Today we’d like to introduce you to Ethan Raysor.

Hi Ethan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.

I started my love for acting, singing, and dancing when I was a child and watching movies like ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ ‘White Christmas,’ ‘Grease,’ and basically every animated Disney movie from ‘Snow White’ to ‘Mulan.’ Growing up I wasn’t able to take singing lessons or acting classes in part because my mom couldn’t afford them, but my father who was able to didn’t support my passion for the arts. I went to a performing arts middle school, and while I had been there initially for music theory and classical performance, I didn’t love playing the clarinet nearly as much as I loved being on stage. Luckily I was able to take dance classes at school, and when it came time to re-audition for the high school program, I decided to look for a private lesson dance teacher. That’s when I met my dance coach James Zynda in Newark, Delaware. He was the first person to truly believe I had the potential to be on stage, and he wanted me to take ballet as seriously as I could to achieve it.

I have been serious about stage acting since I was 14, and started training for a professional track as a ballet dancer. I took acting classes at ballet summer intensives, at my performing arts high school, and my dance studio I trained at prior to my starting my professional career. What drew me to ballet was the fact that I could still act without my father and his family making fun of me for being in theatre and not being able “to sing or act.” Thanks to my mom, and persuasion from my step-mom, I was able to at least take ballet seriously. I performed in high school musicals and participated in improv acting classes there as well.

I was always drawn to the acting side of ballet, and used my natural dance talent to help tell the stories through pantomime, and I started my professional career while in high school, and joined a professional ballet company immediately upon graduating. The company I chose, over two other regional companies or the ability to do unpaid apprenticeships at major ballet companies, specialized in Russian story book ballets and I was quickly given the opportunities to start doing soloist and principal roles within my first season. I stayed there for seven seasons, and in my resumé you can see I have extensive experience not only in dancing, but in storytelling as well. Because I chose a smaller regional company, I found myself needing to do more side work to make ends meet. Besides gardening, teaching ballet/dance, and waiting tables, I started performing as a drag performance artist and gained skills in music production, costume making, wig styling, make up artistry, and of course acting. I started producing my own shows at one of the bars I worked at (and had record attendance) in which I gained the skills of event production, stage managing, promotion, and most importantly to me, hosting with an emphasis on improv work. However, working in all of these areas helped me to achieve a level of burnout that made me start to question whether or not professional ballet was truly my passion, or just something I loved that could never love me the same. Being diagnosed with hip dysplasia at 18, working day and night for 7 years, intoxicating vices, and getting married and divorced within a year took a toll on my early 20s, so how could I sacrifice the rest of my early adult life to something I decided to pursue when I was young and in love with it? I couldn’t continue to see ballet as my only option anymore, when I knew I wanted to have a family, a home, that I would be proud of. I had just met my now husband and I wanted to build a life with him that I thought I may not have the chance to start if I continued putting it off.

Because I didn’t finish my degree, I took a hiatus from performance during the pandemic, and earned my Bachelor of Science in Plant Science at University of Delaware. I did not want to waste opportunities that presented themselves at the time, and I wanted to try a different pace of life— so I interned at a botanic garden in Delaware prior to moving to Connecticut with my now husband. Though I worked in my field of landscape design, plant science, retail, and even farming, I wasn’t satisfied. I was still missing something out of life, and this past summer, with the encouragement of my husband Kevin and one of my closest friends Kim, I started going to auditions. Before I knew it, I was working with a vocal coach, James Bavolacco, who has completely changed my outlook on my voice and my ability to sing. I was accepted into Actor’s Equity Association quickly upon submitting my application, and the signs felt palpable.

Now, I am currently working towards my SAG-AFTRA card, thanks to being cast as a featured background actor in Happy Gilmore 2. I recently completed another project, part of a Psychology PhD student’s recreation of a classic empathy study using professional actors at Brandeis University. Right before the holiday season, I was given another opportunity to be a featured background actor in a sci-fi thriller, ‘Serena,’ that is about an AI robot lacking empathy. I have accepted a role in a short film, in which I will be playing a supporting role to the lead characters. I am actively submitting for roles on Actor’s Access, Backstage, and NYCastings daily, as well as taking every opportunity to audition for Broadway shows through AEA auditions.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?

I wouldn’t say it’s been a rocky road, though that’s one of my favorite flavors of ice cream, but it also hasn’t been as smooth as vanilla either. My all time favorite flavor of ice cream is mint chocolate chip, and I think it is also representative of how my journey through life as a person and as an artist has been. It’s had a slightly bitter on-set, but a richness that turns sweet, and exhilarating all at the same time.

Not being supported by my family, especially my father, while heartbreaking, taught me a lot about myself that I am still learning from to this day. It’s one of the reasons why I am glad we never really stop learning, changing, and evolving as individuals and a collective. My struggles with coping with the lack of love have been part of my breakthroughs, especially when it comes to vices and unfortunate realities. I lost my step-brother to addiction, and mental illness has plagued both sides of my family for generations at this point, so I am no stranger to the hard work it truly takes to have to do something on one’s own— despite it all. Experiencing those misgivings as a child and young adult has made me very serious about my own mental health, and though I didn’t have the emotional intelligence I do now, I understand myself and my childhood so much more than I would have had I not tried to learn something from it all.

It would have been easy to give up, it would have been simple to give in, but something within me has always pushed me to go a little farther, stride a little further, and get to the other side before I start looking back.

Part of learning about myself has been to come to terms with my own learning process and that I am neurodivergent. A majority of my life had been spent being forced into a role of the older sibling who had to be “perfect,” both academically and socially. I had a lot of responsibility and not a lot of tools to work with to handle it all, so while my other siblings had been exhaustively tested for ADHD, I was always looked over because I was the “smart and creative” child, therefore I couldn’t have ADHD. Regardless, the symptoms I exhibited and the ones I had masked were because I was made to feel inferior for possessing them. I always had an inkling that I processed the world differently, especially when academic teachers would ask me my thought process. However, because I wasn’t jumping out of my chair or talking incessantly, I was never given the same attention my younger siblings had been, and a lot of that came from the mental and physical punishment my father had instilled in me. I guess because I was truly afraid and fearful of being hurt or judged by him, I learned how to mask my symptoms better, and it was evident in the kinds of comments my teachers made about me, my organization, communication, and socialization styles. Coming to terms with my neurodivergence as an adult has been difficult in some ways, but I like to look at it as a beautiful blessing— one that gives me the freedom to think I’m not just being overdramatic or angry, but trying to understand complex concepts that creates hostility in my day to day life.

Being gay, I felt that masking and hiding who I was would be the only way to be safe, and not having the emotional intelligence to express myself to people who could have helped didn’t make it easier. Because so much of my life had been saturated in fear, I have carried a lot of that baggage with me throughout my journey. Stripping away and dissolving that fear has not only liberated me, but has given me the ability to exemplify letting go for others too. Dance helped me tremendously, as did drag, as did education, acting, singing… all of my passions have given me the strength to face who I am and help show others who they are too. Whether or not others like their reflection, that’s not up to me. I only try my best to reflect what is beautiful about everyone and every situation we find ourselves in, even when it is not a pretty happenstance in the moment.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?

I work mostly in performing arts now, as an actor, singer, and dancer. While dance was my first career path, it is only a fraction of the artistic expression I am capable of. I also am a visual artist, as I love to draw, paint, and make collage works. I consider what I do with landscape design to fall into this category of art too, since I imagine my designs as not only part of an ecosystem, but as part of a seasonal backdrop for people to live their lives around. I am also a writer, and while I am skilled in technical and professional writing, I most love writing creatively— namely fiction and poetry.

As I continue to develop my singing ability, I hope to infuse my writing and singing into songwriting. I have started learning the guitar as well, that way I have an instrument to keep my hands and mind busy while I work on the mental aspects of writing and chord progressions. Though I would love to be known as a singer and songwriter, I am more than happy to keep this as a hobby for now while I continue pursuing acting, both on Broadway and in film.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?

I was exuberant, to say the least. But while I had many interests, I could never really focus on just one and dedicate myself to it. I always found myself being pulled in all directions, but not really being able to be supported in any given one of them fully. This is where my love for acting, singing, dancing, painting, drawing, and overall, creating started. I used to design dresses for my Barbies, airplanes out of scrap wood, and collages from candy wrappers and magazines. Clad only in a tee shirt, shorts, and my mom’s heels, I would sing as a “pop star” in my mom’s living room. Occasionally I had become a playwright and would make up scenes for my brother and sister to play out for my mom and uncle who lived with us. My favorite holidays were Halloween and Christmas, both of which were because I could be anything I wanted to be, and then give and receive gifts between loved ones that I wish I had been able to keep— unfortunately time worked against that and I lost most of my childhood possessions when our house was foreclosed on when I was 19. The few bits I was able to save still live in cabinets and in dressers in my home now, and remind me of a time when life seemed much more simple.

I was also deeply shy from an early age, and I remember a time when I was coaxed to talk to people in social situations by my mom, and forced to by my father. My mom has always said I “just need to come out of my shell,” and I think that’s one of the best ways to put it. I think I was always afraid to show who I am fully because I didn’t want other people to not like me, or who I am. It got better as I got older, but whether that was because I wanted to be more social or found myself in more social situations is beyond me. I’d like to think it was a mixture of both.

I LOVED reading, and I found some of my best friends in books when I was a child. I didn’t have many friends until I was in elementary school, and even then they weren’t as close as I yearned for them to be. With books though, I could fall into another kind of place, another time, with dozens of other characters— mythical or not. As I got older and came out of my shell more, my love of reading dwindled a bit, but only because peer pressure from schoolmates and family members made me ashamed of the books I enjoyed, or the ones I really wanted to read. Plus dancing all the time and constantly having to be in rehearsals or shows also cut down on the time I had to myself.

Overall, I loved my childhood, even the bits that weren’t ideal. They shaped me into who I am today, and I want that little boy to know that his dreams aren’t silly or just stardust. And that he will be exactly who he wants to be when he feels safe to jump— no fear, no doubt. After all, it only happens once, everything else is just progress.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://electric-dragonfly-art.square.site/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ethanraysor_official/profilecard/?igsh=MXBxZjBsMTB6OHFwdQ==
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-raysor?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@dj_delray27?si=N1IPFo5INXtkMXSF
• Other: https://bsky.app/profile/ethanraysor.bsky.social

Image Credits

Headshot credits: Clay Singer (IG: @claybsinger)

All other image and photographic credits belong to Ethan Raysor