Faculty Profile: James Ryan

Professor of theater Jim Ryan has enjoyed remarkable success both in theater and in education.

Ryan was an athlete throughout high school, playing football as well as running track. He said he took a drama course in his senior year of high school, which made him consider doing theater on a larger scale.

Ryan began his professional acting endeavors at California State at Long Beach, where he would graduate with a bachelor’s in theater. Ryan also studied acting with the Pasadena Playhouse, a theater group whose graduates include Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman and Sally Struthers.

Ryan furthered his academic interest in theater at Wayne State University in Michigan, graduating with a Master of Fine Arts degree. Though he had acquired degrees in two states, Ryan set his sights on traveling further, which brought him to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.

While in London, Ryan studied classical acting, even touring with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He wrote three successful one-person shows during this time, touring and performing with them. He would continue this successful run until a talent scout from Columbia Pictures spotted Ryan at a performance, and he began working on television and movie projects.

“Throughout my 20 or so years acting experience, I was very fortunate in that I never had part-time work,” Ryan said.

He also began a new endeavor: teaching workshops for acting students. It was in these workshops that he discovered his love for teaching.

“I just fell in love with it, really,” Ryan said. “But I would have to leave [after the workshops were done]. I remember thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful to work with students for more than one to two days at a time?’”

Ryan shifted focus to follow his newfound passion. He received a fellowship to complete his Ph.D. at Michigan State, writing his dissertation about his other love, solo performances. After graduating, Ryan intended to take a break to write some new material.

“I had enough money saved up and had been successful enough that I was going to take a year to write,” Ryan said. “I had rented a place to write for the year in northern Michigan. During this time, I saw an ad for a position at Emporia State University. I had never been to Kansas at that time. So, I filled out the application and dropped it in the mail.”

Though he had not intended originally to find academic work so soon, Ryan quickly found himself interviewing with Emporia State and receiving a job offer shortly afterward.

“I am very happy that I came,” Ryan said.

Ryan teaches a variety of courses in theater at ESU, ranging from theater appreciation classes to advanced theater history and voice acting classes. Students in all courses witness firsthand Ryan’s passion for his subject matter. In his classrooms, Ryan pulls from both theater text and his own career to illustrate the points in his lectures.

“He’s a really cool guy when you get to know him,” said Paul Clements, junior theater major. “ I’ve had voice and diction and survey of dramatic literature with him. Both have been pretty fun classes, especially voice and diction. He taught me quite a bit. He really knows how to critique without making a person feel bad.”

Though Ryan says the core theater classes are very dear to him in his own studies, he also says that he enjoys theater appreciation courses for different reasons.

“It’s always fun to see that excitement when my students go to these live theater productions,” Ryan said. “They really enjoy the experience and want to go back again… to experience that magic of live theater.”

Ryan’s students are very familiar with his love of the special nature of live theater.

“Film and television aren’t interactive forms of entertainment,” Ryan said. “Theater is. There’s that special communion between the theater and actor which makes it so special.”

Despite his in-depth involvement with theater, which also includes directing two live shows each year, Ryan says the love of his life is his family.

“I have my beautiful, wonderful wife, Anna, and my two sons, Conner and Brennan. They are the joys of my life.”

Ryan’s latest production, “Shakespeare in Hollywood”, premieres at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday at the Bruder Theatre. Tickets are available in advance at the ID office.

“Dr. Ryan is one of the few directors that I’ve ever worked with that will get his hands dirty,” said Nick Guffey, senior theater major. “He doesn’t just stand back. He gets involved. He always is there at work calls and strikes, a lot of things that are usually just the student body.”