This afternoon I met with Bryce Ryness and brought Steve along. We met him at the GE Building in Rockafeller Center. Today has been a truly beautiful day in the city. The temperature has been in the upper 50s and the sun has been shining. This made Bryce want to get out on the streets and walk during our interview, which was fine with me.
Bryce was a very different perspective and he wasn’t that different at the same time. He graduated from USC as a business major with an emphasis on entrepreneurial busines s. He had always sung, but acting was not really part of the picture in college. He didn’t even do any shows in college. His senior year, he became part of Groove 66, an a capella group at Disney’s California Adventure. They grew to be the most requested performing group in the park and were soon performing multiple shows a day, four days a week. The group disbanded and he was in search of a performance opportunity. He sought out theatre because it gave him that outlet. He was cast in Floyd Collins and was well reviewed in the title role. From there he just kept moving forward in his career until he was cast in the 2006 national tour of Rent. During the tour, he and his wife decided that they just wanted to take the leap and come to New York. They saved up money while he was on tour and moved out right after the tour ended.
He came with no promise of a job. He “hustled” his way during the first few months while hitting the audition trail. He worked catering, bar tended and worked coat check at theatres, basically working anything that would allow him to audition during the day. He was cast in a few off-Broadway shows and moved to catering in the day to perform at night. His next big break came when he was cast in the Public Theatre’s 40th anniversary concert of Hair at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. From there he was called in to audition be a replacement in the cast of Legally Blonde.
It was great to hear his story of how he was kind of thrown into the process of Blonde. He had 10 days of rehearsal in which to learn the character Aaron’s tracks as well as pick up the Emmet tracks he was understudying. His first performance with the Broadway company was January 2 of this year. A month almost to the day from his start he had to go on as Emmet for four performances.
I think the most memorable portion of our interview was when he was talking about how he feels the casting process kind of works. He described it in terms of a painter beginning work on a blank canvas. Actors are all various pigments and they are mixed together to make the pigment that will end up on the canvas. Some get used, some don’t. It doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with the unused pigments, they just aren’t right for the particular painting. He said that thinking like this helps him ground himself in the face of a “no” from an audition. He is not less talented or less capable of playing a particular role, but he is just not the right “pigment” for what the painting needs to be the work of art the painter (director) is looking to create.
His relaxed demeanor just put me at ease. He was eager to speak with Steve and myself. His experiences he described were not so bad. He made it sound so doable. He also had interesting thoughts about Broadway. He believes that there is important work being done everywhere, and most of it being done off Broadway somewhere, whether in regional theatre or off-off Broadway. He told us he enjoyed Blonde or else he wouldn’t be doing it, but was looking forward to the opportunities the future may hold doing something truly creatively satisfying. It’s fun and all, but he wants to sink his teeth into something more.
He also has been invited back to reprise his concert role in a full staging of Hair coming up this year. I hope I may get to come back to the city and see him in it. I am just so thankful that these people are willing to share their lives with me.
After meeting with Bryce I met up with Latera and Lindsay and we headed over to the studio to watch a taping of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. That was very exciting! Although the main thing happening for me was the need to get a hot dog while waiting in line from the vendor outside the studios. Only way I made it. Okay, that’s a little dramatic, but it did make it a more enjoyable experience. It was great to see Jon Stewart work live.
love, Helena