All work and no plays could make senior Tag Ryan a dull boy. Ryan lives on stage. He has been and is involved with theater at Westside, and now Ryan is acting in the first stage adaptation of Stephen King’s classic horror novel The Shining.

The premiere of The Shining is special for Ryan because of the acting, and because its purpose is to renovate the Benson Theatre, a project his mother Amy started.

“My mom is trying to renovate the Benson Theatre, and we need a lot of money to do that — about a quarter of a million dollars,” Ryan said. “So we e-mailed Stephen King to see if we could get the rights to The Shining and how much that would cost. He e-mailed us back personally and we bought it for one dollar.”

The Shining is about a family that moves near the Rockies so the husband, Jack, can become the winter caretaker at the fictional and haunted Overlook Hotel. The plot centers around the hotel taking over Jack, and his wife Wendy trying to protect their son, Danny, from Jack. The Shining was adapted into a movie by director Stanley Kubrick, and is considered one of the best movies of all time.

Ryan will be playing the part of Tony, Danny Torrence’s imaginary friend. Ryan got the role despite being one of the last to audition, and without some of the tools needed to audition.

“How I auditioned was interesting,” Ryan said. “There were two days for auditions, and Friday night my Mom came back, and she was like, ‘You should try out.’ And usually when you audition you have to have head-shots you have to have a résumé — you have to be professional. On a whim I decided to go to the last audition date and see what happened. So I walk in there without a résumé, without a head-shot, and I got the part.”

Working on the set has given Ryan the opportunity to act with professional actors in a professional production. He has the opportunity to see first-hand what other actors do to prepare for their roles.

“The lead guy that plays Jack Torrence, he’s a hardcore method actor,” Ryan said. “In the book they have a VW Bug and they travel from Vermont to Colorado with it. He does sort of the same thing. He lived in California, bought a bug with Vermont license plates, and drove it here.”

In addition to acting, Ryan is helping the production providing what he calls ambient creep noise.

“My friend has this old synthesizer from the ’70s and all these cool knobs and stuff,” Ryan said. “Essentially I just went over to his house for three hours and just did the craziest, creepiest stuff I could with the synthesizer. I made this five minute track with me screaming, and it sounds like it’s talking at one point and it gets really creepy. They are using segments of that track as filler between set changes and between acts and intermission.”

Although Ryan gets to act and produce music, Ryan’s the thing he is most excited about is still about 30 years away from happening.

“My favorite part hasn’t come yet, oddly enough,” Ryan said. “My second favorite part is going to be performing, because I’m a performaholic. But if we get the funds, and we renovate the theater…my favorite part will be in about 30 years from now, when I’m in full possession of the theater. It will kind of fund my sustainable future.”

Even if Ryan doesn’t end up in Omaha, he will have a say in what happens in the Benson Theatre. But that is all down the road. Ryan’s focus now is on his performance in the first play production of Stephen King’s The Shining, which he claims everyone should see.

“It’s a three hour show, and it’s worth it,” Ryan said. “It’s very suspenseful; it even scares me a little bit during rehearsals.”

Ticket Information – bensontheatre.org

Ticket Prices

• $30 regular seats
• $60 high end seats, and after party