Ryan Bell says his supportive family always stoked his passion for acting.
He performed in high school, completed a couple of acting courses at university and then largely left the stage behind.
“I guess a part of me was jaded about the prospects of becoming a super famous, rich actor. For whatever reason, that was where my head was at back then,” said 27-year-old Bell, who graduated from UBC with a degree in political science in 2010 and now works as a lifeguard in West Vancouver.
That changed last year when his cousin introduced him to Bare Bones Theatre.
Retired Prince of Wales theatre teacher Fred Galloway founded Bare Bones to provide former students with an acting outlet. Bell’s cousin was a student of Galloway’s.
Now Bell is acting in the third incarnation of Bare Bones’s one-act play festival, for the second time, May 19 to 23.
“It’s been awesome. It’s hard to find words other than awesome,” Bell said. “It’s given me a chance to express a part of who I am.”
Galloway taught theatre at PW from 1986 to 2009, and produced school plays and musicals. A couple of his students, including award-winning actor/comedian Ryan Beil and playwright/actor/director Sebastien Archibald, progressed on to professional careers, but Galloway knew many of his students considered high school graduation the end to their theatrical endeavours.
But Galloway had run a big-budget community theatre in Fort St. John for four years during the town’s oil boom in the 1980s and he’d seen how a return to theatre and choreographing recharged one stay-at-home mother of three’s life. He knew his students had the passion and the chops to carry on and he doesn’t think any of them took his advice to audition with Metro Theatre or the semi-professional United Players of Vancouver Theatre Company.
Galloway reached out to former students on Facebook. Twenty-five 20-to 40-year olds converged on his West Point Grey home over four evenings to read through his collection of one-act plays and months later, in 2013, 19 actors presented seven plays over five nights at Studio 16 in the La Maison de la Francophonie on West Seventh Ave. near Granville Street.
Galloway funded the theatre rental out of his own pocket. With actors inviting family members and friends, the last two nights sold out.
“By and large the families are thanking me and just hugging their kids and isn’t it fantastic,” Galloway said of audiences’ response. “It’s a real kind of lovefest, if you will. It’s a bit of a reunion, too.”
This year, 15 actors will perform in six plays over three nights, three or four plays per night.
Galloway’s former student Jeremy Froehlich directed a play and starred in musicals Grease and in Hair in high school. But
Galloway says Froehlich was crushed after he didn’t get into Studio 58 at Langara College, so he began working for his father’s antique furniture business. Now, 22 years later, Froehlich has purchased his father’s business and has seized the lead in Lone Star, a comedy enriched with pathos, set in the back of a seedy Texas bar.
“He’s just fantastic,” Galloway said of Froehlich. “It’s all there still.”
Bell will perform in two 40-minute plays, alongside Froehlich in Lone Star and in the spooky Specter with Galloway’s former student Marissa Chan-Kent.
“They’re cooking with gas,” Galloway said. “It’s a very strange little play. It’s two people stuck in a car… It’s very exciting and you don’t know what’s going to happen next.”
Another selection is the comic Sure Thing but David Ives, which features former student Tracy Hallam, who works full-time with people with disabilities and pursues acting opportunities on the side.
“Sometimes in Vancouver it can be hard to get things up and going and so it’s just very rewarding and encouraging to see that he’s been able to do this, tapping into his network,” Hallam said of Galloway. “For me it’s a real inspiration.”
Shows start at 8 p.m. at 1555 West Seventh Ave. Tickets are $10 at the door.
