We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Luke Ryan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Luke below.
Luke, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?
I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I do often think about my friends who have “regular” jobs. They have stability and a home base and routine and as soon as I begin to envy them I remember how lucky I am to have been brought into this world to create something so special, so meaningful, and so empathetic. I had a voice teacher that once explained to me how artists and creatives are living in a different world than the rest of the population. For example, a composer or songwriter is able to hear music in the environment around them and put it to paper to then share with people who are able to experience emotions just by listening to their work. Art and creation is so hard to understand because it’s almost some sort of divine intervention. There’s something so sacred about actors and dancers and musicians and writers that can’t even truly be explained. So, although I think about it, from time to time I’m forever grateful I get to be an artist.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m Luke Ryan, I’’m an actor, dancer, and choreographer based out of New York. I’ve spent most of life on stage and in rehearsal studios! I went to a musical theatre conservatory in NYC and soon after graduating began to book regional theatre gigs all over the country doing professional book musicals and shows. After the pandemic made it nearly impossible for professional actors to be working, I switched into my true passion of directing and choreographing. I began working on projects with students and have since been able to start choreographing for collegiate and pre professional actors. I’ve been able to get back into the performance world now as well and recently signed with Firestarter Entertainment! So now I’ll be performing and choreographing all over the place until I have a Broadway contract. I’m really just living the dream and finding joy in telling stories. I’ve always found the theatre to be home and so now to be able to create from both sides of the table has really filled up my heart.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Support the arts in every capacity you can. Whether it’s your hometown community theatre or seeing a broadway show on your trip to New York. Be a patron of the theatre, expose people to the theatre, support the arts by showing up. To speak on a more current event, don’t take anyone in the entertainment industry for granted. Writers and people that work tirelessly to tell stories that could change, enlighten, or just entertain us should be paid for their work.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
My first professional show out of college was the musical Cabaret. It was the first time I got to do material that really let me sink into the fact that being a performer is going to change lives. I know it sounds cheesy, but when I would look into the audience at the end of the show every night and see audience members clear as day wiping the tears from their face as we we tell the story of Nazi Germany as it’s beginning to tear apart the country, I realized how important it was that I take my job seriously. And even in shows that are more musical comedies and written for enjoyment l, it’s those 2 hours that someone in the audience is going to be transported into a world where their very real problems don’t have to be real. One of the best feedback I had gotten from a patron, was during my run of Kinky Boots. A woman from the audience had met some of us after the show and explained that nearly 24 hours prior she had someone close to her pass. And she said that as said as she had been all morning, something possessed her to get up and get to our show, and that for 2 hours and 15 minutes she felt joyful and laughed and danced along and forgot all the horrible things that she would have to deal with come curtain call. So whether we are teaching empathy or just helping you escape for a while, it’s the most rewarding career
Contact Info:
- Website: lukerryancreative.com
- Instagram: @lukerryan
Image Credits
Hayley Steck Grayson Todd Jennifer Johnson