Ryan James Monroe comes home with music and a message

Ten years ago, Ryan James Monroe left St. Petersburg, his hometown, for North Carolina’s Elon University, where he majored in musical theater and arts administration.

Post-graduation, hello the Big Apple. “The goal was always to make it to New York,” Monroe recalls. “And when I was getting ready to graduate from Elon, at the last minute I was terrified to move to New York. My mom was actually the one who pushed and inspired me to take that leap of faith.”

At the Pinellas County Center for the Arts, Monroe had been known as the kid with the Big Voice. His rich baritone won him a Walker’s Rising Stars Scholarship, and he planned on making music and theater his life’s work when he got to New York.

The BA in Arts Administration was put to good use – he managed day-to-day operations for Central Park’s Delacorte Theater, did similar work for the Elysabeth Kleinhans Theatrical Foundation, and in 2021 joined the Ars Nova talent promotion organization, where his current title is Facilities/Operations Manager & General Management Assistant.

“I have lived in an apartment in Harlem for six or seven years,” Monroe explains. “And I’ve collected my items: I have art on the walls, and I have the things that make me feel happy. I’ve built an incredible community. So I definitely made the right choice.”

Music, however, would not be relegated to second-level in his life. For the last couple of years, Monroe has been singing in New York clubs and cabarets including the legendary Joe’s Pub, and The Duplex, the well-known Greenwich Village gay stage.

Monroe returns to St. Pete for his first local performance in a decade, Thursday at freeFall Theatre. It’s a special Pride month concert in tandem with composer, musician and playwright Thomas Hodges; they’ve been collaborators since 2021, and have made an album, Time Travelers, which they’ll be performing live at the freeFall show.

The music (“Maybe I Should Tell You,” “One and My Only,” “Break the Bone”) is uplifting and inspiring in the musical theater style. Monroe sings; Hodges plays piano.

“The idea behind Time Travelers is that we are all on our own journey; we’re all trying to figure our stuff out,” explains Monroe. “And in order to do that, you have to travel through time. You have to look back, and envision forward. And you also have to stay firmly rooted in the present moment, to then evolve and grow.

“The album is a retrospective and also a wish for the future. In sharing the battles with gay shame, the battles with identity, heartbreak. Taking off your armor and allowing yourself to be vulnerable and stand in your own power, and in your truth, after years of armoring up for one reason or another. In order to protect yourself.

“We wanted to center the queer and gay themes in Time Travelers, and pull back the curtain of what the truth of the gay experience is. What part of it is. And in order to do that, we had to travel through time.”

Performances of these songs, with Hodges on piano and a small band, have sold out a half-dozen times in New York.

Monroe was waiting for just the right moment to return to the old hometown. Playing the Time Travelers songs here is important to him, he says, “because I’m horrified at what’s happening in Florida. I feel so sad. My heart breaks for all of the young, gay, queer, trans folks coming up in that space. Who are being told that who they are, and what they are, is wrong. Is illegal. Is sinful. And none of that is the case.

“I came out when I was 14 and going to PCCA. I came out at a time where marriage equality wasn’t even a dream. I felt like, by declaring myself as gay, that I was resigning myself to a lesser life. Because I didn’t have the rights that everybody else had. I was bullied in St. Pete. It was not easy.

“It’s important for me to bring this back, and stand in my truth. Telling the stories of coming out and finding and building my authenticity in a world that would prefer I don’t. I’m hoping to be a presence for someone who needs to see someone reflect back to them their own beauty.”

Tickets for Thursday’s Time Travelers concert.

https://freefalltheatre.com/calendar-test/