Small Town Talent, Big City Culture

By: Liv Stecker

Some would argue that growing up in a rural area in Northeast Washington can stunt a child in their cultural development and appreciation of the arts. While this may ring true in some cases, Ryan Hayes personifies a strong argument to the contrary. The rock opera that Ryan, along with creative partners Garrett Sherwood and Jon Lewis, wrote and produced just finished up a one week run at the New York Musical Theater Festival, which speaks to the caliber of talent and artistic value that springs from rural roots.

Spending his childhood in the woods up Orin Rice Road outside of Colville, Hayes moved to Idaho during his last two years of highschool, but not before he had a chance to perform in a production of Lil' Abner at Woodlands Theater along with his musically gifted sister, Trina. Coming from a large and tight-knit family in the area who all dabbled in music in school and church settings, Ryan became captivated in earnest with writing and playing music shortly after he began college.

Rexburg, Idaho was more than the town where Ryan went to college, it became an artistic garden for him where he met Garrett Sherwood and began to write the rock opera that would be Deep Love. in 2010, Jon Lewis came on board the fledgling production of Deep Love, which was rapidly gaining a cult following in the college town. Featuring local students and actors, including Ryan's sister Trina for a brief period of time, the show entranced audiences, and the word spread. The cast and the show itself, a romantic musical set against a backdrop of tragedy and intruige, evolved as the writers collaborated and expanded. In a response to popular demand, the show ran repeatedly in a workshop-like format, training in new cast members for upcoming performances as other actors moved on.

Ryan and his partners graduated from college, and realized that the brainchild they had created wasn't going away. In fact, Deep Love had taken on a life of it's own. "Before long we had to grow up and become adults," Hayes says of this turning point in the evolution of Deep Love, and the production that they had created had grown beyond a moveable project. "It was big, and we had to trim it down and turn it into a business," he remarks. It was the only way to keep doing the thing that they loved, as well as their audiences. It was the gradual evolution from a creative group of college friends to a viable business undertaking.

It was Jon Lewis who suggested to Ryan that they take some of the raw musical material that they had been developing and audition for a new reality talent show that was exploding on to the scene. Hayes and Lewis packed it up and headed to California for cattle-call auditions to become contestants on the voice. "We were starting from ground zero," Hayes says, "and somehow out of 40,000 people, they found us interesting enough to go on." After the first round of selections, Midas Whale, as the Hayes/Lewis collaboration called themselves, was caught off guard by the success. But soon they uncovered the secret to getting through the gamut of auditions. "They weren't looking for talent, they were looking for character." Ryan chuckles. And they had just enough to get by. Making it through several rounds of the elimination talent show, Midas Whale stole the hearts of a worldwide audience in 2013.

The adventure breathed new life into the creative team behind Deep Love, and after Hayes and Lewis were eliminated from The Voice, they went back to Rexburg to polish up and streamline their rock opera. In early 2015, Jon Lewis submitted the script of Deep love for consideration as one of the productions in the New York Musical Theater Festival. Making it by popular vote past two layers of competition, Hayes said he was more than a little shocked when they received an email welcoming their production to the "most prestigious stage festival in New York". Deep Love was going to the big apple, but it wasn't as easy as all that. The production company had to raise $70,000 to stage the show, which is a hefty price tag when it's coming out of pocket but a paltry amount for a real show in New York. The Deep Lovers weren't phased, and launched a crowdfunding site to help reach their goal. With some creative budgeting they pulled it off and ran the show for a week in July for an audience of fans, New Yorkers, tourists and critics. The reviews varied from roaring success to "a death-fetish.." The consensus of the majority was positive, and there was no question that this was just the beginning for the success story of Deep Love and small town boy, Ryan Hayes.

The folk opera, Deep Love, is currently touring in the Northwest, beginning in Aberdeen, Washington on October 3rd, followed by shows in Salt Lake City, Idaho Falls, and Walla Walla, Washington on October 23rd. Tickets are available on the website: http://www.deeploveopera.com/tickets/