Ryan Patrick Dolan

Ryan Patrick Dolan is a playwright, actor, and improv comedian, who resides in Kansas City, Missouri. As an artist he is drawn to dark comedy that explores the tension between Midwestern politeness, and the dogged, sometimes ruthless, determinism found in the People of the Plains.

Ryan received a MFA in Playwriting at the Ohio University Playwriting Program where he studied under Charles Smith and Erik Ramsey. He garnered a B.A. in playwriting from Columbia College Chicago, which was then run by Lisa Schlesinger (Co-Head Playwrights Workshop at the University of Iowa.) As an actor and improviser, .

Ryan performed and studied for over a decade in the numerous improvisational comedy theaters and storefronts in Chicago. His acting credits include productions at Steppenwolf Theater’s “Next Up” series, TimeLine Theater, Collaboraction, Strawdog, and Wildclaw Theater. He has primarily improvised at iO and Annoyance Theaters, and has performed and taught workshops at numerous festivals and universities around the country with his groups Revolver and Pudding-Thank-You.

Dolan’s play, “Daddy’s Little Girls,” was named a National Semifinalist for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival’s 10-minute play competition, the THE GARY GARRISON AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING TEN-MINUTE PLAY. In conjunction with KCACTF, “Daddy’s Little Girls” also garnered him one of the eight, nationwide nominations for the National Partners of American Theatre Playwriting Award which recognizes “best-written, best-crafted script with the strongest writer’s “voice.””  He received a production of his full-length play, “Bait Shop,” at the 2016 Seabury Quinn Jr. Playwrights’ Festival at Ohio University. His full-length play,“Moraine,” had a reading at the 2014 Seabury Quinn Jr. Playwrights Festival at Ohio University, and at the Trellis Reading Series at the Greenhouse Theater Center. Moraine was self-produced at CIC Theater in Chicago in the spring of 2015, and was directed by Mary Rose O’Connor.

Dolan produced four one-act plays written by three other Ohio University playwrights and himself called “10-4: The Truck Stop Plays” at CIC Theater in the Summer of 2014. Ryan’s full-length play “The Peace of Westphalia” was awarded the first-ever workshop production in the playwriting program at Columbia College. His ten-minute plays have been produced by American Theater Company, and Brown Couch Theater in Chicago. Ryan was the dramaturg at RedTwist theater for Kimberly Senior’s (“Disgraced,” “Support Group for Men”) production of “The Pillowman,” and Keira Fromm’s production of “The Lobby Hero.” Both were nominated for Jeff Awards for “Best Play” and “Best Director.”