User:Saoirse1010/sandbox

Career
Phyllis Ryan was an actor, founder,producer,dramaturg and artistic director. She joined the Abbey Company  in 1934  at 14 years of age. Ryan's' career began in 1936 when playing 'Blanaid' in "The Moon in the Yellow River" a Denis Johnston's play  .In 1936 she performed in 6 plays, 3 of which were in the Abbey, two in the Peacock and she toured in "The New Gossoon" by George Shiels in Cork Opera House for three performances. The following year in 1937 she starred in "Shadow and Substance" as 'Brigid the lead. This position got her a recommendation to become a member of the Abbey Company. "Shadow and Substance" had a total of 12 performances in the Abbey Theatre in which Ryan portrayed the lead 'Brigid' for a total of 9 of those shows from 1937 to 1944, including their tour in 1940 to the Cork Opera House. She had performed for both Abbey and Peacock in over 28 productions, she had worked with people such as  Cyril Cusack, Eileen Crowe, Shelah Richards, Ria Mooney and Barry Fitzgerald.

She launched two production companies Orion Productions in 1956 and than launched Gemini Productions. Gemini productions held shows in a theatre called the Elbana  from 1959. The Eblana Theatre closed in 1995 .This theatre was the main house for Gemini Production which debuted plays such as John B. Keanes "The Field",  ‘King of the Castle by Eugene McCabe’s  ’, and  ‘An Trial’ by Mairead Ni Ghrada’s. This production company let relatively unknown young writers such as Brian Friel, Hugh Leonard, Fionnuala Flanagan and John B Keane debut their work to a wide audience. Ryan's last performance in the Abbey Theatre was in 2000 when she was the Chorus in "Medea" by Euripides, Translation by Kenneth McLeish and Frederic Raphael which had a total of 35 performances beginning Tuesday the 6th of June 2000. She also appeared in "The King of Spain's Daughter" a play by Teresa Deevy in 1939 on BBC Television.