Student Highlight: Kevin Sean Ryan
Posted on December 24, 2013
Another BDS student is on a roll! Congratulations to this week's Student Highlight, Kevin Sean Ryan.
Kevin hails from Philadelphia, PA. and Grand Rapids, MI. but has lived in Denver since 1975. He's been taking formal acting lessons at BDS for over 5 years after being in a nostalgic rock band for 30 years.
“The rock band helped forge my acting identity, and ability to play, because we did many tribute acts. I did a mean Eddie Van Halen, Keith Richards, George Harrison and Tom Jones as well as a few others. I also love ventriloquism and have four puppets. I bill myself as the world's worst ventriloquist.”
We'll be the judge of that Kevin, care to bring your puppets to class and let us be the judge?
All joking aside, Kevin finds inspiration all around him wildstar gold.
“I find inspiration in music, art, the Universe. I especially love it when inspiration comes from the unexpected. I want to leave an imprint on somebody, anybody. I have a passion for acting. I can feel it, it's almost palpable"
Kevin has 2 roles that he calls his favorites. The first is the role of Edgar Lehman in “Mind's Eye” where he worked with actor Dean Cain of “Lois and Clark” fame, Natalie Distler from “Rescue Me”, Aaron Perillo from “True Blood” and a few other well known actors. It was recently picked up at the American Film Market festival and may soon have a distribution deal.
The second role is Jakob in“Teddy Boy”. There are only 3 actors in the film and the character of Jakob is quite dark. The film is currently in post production.
More recently, Kevin just finished filming “RONDO” and is performing in his first play “Marry Me, Viva Las Vegas” beginning March 2014. Kevin will be playing an aging Elvis impersonator who runs a wedding chapel in Vegas.
“I had never taken an acting lesson before I met Benjy at the DCPA. I had no prior training, but everyone knows how to act, right? No! To act is to not act. Benjy taught me to analyze the script and the character. To take the words from the script and explore them. To improvise. To take chances. To fail. To use my instinct. To use my experiences in a positive, healthy way. To trust myself. To narrow down and pinpoint my acting objective. I thank the universe I met Benjy. I am still learning and will always be studying. Benjy gave me the road map, and for that, and my fellow students, I will always be eternally grateful.”