I'm Ryan 👋

I’m an award-winning fat/queer critic, indie theatremaker, producer, and writer based in Narrm (Melbourne) who tells stories about place, otherness, and utopia.

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What's this website?

In the Round is my newsletter where I upload theatre criticism, generally a couple of times a month. I like to write longer form criticism including these two that I'm particularly proud of.

I love criticism which gets at the personal through the political: 'how can theatre be a force for good in the world, and how does it act through me as an audience member?' Here's some of my favourite writers who are doing it better than me.

I see a lot of shows in Narrm (Melbourne) each year, generally more than I can write about here, so I also try to be pretty active on Instagram and TikTok. Over there I make off-the-cuff reflections and upload them to an audience of 4000+ theatre lovers.

My criticism at the 2024 Melbourne International Comedy Festival led me to win the Funny Tonne award, which was judged by a panel of ArtsHub staff. It was pretty cool winning an award at MICF as someone who is profoundly not a comic.

I think criticism is something we should practice broadly and inclusively, and to that end I co-organise a COVID-conscious theatre club where we see shows together and discuss them afterwards as a group. Criticism is for everyone, you know?

Since 2024 I’ve been a member of the Green Room Awards Independent Theatre panel and as of August 2025 have been elected to Vice-President of the association.

A bit about my arts practice

First and foremost, I consider myself a theatre maker. The work I create is often queer, site-specific, and verbatim, and looks to make our world a bit better.

I’m proud to have produced a variety of queer and experimental work as a freelance producer in venues such as Theatre Works, The Butterfly Club (RIP), Trades Hall, The Motley Bauhaus, a working blacksmiths, and my living room!

One of those shows that came from a small season in my living room was by Paris Balla which became Owl & the Albatross. Owl went on to premiere in 2022 at Theatre Works St Kilda and was selected for the VCE Playlist.

The coolest thing I think I've made so far is Full Cream. It's a story about fat kinship and liberation that I made with Em Keagan, Jonathan Graffam-O’Meara, and Georgie Wolfe. Full Cream was presented Geelong Arts Centre, Fringe World Perth (Weekly Award Winner), Radically Soft, A Plus Market, and Melbourne Fringe (Emerging Company Incubator Award).

In 2024 I produced Beowulf: Reforged at Melbourne Fringe Festival. Reforged was a presentation of Felix Nobis’s original translation of Beowulf from old English, presented in one of Narrm’s last working blacksmiths—with the fire raging throughout. The show was the recipient of two Green Room Award nominations, for performer Felix Nobis and sound design by Su Min Lee.

Nowadays I make and produce work with Georgie Wolfe as Pigeon Pigeon. Our work together is intimate, soaked in sentimentality, and like our avian namesakes, found in the city’s cracks. We produced I Promise This Isn't About You (Even If It Feels Like It Is) in a carpark for Melbourne Fringe 2025. This show sold out its entire season three times, and took home the Crowd Pleaser Award.

When I’m not in a rehearsal room or watching a show, I’m a freelance digital marketer with experience in organic content creation, web development, EDM growth, marketing strategies for theatre, graphic design, podcast production, and paid social advertising.

Where do I come from?

All over! But mostly Australia. I spent the first fourteen years of my life growing up around the world as a bit of a third culture kid, but made the Gold Coast home at the age of fourteen.

After high school, I moved down to Narrm to study at Monash University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Business.

I studied at the (now defunct) Centre for Theatre and Performance, but I spent most of my time being mentored by professionals and peers at Monash Uni Student Theatre. MUST was the highlight of my studies and is where I got my start making and producing theatre.

The lowest point of my time at Monash was when Professor Sharon Pickering (then the Dean of Arts) axed the course and school I was studying at. At the same time, the high point of my studies was banding together with my peers leading a campaign to save the course. Here's what I had to say about it in The Age.

Fun Stuff

Thanks for scrolling this far!

• I record a weekly-ish podcast called Broadly Relevant, a quick-fire overview of the week’s news ft. a sufficient amount of shit-talking with one of my high school besties
• You can add me on Duolingo where I'm learning Hindi
• Check out our compatibility via Co — Star
• Stalk my board game collection on BoardGameGeek
• The font used in the logo is Hooey, and the rest of this site is in Poppins. This site is hosted on Ghost, my favourite newsletter platform.