Walter Dallas has worked on and off-Broadway, in England, Africa, France, Russia, and at numerous major American theatres. A frequent collaborator with Pulitzer Prize winner playwright August Wilson, he was invited to speak at Wilson’s memorial tribute on at the now August Wilson theatre on Broadway in 2006.

In 1983 he created the University of the Arts’ School of Theatre Arts and served as its Director for ten years. From 1992 to 2008, he served as Artistic Director of Philadelphia’s award-winning Freedom Theatre.

Dallas is probably best known for his productions of Lazarus, Unstoned, Willie Lobo/Manchild, Black Nativity, Sparkle, Black Picture Show, Seven Guitars, The Old Settler, Cooley High, and Asafohene.

Honors include Creative Genius Awards, New York Audelcos, Mayoral Proclamations, and an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts degree from Philadelphia’s University of the Arts. His San Francisco production of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye was named one of that city’s Top Ten Theatre Events of 2007.

Recent Philadelphia projects include a record-breaking Porgy and Bess for the Opera Company of Philadelphia, August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson for the Arden Theatre, and Paul Robesonfor Philadelphia’s University of the Arts.  Most recently, he served as Music Director for Arden Theatre’s production of Elyzabeth Wilder’s Gees Bend. 

In spring, 2009, he will direct Tanya Barfield's Blue Door for the African Continuum Theatre Company in Washington, DC.

Dallas was lead-writer for Standing in the Shadows of Motown,a documentary about the Funk Brothers, the house band that played behind all the Motown greats like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and the Supremes. Narrated by Andre Brougher, it featured Chaka Khan, Hill Harper, Joan Osborne, and Gerald Levert. The documentary won several major awards including Best Non-Fiction Film from the New York Film Critics Circle and four Grammy Awards. Dallas staged the Funk Brothers' world tour.

A graduate of Morehouse College and the Yale School of Drama, with additional studies at Harvard Divinity School and the University of Ghana, Dallas recently joined the Theatre Department of the University of Maryland for a five-year tenure as Senior Artist-in-Residence.