Kydra Ryan. Photo by Denise Grant.

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Kydra Ryan, Associate Artistic Director  
2025 Season: Dr. Imogen Volek in Medical Wonder, Co-Playwright of London Fog, Director of Sleigh Without Bells, Writer & Performer of The Manor Park Evening Post. 9th Season for AlvegoRoot. Visit the ensemble page for artistic credits.
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I learned from my dad very early on to always say please and thank you. And at Tim Hortons my favourite thing to do while dad waited in line was to hold the door for everyone coming through. This mindset landed me my first job at Giant Tiger, and turned my first paying theatre gig into recurring offers, and eventually landed me the elusive title of Associate Artistic Director. Always be the person to stack chairs, and you too will spend the rest of your life stacking chairs while Adam disappears to fight with the printer. Kidding… sort of. I love my job. I love every aspect of it. I love making my own work, I love problem solving with Adam, I love creating the posters, building the sets and OH and how could I forget writing the plays and acting in them? (And directing if I’m feeling bold).

I’ve done some stuff I’m not proud of (like I’m a TERRIBLE gift giver), but also a lot of stuff I am proud of! Like performing as Hilda in James Reaney’s Gyroscope. I was proud to be the weirdest one in the room. It’s not often you get to do sound poetry battles with your stage-husband. I was honoured that AlvegoRoot was the second company ever to perform february: a love story by Ellen Denny and Emilio Vieira. I was proud of the premiere of my play County Fair, not just for the Recommender Grant it received from my favourite theatre, Blyth Festival, but that it made my dad joyfully tell everyone in the audience as they were leaving that he’s the dad in the play who fell off the roof.

My roots are in Norfolk County, and somewhere farther back Ireland (Did you know that Irish blondes are the only blondes whose hair gets darker with age? Hence why I struggle with putting blonde or brunette on my resume. It depends on the time of year). I like to include Norfolk in my plays whenever I can because it’s important not to forget where I came from and how that has shaped me as an artist, but more as a human being.

Kydra Ryan with her father Bill Ryan, following the closing performance of her play County Fair; a play about Norfolk County and inspired by Kydra's father.