis Tucker-Wicks.
He’s been rapping since he was five (and hasn’t stopped since): He’s a recorded hip-hop artist and a curator of theatrical poetry events. He’s also a playwright; he has performed Black History They Don’t Want You to Know at Stageworks and in American Stage’s Beyond the Stage series.
Which ties in nicely to his day job: He teaches sixth grade history at Academy Prep in Tampa. “It could be cool to have millions of people know your name as a rapper,” he says, “but it feels very good that a solid 77 know what ‘Mr. Felton’ means. The school was very adamant about me continuing my acting, and to have that as a backdrop to a classroom for history, it just feels like my mission. It feels right on cue.”
SPRING ARTS 2026
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This article appears in Jan. 29 – Feb. 04.