PREPARING STUDENTS FOR LIFE
PAGE 6
Graduate spotlight
cont. from page 8
I had stopped sewing and was watching the little
monitor in the wardrobe room going, ‘This. Is.
Amazing.’ I knew within the first hour that this was
really special and that this was going to change
everything.” said, ‘This thing that you think is going to happen is
not going to happen. You’re never going to be an
actor.’ And I was crushed,” he said.
Moller has always been interested in costumes
and design. He learned to sew from his mother, who
ran an embroidery and applique business out of
their home. When he was young she would let him
play on the sewing machine with leftover scraps of
fabric, which he would turn into doll-sized costumes
based on those he’d seen in old movies like “Gone
with the Wind” and “The King and I.” “In community theater you have to be involved in
some aspect of the show other than being on stage,
so I was always helping in costumes, and in high
school I helped create the costumes for the shows.
For someone to tell me that this should be my pro-
fession instead of being on stage was quite literally
life-changing,” he said. “He saw potential in me as
a costume designer, so they created a major for
me.”
“I always thought it
was just something fun,
that it was a hobby,” he
said.
He didn’t initially see
costume design as a
potential career because
his dream had always
been acting. He got
involved with the Anoka
Ryan Moller poses with
Children’s theater as a
costumes and wardrobe
performer in second
from on the Broadway hit,
grade, then moved on
“Hamilton.”
to community theater,
and was active in all the student-directed shows at
AHS, from “Little Shop of Horrors” to “Jesus Christ
Superstar.” He said his theater advisors at the
school were incredibly supportive and influential,
including paraeducator Karen Psyck, who oversaw
costumes at the time and helped him with his
sewing and design skills, which he had no idea
would eventually come in so handy.
“Because of them, I feel like I got the most out of
my education that I could possibly have gotten out
of it,” he said.
When he went off to college, he had every inten-
tion of becoming an actor, he said. But life had
other plans. When he entered the musical theater
program at Rockford College in Illinois, one of his
professors pulled him aside and poured some cold
water on his dream.
“I am not a great singer, unfortunately, and I had a
very nice professor who sat me down one day and
But the professor also told him he should consider
turning his longtime hobby into a career.
Moller threw himself into his new career path, not
only taking design classes, but also taking classes
on hair history and styling, wigs and makeup
because he wanted to understand all aspect of cos-
tumes and design. As a student he interned with the
Santa Fe Opera, and after graduation did a national
tour with a New York company called The Acting
Company. He was then accepted into graduate
school at North Carolina School of the Arts, which
only accepts two designers in its costume program
each year.
After graduate school he went on tour with “42nd
Street” to China and South Korea, which allowed
him to see professional theater from a technician’s
point of view and to see how things operate first-
hand. When the tour ended, he moved to New York
with the goal of working on Broadway.
Because of his background in hair as well as cos-
tume design, a makeup artist friend suggested he
apply to the hair departments of different Broadway
shows as a backup for stylists on vacation or medical
“ This. Is. Amazing.’ I knew
within the first hour that this
was really special and that
this was going to change
everything. ”
- Ryan Moller about his first day watching “Hamilton.”
In addition to working on “Hamilton,” Ryan Moller’s other
credits include working for “Cinderella,” pictured here.
leave, as a way to get his foot in the door.
“I took an afternoon and quite literally walked
from 59th to 41st Street dropping off my resume at
every single stage door on Broadway. Within two
weeks I had my first call, and then a week later got
my second call,” he said. “So within two months of
moving here I had two Broadway shows that I was
working on.”
The steady income from those shows allowed him
to focus on and pursue his design career and put his
resume together, and he was able to eventually
move from hair into wardrobe. He has since worked
on 23 Broadway shows, including “Miss Saigon,”
“Jersey Boys,” “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” the
revival of “Grease,” and the “Lion King.”
In addition to his Broadway career, he’s also main-
tained a very active freelance design career, design-
ing costumes for theaters and repertory companies
around the U.S., as well as clothes for private
clients. He won the Innovation Theater Award for
Outstanding Costume Design in 2010 and has been
nominated for several other costume design awards.
“I’m trying to maintain my design career as much
as possible. In my ideal world, I want to design full
time and be thriving enough as a designer to make
that a career,” he said. “I am lucky to have a day job
with a very prestigious show, but because design is
what I truly want to do, I carve out the time to make
that happen.”
Moller said his ultimate dream is to one day
design costumes for a major Broadway show.
“As an actor, Broadway was always my goal. And
now as a designer, Broadway is still my goal. I’ve
always had very lofty goals,” he said, laughing. ■
Morning of
mindfulness
Join the Anoka-
Hennepin team!
Have you ever considered working for
Anoka-Hennepin schools? The district
employs teachers, substitutes and paraedu-
cators, but has many positions outside of the
classroom, including cooks, bus drivers, sec-
retaries, nurses, custodians and many others.
Whether you’re looking for a part-time job
or a career — working for Anoka-Hennepin
schools is a rewarding employment opportu-
nity that's also fulfilling — most employees
recommend Anoka-Hennepin as a great
place to work.
Learn more at ahschools.us/jobs.
#AHSchools #Community
#RecommendedByEmployees
A special event from
Community Education
Anoka-Hennepin Community Education
hosted its 10th annual Community
Wellness Day on Jan. 20. Whether you
missed the event, or attended and are
looking to dive deeper into improving
your health and well-being, the "Morning
of Mindfulness" on Mar. 3 from 9-11:45
a.m. may be a great option to try. The
special event coordinated by the adult
learning program aims to help participants
relax, slow down and replenish:
• Yoga Gentle Stretch: Move through a
series of standing and chair-only poses
that relaxes your body and pro motes
energy.
• Keep Stress from Becoming Anxiety:
Learn coping skills and strategies for
reducing and eliminating stress.
Community members participated in a sampler “Gentle
Stretch Yoga” class at Community Wellness Day Jan. 20.
The class will be part of the Morning of Mindfulness Mar. 3.
• Watercolor Wellness: Use watercolor pencils to
relax and bring your creativity to life.
• Meditation: Try a 30-minute guided meditation
session to calm your mind, settle your body and
bring contentment to your heart.
The Morning of Mindfulness is $55 for one adult
and $99 for two. View more details about this special
event and all adult learning opportunities at
www.discovercommunityed.com. Call 763-506-5766
to register. ■