• Good evening. My name is Ryan and I am an actor and an artist. You know, artist are really misunderstood nowadays. I'd like to remedy that, so just follow along with me and my musings. First, what is an artist? Anyone who expresses themselves in a creative way. Which is what art is. The uniqueness of every one of us expressed through our creativity. I think that everyone is an artist, just that not all of us are practicing artists. Now I don't mean that all of us are painters or musicians, but every one of us is creative. We all have to potential to make or do something that is totally unique. So what's so great about that? Why should we care about art? Because in art there is truth. Oh sure, great what does that mean? Well, truth is what holds our world together, it is the way that the universe really is. The truth is that, no matter what you do, gravity will pull you down, the truth is that murder is wrong, the truth is that sometimes, maybe even a lot of the time, I'm tired, lonely, and afraid. If I express that in my art maybe you can identify with it, learn something from it, connect with it.
    That's something that I think we are missing a lot in the world. We have forgotten how to connect with each other. I think that's the reason so many people are so lonely. Which brings me to the actor. An actor's job is to connect. There's more to it, but that's the core of what an actor does. The connection with the other actors and with you the audience is what makes theatre powerful and is what entices you to come back for more. Another thing we do is find truth, or "live truthfully in a given imaginary circumstance" to quote Meisner. Once again, what on earth does that mean? Let me explain. The situations we are put in aren't real. The house isn't really on fire, the kids didn't really run away from home, I'm not really the king of England. But If that were the case what would happen? That's the living truthfully part. If your brother just got shot in front of you, what would happen? That's what we do. A real reaction to something that may not be real. So really we're in the business of truth as well. We look for the truth in the stories we tell. Why? Because stories are how we learn. Pretty much everything you know is learned from other people's stories and your stories. When an actor gets out there to tell a story, they want you to learn from it, to connect with it, and to ignite something. We want to change you. We want to inspire you, ignite a passion in you, teach you something about yourself or someone else. We want you to walk away changed. And the only thing that can do that is truth. Sometimes it's ugly, sometimes it's the very last thing we want to hear, but in a world that is starving for truth, we need it. Why should we deny ourselves that?