On The Road: A Touring Perspective

Living life on the road all year means many things. It means that we share laundry facilities in hotels; learn to eat full meals prepared in the microwave, and how to live with under 50lbs. in each piece of luggage we carry. Something that you might not think about though, is that many of us document our experiences on the road by taking photographs. Members of the company of NETworks Presents Disney’s Beauty and the Beast decided they’d like to share these photos with the public. They used their three-week stint in Los Angeles as an opportunity to showcase a few of these pictures. The show is called: “On The Road: A Touring Perspective” and it is billed as follows:

This gallery is a photo exhibition featuring photographers on Disney's Beauty and the Beast tour (playing at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood). 8-10 photographers on the tour show what they see while exploring the country and world while not performing or working a Broadway show. The exhibition, which officially opens with the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk on March 10th and runs through the end of the month, will be featured at the Harlem Place Cafe in Downtown Los Angeles. The exhibition will benefit the Inner-City Arts Organization. The photos displayed are available to purchase through the gallery.

We recently sat down with Ryan McAlpine, the organizer of the photo exhibition, and member of the crew on the National Tour of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. We asked him a few questions, and thought that we would share them with you. Here goes…

Beauty Blogger: How long have you been working in the business/ touring?

Ryan: I've been on the road for 4 years now, and Beauty and the Beast is my 4th tour. But I've been doing theater since middle school.

Beauty Blogger: Tell me about some of your previous touring experiences:

Ryan: My first tour was The Producers, which was mostly one nighters. It was good exposure to intense theater after college. I toured before this on the RENT National tour for 12 weeks with Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal, which helped validate theater again for me. It's exciting to see people relate so much to a show and a cause.

Beauty Blogger: When did you become interested in photography?

Ryan: I started taking pictures when I got on the road in '07 to capture my adventures. In the last few years I've started to try to find an artistic art for photographs and decided to find ways to share it with the public. You visit so many places on the road that if you don't try to find a way to capture your experiences, they'll drift away.

Beauty Blogger: How many photographers have contributed to the show?

Ryan: We have 10 very talented photographers in the show each with a different style. It's awesome to see all these artists come together for one cause.

Beauty Blogger: Tell us about the Inner-City Arts Organization.

Ryan: The following is part of the mission statement of the Inner-City Arts Organization:
“Our unique approach to arts education brings elementary, middle and high school students, educators, families and the community to Inner-City Arts' award-winning campus—an oasis of creativity and learning in one of the nation's poorest neighborhoods—to work with professional teaching artists in well-equipped studios and performance spaces.”

I found this group after a lot of searching for an arts group involving children. I think their work is important to the future of industries such as the one I work in.

Beauty Blogger: Is there anything else that you would like people to know about the show?

Ryan: I think this show demonstrates the creative nature of a group of people who don't often have more than one outlet to give to the public. It all goes to a great cause and has been a lot of fun to put together. I was happy to find some creative outlet that has built up since I started this show 13 months ago.

The show runs until the end of the month. So be sure to head down to the Harlem Place Café in Downtown Los Angeles and find out what all the fuss is about. And of course, come see Disney's Beauty and the Beast at The Pantages Theatre in Hollywood through March 26th.