Tar Beach
Three unsupervised teenagers in New York City during the summer of 1977
It is July 1977. Son of Sam is on the loose and New York City is in the midst of a brutal heat wave. Sixteen year old Mary Claire and her best friend Mary Francis start that day sunning themselves on the roof of an Ozone Park row house. Younger sister Reenie is searching for her lost Greek Mythology class project, while their parents are consumed by the battles of their troubled marriage. The boy crazy Marys hatch a plan to stay out all night, but an overstressed electrical grid leads to a city-wide blackout and a sudden loss of innocence.
“Ryan’s dialogue and reporting of marital and familial interaction is simply superb…Ryan gives Fridh a brilliant heart-wrenching confession that the actress rewards with one of the most movingly delivered arias this season.” - Bill Hirschman, Florida Theater Onstage.