Discover Top Posts Tagged with #hannah ryan

"dressed down" styled by hannah ryan, photos by annemarie kuss

These Wales based queer women have done extraordinary things to help LGBT+ people and have made memorable marks in their respected fields

I hope everyone had a great Lesbian Visibility Week, which is the week that Lesbian Visibility Day falls on annually in April. See Joseph Ali’s article here on some of the most influential lesbian women currently in Wales.

#walesonline #lesbian visibility week #shash appan #lisa power #jess fishlock #sarah mccreadie #hannah blythyn #ruth fowler #hannah ryan #norena shopland #debbie wilcox #lisa cordery-bruce #lesbian history

Hannah Ryan

Hometown?

Irwin, Ohio. One stop sign and a post office. That's it. I grew up on a 500-acre 5th-generation family farm with the original train depot from the unincorporated community of Irwin on the property. We grew and harvested corn and soy beans. We had farm animals on the side mostly for my brothers and I to enjoy raising, learning responsibility, hard work, and care at a young age.

Where are you now?

Beautiful Brooklyn, NY. I've been bi-coastal this year working on the Broadway production and the first US Tour of Hamilton. For the past five months, my time has been split between NYC and San Francisco and now LA.

What's your current project?

Hamilton and about a dozen different new musicals, plays, and installation pieces, all of which are in various phases of development. I am currently in the rehearsal process for a 29 hour reading of the new musical All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go with writers Catherine Filloux, Jimmy Roberts and John Daggett. I spent last weekend in Miami presenting Ascended with collaborator Chaz Mena at the Arsht Center, Zoetic Stage. I'm also in the process of further developing a couple different fine art meets narrative meets performance art pieces with my creative collective Nettleworks. We explore themes of modern womanhood, native landscapes, and the telling of untold stories, specifically those about female identity and choice.

Why and how did you get into theatre?

It all began when I was one week old. I was born on December 13 and immediately cast to play the role of baby Jesus for the local Christmas nativity.

Theatre remained a central part of my life from that week on. I suppose it's in my bones, how I’ve always express myself. As soon as I learned to read I was acting out books for the goats and sheep on my farm or directing Ryan family living room productions with all my cousins. I was especially obsessed with making music videos. I guess in that way MTV, VH1 (well really televisions and film in general) had a huge impact on my early aesthetic and mode of story telling. I didn't have the opportunity to see Broadway shows as child. I would rent whatever film version musicals existed from my local library. That's how I was introduced to the musical theatre genre through film classics like The Sound of Music, Calamity Jane and The Music Man.

When it came time to decide on a major for college I was torn between something that I thought offered more stability and that my parents were pushing me toward (like Nursing), a degree in Fine Arts (I had a talent for painting), and Theatre. I spent my freshman year dabbling in all three areas of study. I found the collaborative nature of theatre to be so fitting for me. I loved the shades of gray, the room for interpretation, and the opportunity to communicate with others during every phase of the process.

I then studied abroad in London my junior year. Up to that point I was sure I was going to be an actor though I was always thinking like a director. (I'm sure I drove my directors crazy.) In London we would read plays for class, discuss those plays by day and then by night see the finest productions of those plays. I saw on average 4 shows a week for four months straight. There were three productions in particular that had a lasting effect on me for one common reason - they there were all directed by fierce, bad-ass women. Katie Mitchell's The Seagull, Marianne Elliot's Teresa Raquin and Emma Rice's Cymbeline. I was forever changed and during that semester I shifted my focus from acting to directing. I hit the ground running and to this day haven’t once looked back.

What is your directing dream project?

Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice. Truth be told, anything Sarah Ruhl. My Shakespeare dreams: A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet. Ultimately and truthfully, seeing the pieces I’ve been developing through to their fully realized potential. Seeing them on a stage in the form my collaborators and I have been envisioning would put a smile on my face. That is the daily dream that keeps me motivated.

What kind of theatre excites you?

New musicals that push boundaries in structure, style, theme, and form. Immersive theatre that provides its audience the opportunity to feel unexpectedly, understand through individual exploration and imagine in ways they didn't know possible. I’m a visual learner and a major inspiration for me growing up were museums and living history expositions, in particular, old towns such as Colonial Williamsburg and Greenfield Village. I dream of creating pieces that audiences can live in, in which they use their every sense, that takes them on a journey and provokes a childlike sense of wonder. I get excited about theatre that can be fully experienced.

What do you want to change about theatre today?

We need to reach younger, more diverse audiences, making theatre cheaper and more accessible for all people as well as more internships, fellowships, development opportunities and ultimately jobs for females and other underrepresented groups. I want to see more of our stories being told not just on the stages of Broadway but around the country regionally as well through new development.

What is your opinion on getting a directing MFA?

It’s all about the timing. There isn't one route to where you want to go. If the time is right for you then I say go for it. If it isn't, don't. I’ve been riding a wave post undergrad that hasn't let me off yet and I’m not in a hurry to jump. When I am I may revisit the grad school possibility, but I also might keep swimming until I find the next enticing wave. I think the choice is unique for the individual and shouldn’t be made as the “next right step.”

Who are your theatrical heroes?

My collaborators. Choreographers because they tell stories through movement in a way I deeply love and appreciate but cannot create myself. Writers because they hear individual characters, live with them in their heads and then share them with the world. Actors because they work tirelessly and trust boundlessly. They embrace the beauty and challenge that lies in repetition, in my opinion, the ultimate task of the living theatre.

Any advice for directors just starting out?

Work hard, really really really hard, and be nice to everyone. Oh, and stage managers make the best of friends.

Plugs!

You, Hannah Wolf, for creating this vertical space for all of us, young emerging directors, to tell our stories, share our inspirations, be heard and learn from one another. Thank you for taking the time.

#Hannah Ryan #ask a director #theatre director

Australian court guessed how gay men from conservative families would react after first having sex. It cost two men their refugee status.

This piece was written by Hannah Ryan, a reporter for BuzzFeed News based in Sydney. It was originally published by BuzzFeed on 29 April 2020.

Two young men from Pakistan who feared persecution because they were in a homosexual relationship had their refugee claims rejected because a tribunal made "illogical" assumptions about how they would respond to their first time having sex, a court has found.

The decision of the Federal Court of Australia, [of 31 March 2020], to send the case back to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) to be heard again marks the latest chapter in the pair's seven-year battle to have their sexuality claims believed and to be recognised as refugees. [Read more here.]

#Hannah Ryan #Australia #asylum #asylum seeker #refugee