Two Items From Last Month: Item 2 - Ryan Warren

Left: Ryan Warren, second from left.


There were two theater-related items that I wanted to mention over the last month, or so, that I didn't blog about at the time because of NM-travel distraction.

The second news item regarded a feature in Inside The City on Ryan Warren:

After his sixth-grade acting debut as a Wizard of Oz flying monkey, Warren made a decision to start his own theater company. At the age of 13, and with a little help from his friend, River Park resident Julie Soto, Warren rounded up an all-star cast of kids who would sing, dance, act, write, direct, design and otherwise manage the production of live theater performances. Nine shows and six years later, Warren is now a Sacramento City College student running a full-blown, student-run theater company appropriately named after his first big break: Flying Monkey Productions.

"Everything is completely done by kids my age or younger," said Warren. For instance, River Park residents Riley O’Toole and Meghan Vanderford are high school juniors at Jesuit and St. Francis respectively. Both were also set designers for Warren’s production of Into the Woods, which was performed last spring at the Veterans Memorial Center Theater in Davis.

"My main mission from an artistic standpoint is to give students the opportunity to direct a show," says Warren. "When I was younger, my passion was leadership in theater, but there wasn’t much opportunity for me. So I felt that I needed to create that for other people." And that he has done. Warren beams when he talks about discovering a "boy genius and computer graphics whiz kid": 10-year-old Sierra Oaks Vista resident Jake Randle. (Randle does all the posters, fliers and computer art for Flying Monkey.)

And Warren lights up when he talks about Rio Americano High School student Blake Thomas, who at the age of 15 directed his first Flying Monkey production, Alice in Wonderland.

"There’s nothing like watching the kids you are working with as they learn, grow and become both skilled and confident right before your eyes," Warren says. "For me, sitting in the theater watching a show I have directed with the kids who love theater, watching those kids get so good at what they do, that’s like an out-of-body incredible experience."

...Warren also believes it’s best to spread the love. He’s a firm believer that actors learn best from a variety of directors, so he’s insistent on stepping aside so others can try their hand at directing. "I love seeing more kids getting the opportunity to student-direct a show," he says. "When I see what Blake did as a director, I am amazed. He learned a lot. All the students learned a lot.

..."I may be the leader on paper of this company, but the kids in the company are leaders, too, and they are not far behind me," he says. "That’s my main goal: to hone skills and build leaders for our community."