Ryan Performs in Places: Mama Shirley

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to a character I created when I was in Lyric's Hairspray this past fall. Her name is Mama Shirley. She is the sassy mama of the nicest kid Tammy, and she is very proud of her baby. This just goes to show that I'm willing to do anything for theatre. Anything.

So without further or do, some exclusive backstage footage from Hairspray:

Commitment.

Peace out!

Pizza and Cookies

This past week has been full of business, auditions, and happy moments. It began on Monday with Stop Kiss auditions at UVM. Those didn't quite work out according to plan, which was okay because I had a back up plan (kind of like Jennifer Lopez, except I don't want to be pregnant):

On Thursday night Alice, Matt, and I (we met some more RTT peeps there) traversed to Lyric Theatre's Hairspray auditions for next fall's production. Gina drove us in her car as our stage mom. She gave us encouragement and a little tough love. We were ready. Except it was one of the most nerve-racking experiences of my life. Just handing in the initial paperwork was terrifying. Don't even get me started on trying to pin my number on and then going over to take a picture. My legs were a little wobbily... But as I was getting my picture taken, guess who's standing off to the side saying my name? Annalise! From Shout It Out! She was there auditioning with Ty and Zach, a couple more folks from our cast. It had been such a long time since we'd seen each other, and it was great catching up. It still did not alleviate the shaking or my stomach turning around in circles. I took a page from Voice and Speech though and kept breathing. We did an improv workshop, then the crazy wild dance, and then we went in for the traditional audition. The whole introduce yourself, sing, and act. I think it helped that quoted Gaga as we went into the gym and put my paws up. Loosened me up.

Anyway, Friday passed and I hadn't heard anything about a call back while many of my friends had received one for that night. Tensions were high in my mind. Then came Saturday morning around 11:30 a.m. Click here and look at the "Council Members" list, second from the bottom. I'll give you a minute.

Seen it? Are you good?

I GOT A PART!!!!!!!!! I'M GOING TO BE IQ!!!!! I GET TO SING AND DANCE MY ASS OFF ON THE FLYNN STAGE THIS FALL!!!!!!!!

This is how excited I am.

I could not be more excited! This is such an amazing experience that I actually get to share with a lot of my friends from RTT who are also in the show. I got the call from an Unavailable number, and I knew immediately that this was it. I was shaking and crying while the stage manager was trying to give me the details about our first read through, and once the call was over I called my parents and my grandparents and jumped up an down and ran around The Q while Megan laughed and jumped around with me while families and students were trying to move out and gave me weird looks but I didn't care because I was so damn excited!!!

Anyway, as you can see I was excited. Just a little bit. When I say jumping around, I mean a lot of it. And rolling around. Really just a lot of moving and me screaming. Anywho, that same night was the End-of-the-Year Cabaret for UPlayers, and it went super well. We had a huge audience and our acts were totally awesome.

On Sunday I just want to mention that Megan and I went for a two hour hike in Centennial Woods because we can. We were pretty proud of ourselves, especially because we totally got lost (like, we ended up near the interstate going to Winooski, not quite sure how) but we found our way back. It was a perfect day.

It was a really perfect weekend actually, and now as we move into the last couple days of classes and exams, I will look back on this weekend with joy. Speaking of joy, check this out:

Did you know they made this? Pizza...and...cookies in the same box...  This had become a staple in The Q kitchen mostly because it's pure college food but also because it's so damn delicious... I mean, PIZZA AND COOKIES! You can't go wrong.

Peace out!

Groundhog Day

Happy Groundhog Day! or as I like to call it CRAZY BLIZZARD DAY! Seriously this storm is like, "RAWR EASTERN SEA BOARD YOU'RE MINE!" Personally I think it's a little selfish of Mother Nature considering how school still wasn't cancelled today on account of wild snow/ice conditions. Theatre History was cancelled though, and the box office was closed today which provided a pretty good break during the day. The view out my window was awesome.

It's like all of Burlington is a cloud, and I just sit alone in my castle surveying this cloud. Pretty cool, huh? However, this morning when Punxsutawney Phil crawled his cute little butt out of his hole, he did not see his shadow. You know what that means? Early spring coming our way!

He's pretty darn cute, right?

I decided to announce the fact that our friend Phil decided on an early spring in the theater green room. I was just being funny and making conversation when some random person replied,

"That's just stupid bullshit."

I was like, "EXCUSE ME!? WHAT YOU SAYIN'?" I was not impressed. Where's your spirit? Did you lose all sense of whimsy? I was about ready to defend my groundhog standpoint. This was me:

Click on the picture and you'll see!

...but the guy left before I could defend my magical groundhog. Seriously, where have people's senses of imagination, fun, and whimsy gone? What's wrong with believing in something or just having fun? Sure, I know that PP (my nickname for good ole Phil) can't really predict the weather with his shadow, but I'm not going to walk around being bitter about the fact. Sometimes I seriously think science is a bad thing. Humans were not meant to have all the "answers." I mean, I could say gravity is stupid bullshit if I wanted to, it's just a theory. So let me believe in my groundhog, and don't rain on other people's parade when their beliefs conflict with your own perfect world.

Thank you.

Peace out!