“r” is honored to join the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s production of Charles Fuller’s A Soldier’s Play as Private James Wilkie. This Pulitzer Prize winning play is a classic and the cast is heavily stacked with professional talent. You do not want to miss this one.
“r” is enjoying the Umbrella Stage Company jump start of it’s 2025 – 2026 season by portraying Paul in the UAC production of Meghan Kennedy’s The Counter.
“r” is taking a break as he devotes most of his time to writing and shaping upcoming work. Stay tuned…
March – April
Congrats x n to the Actor’s Shakespeare Project crew and cast of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson. Nine nominations for The Boston Critics Association’s prestigious Elliot Norton Awards – including “ranney”s nomination as Outstanding Featured Performance for his portrayal of Wining Boy.
In August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, actor “ranney” played the part of Boy Willie with fervor and verve…”ranney” won his way through this labyrinth with a show of sheer force, with a thundering rapidity that never failed to command our attention and admiration. Exuberant and stubborn, energetic and optimistic, “ranney”s Boy Willie stood for the power of hope that a legacy of slavery could be finally overcome with the purchase of the property on which his grandparents were once slaves. Watching “ranney,” you couldn’t help but feel this enthusiasm yourself. And you couldn’t help noticing: this was a terrific performance.
Mark Leib. Creative Loafing.
For folks who want New-York quality theater without travelling to the Big Apple, don’t miss the Center Theatre Company’s seamless production of The Piano Lesson. As the tumultuous Boy Willie, “ranney” gives a tour-de-force performance. His rage and determination suck in all the people around him…tornado of a man…magnificent performance.
Kathy Greenberg. Tampa Tribune
(in How I Learned What I Learned) You get to sit down and have a conversation with the August Wilson–and feel like you are the only person he is talking to. – Aiden Dalton. League of Cincinnati Theatres.As Sterling (in Radio Golf), Wilks’ childhood friend who has seen prison time and is on the other side of the argument and social class, the actor “ranney” is a revelation. He’s powerful in Act I, but Act II belongs to him. This is a performance that left me shaken, thrilled, talking of little else afterwards…kept me on the edge of my seat, literally. I sat there, inching forward, closer toward the stage, so moved by Wilson’s words and “ranney”s performance.
Peter Nason. Broadway World
“ranney” is the chameleon of these productions; he changes his hairstyle and facial hair to completely inhabit the many characters he has played. A few years ago he played the mentally challenged Hambone in Two Trains Running and here plays Doub, one of the jitney drivers. ranney has won two consecutive Outstanding Feature Actor Awards from Theatre Tampa Bay, an honor he richly deserves.
William S. Oser. Talkin’ Broadway “ranney’s” monologues interspersed through the show (as Toledo in CSC’s producton of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) are breathtaking to behold and worth the price of admission alone.
Nathan Top. League of Cincinnati Theatres
To portray Troy, Cincy Shakes recruited a guest actor, the singularly named “ranney,” an award-winning veteran of Wilson productions elsewhere. He’s a fine choice, creating a brutal portrait of a man who rages against his plight in life, his imminent death, the devil and injustices that have affected him and his brother Gabe (Geoffrey Warren Barnes), who was injured in World War II and left with a mental disability. “ranney” delivers several powerful soliloquies that are as Shakespearean — just in a different dialect — than any in Cincy Shakes’ regular stock in trade.
Rick Pender. City Beat.
“ranney” gives a towering performance as Troy. Even in his calmest and most serene moments, he overpowers the stage. He smiles and jokes with Bono, but with each swig from his pint bottle of cheap gin you feel the rage building.
David Lyman. Cincinnati.com
In a star turn from the performer known simply as “ranney,” in his CSC debut as the indomitable, infuriating, intoxicating Troy Maxson. Sometimes “ranney” sprawled out on these stairs, slugging back gin and regaling us with hilarious tall-tales. Other times he crouched and scowled like a hell-hound ready to pounce. And sometimes “ranney” sang. Damn, can that man sing! He sang the tunes marked as such in the script, but he also discovered music in other passages masquerading as prose. I am not merely complimenting “ranney” for having a good voice and knowing how to sing the blues, though he certainly deserves that much credit and more. I’m talking instead about the way his vocal delivery… helped safe-crack my appreciation for the integral part “Old Blue” plays in Fences. The song went from being a heavy-handed contrivance to serving as the glue which binds together the final scene “ranney”’s voice was a catalyst for revelation, reintroducing me to this familiar play in completely unexpected ways. His sonorous voice is charismatic and alluring allowed me to finally hear what I’d been deaf to before.
Graley Herren. August Wilson Journal.
2024
November – December
“ranney” is juggling several writing projects as he prepares to be the musical director and portray Uncle Wining Boy in the Actors’ Shakespeare Project 2025 production of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson.
“ranney” is honored to be nominated for a 2024 Berkshire Theatre Critics Award for Outstanding Lead Actor for his work as Dutch in the Shakespeare & Company production of Carey Crim’s The Islanders directed by Regge Life.
Rehearsal: Michelle Mountain as Anna. “ranney” as Dutch
Michelle Mountain as Anna. “ranney” as Dutch
Come FUN with us!
Friday. Oct. 18. 8PM Mano Negra. $15
“r” is looking forward to finally releasing his first comedy mixtape entitled, “I Knew You Would Fit In My Trunk.” Collaborating with several DJs, musicians, and engineers, it has all the ingredients of a classic. Coming your way this next Winter.
Let’s keep Bucket List 24 going! As he completes this unbelievable run as August Wilson at Ensemble Theatre Company, “r” is preppin to headline a night of thought proving poetry and hilarious comedy. March 10. 7:30 PM @ Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. Special guest poets: Just Dave and Tempest Tantrumz will open the evening before “r” hits the CSC crowd with an onslaught of his cranium silly putty. You do not want to miss this one!
In this year that he’s calling “Bucket List 24,” “r” is beyond amped to check bucket list item number two: the opening of How I Learned What I Learned @ Ensemble Theatre in Cincinnati. The honest and unapologetic show about the iconic playwright August Wilson and the world that informed his artistic sensibilities runs February 21 – March 10.
“r” is honored to fulfill several bucket list opportunities in 2024. The first: he can currently be seen as Luke in the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company production of the James Baldwin classic The Amen Corner.
“r” is both humbled and honored to be recognized for his work as Troy Maxson in the 2023 Shakespeare and Company production of August Wilson’s Fences. Additionally, “ranney”s performance was named as one of two performances of 2023 by Midday Magazine:
Writing and prepping for 2024. News (including two bucket list stage engagements in the Spring) to come before Thanksgiving. Be…
SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER
The “r” is writing and hitting a few intimate stand-up comedy dates. Stay tuned, Fam.
Be…
JUNE – AUGUST
“ranney” is beyond honored and excited to be portraying Troy Maxson in the Shakespeare and Company production of August Wilson’s Fences. Shakes and Co has assembled a beast of a cast directed by Christopher Edwards and this promises to be a classic.
“ranney” was honored to take the driver’s seat as the director in the reboot of the Straz Center’s production of Crowns in Tampa, Florida. It was a blast-soaked family reunion.
Lookout! He’s back from an engagement in Vegas to operate on your funnybone. Come see “r” at Two Docs in Lubbock, Texas. 9:30 PM, Friday, April 28.
“ranney” is ecstatic to be a part of a production of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson for the fourth time, fourth different character. This go around he is portraying the family patriarch, Doaker Charles. This production by A Public Fit Theatre Company runs to the end of April.
“ranney” had an emotional run as Benny in the American premiere of Lolita Chakrabarti’s two hander HYMN at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts.
“ranney” ‘s performance is beautifully layered, truthful from beginning to end as he brings us from our first negative interaction with him through his final, moving monologue.
– Barbara Waldinger. Berkshire On Stage
“ranney” raises the high bar he has set throughout the show to an even higher level at the play’s end with a monologue that, with all it’s measured quietude, honesty and authencity, will break your heart.
– Jeffrey Borak. Berkshire Eagle
(“ranney”s) face and body reveal a world of feeling as he navigates Benny’s journey into the life he deserved but never had.
Part of the Three Rivers Arts Festival (June 3rd-12th)
Runs June 2nd-12th, 3 PM and 8 PM Tuesday through Saturday, at Noon and 3 PM on Sunday
At the Trust Arts Education Center, 805 Liberty Avenue, 4th floor
Festival coordinator: Monteze Freeland
PPTCO’s signature Theatre Festival in Black & White returns with a selection of short plays, each paired with a director from a different background.
“ranney”
