By Khalida Sarwari
By day, Mike Ryan typically spends his time reading and taking his Catahoula Leopard dog Bruno for walks along Los Gatos Creek Park. By night, the 40-year-old transforms into a melancholy playboy on a quest to find the perfect faithful lover.
Ryan is a full-time stage actor and this month he is splitting his time between Campbell and Berkeley, where he is playing the lead role in Aurora Theatre Company’s world premiere translation of Anatol. The play, written in 1893 by Arthur Schnitzler, chronicles the affairs of a 19th-century Viennese philanderer who has affairs with a series of mistresses in his search for a faithful woman.
Ryan chose the role partly for the narrative, which he said presented the challenge of portraying an unsympathetic character with humanity, and partly for the opportunity to work at the Aurora Theatre.
“I enjoy doing comedy and the role is very funny as it’s written,” Ryan said. “He thinks he has women figured out; he believes at his core that all of them are going to be unfaithful to him. That’s an interesting role to play in the 21st century.”
After Ryan retires the character every night, he returns to his home in Campbell, where he has lived for the past 2 1/2 years with Don, his partner of five years who works as a general manager of a German chemical company in Fremont.
“I love Campbell,” said Ryan. “I love the mountains in the background. I love the farmers market on the weekend. I love Los Gatos Creek Park that runs by my house. I love being close to the city.”
Nearly 2,000 miles away in Edmond, Okla., and 20-odd years ago, Ryan got his feet wet in acting. He stumbled upon a festival in town one day called “Shakespeare in the Park” and signed up for a class the festival was offering to high school students. Soon after he was given his first acting opportunity in a role in the Charles Dickens classic David Copperfield.
What began as a hobby soon grew into a rewarding career. Ryan went on to study theater at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, where he became passionate about his craft for the first time. After graduating, he went on to receive a master of fine arts degree from the UC-San Diego. From there, he spent six years living in New York City and traveling extensively for auditions.
Before settling in Campbell, he taught in the theater department at the UC-Santa Cruz for 6 1/2 years and has worked at Shakespeare Santa Cruz since 1997.
What is most attractive about theater acting, Ryan said, is that it allows him to explore stories and characters that reveal facets of the human experience.
“There are people who feel disenfranchised; they don’t have a place in our history,” said Ryan. “One of the things that theater does is it tells stories about our community and it makes people feel connected and involved.”
He plans on continuing to perform in theaters and taking on roles that are challenging. Next month, Ryan will begin rehearsing for Bill W. and Dr. Bob, set to open at the San Jose Repertory Theatre in June.
