Finding the Stage Again: Wesley Ryan and Places Please

At SONIQLOOX, we spend a lot of time exploring stories that connect sound and emotion. So when I came across a video about a Kickstarter campaign for a new TV show pulling back the curtain on Broadway life, I stopped doom-scrolling. It could’ve been just another afternoon—or maybe the middle of the night. Either way, that part doesn’t really matter. What does matter is the video that made me stop.

I was instantly transported back to the first time I stepped into the theatrical world, and my junior-high heart started racing. Back then, I thought I was destined to stay backstage—lighting, stage production, whatever part of the machine would let me keep the magic alive. But fate had other plans. In high school, our show choir needed more guys, so I decided to give it a shot. I can’t tell you where or when that first performance was, but I’ll never forget the rush. The stage called—and I’ve been hooked ever since.

Fast-forward thirty-some-odd years, and here comes Wesley Ryan with Places Please—a dark musical drama that captures the same collision of nerves, joy, and exhaustion I remember from those early days. Their story pulls back the velvet curtain to reveal what really happens between the spotlight and the silence.

Wesley Ryan is a multidisciplinary theater artist, performer, and writer based between Los Angeles and New York. A former cast member of Hamilton, they now channel their stage experience into storytelling that lives beyond the footlights. Their latest project, Places Please, is a dark musical drama that explores the emotional lives of the people who keep theater running when the curtain falls. Blending their background in performance with a sharp eye for humanity, Wesley continues to create work that bridges spectacle and sincerity—capturing what it truly means to live for the stage.

Places Please isn’t just a story living inside Wesley—it’s one born from years spent chasing perfection eight shows a week, then wondering who they were when the curtain dropped. A performer turned writer, they lived the rhythm of backstage life: the adrenaline, the exhaustion, and the small moments of connection that make it all worth it.

Co-created with Abby Powers, Places Please pulls back the velvet curtain on the human cost of performance—the cracks, the longing, and the light that still finds its way through.

We sat down with Wesley to talk about where it all began, what keeps them creating, and why this project feels like the story they were always meant to tell.

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SNQLX: You’ve lived both sides of the spotlight — on stage and now behind the script. What first pulled you toward performing in the first place?

WESLEY: I quite literally grew up in the entertainment industry. I did my first musical when I was 3 years old. Despite being a very shy child, I always had an affinity for the stage. It took me a long time to break out of my shell and really lean into the fact that I could be whoever I wanted when I stepped out on that stage. My sophomore year of high school I was cast in my first professional musical, the world premiere of ’13’ the musical composed by Jason Robert Brown, a month after my dad died. That experience changed the trajectory of my life and shifted my career path from wannabe surgeon to star of stage and screen.

SNQLX: Working on shows like Hamilton must’ve been a wild education. What did that experience teach you about the people who make theater actually run?

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