Theater	The Return of Richard Ruiz by Anthony Chase

The current national tour of Sweet Charity at Shea’s starring Molly Ringwald, features another face familiar to Buffalonians, Richard Ruiz, who graduated from Buffalo State College in 1995. Sweet Charity is the story of a dance hall hostess who is unlucky with men and wants to change her life. Ruiz plays Herman, the belligerent yet adorable manager of the Fandango dance hall, who “Loves to Cry at Weddings.”

After being featured in numerous Buffalo State productions, Ruiz made his professional debut in the Buffalo United Artists production of Paul Rudnick’s Jeffrey in 1995. I remember well, because I played Sterling in the same production.

Even as a college student, Ruiz projected a sparkling sense of jest and fun on stage. His comic timing was astounding and his natural self-assurance seemed less like bravado than like inexplicable innocence. In Jeffrey, he played multiple roles, each distinct and hilarious, from an oblivious television reporter to a Broadway-addicted priest who lusted in his heart.

After Buffalo State, Ruiz when to the University of Connecticut—on full scholarship, mind you. He then embarked on his professional career full time and he hasn’t stopped working since.

“I had a great time here in Buffalo,” recalls Ruiz. “I had so much to learn. Growing up in New York City, as I did, you’d think I’d have an edge. It was the most cultured city in the country, but growing up in the projects, I had no access to it because we were broke. Well, the Museum of Modern Art was free at the time, but I didn’t know about it, and there was nobody telling me to access those things. That changed in college.”

Ruiz entered Buffalo State under the Educational Opportunity Program, a program for promising students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“At Buffalo State, my experience exactly matched their mission statement. They ‘transformed my life through education.’ The world opened up to me. There were things beyond my grasp—I particularly remember a philosophy course in which I did not do well; it was all so new and it was hard for me to keep up. But even that experience made me want to strive harder, do better and learn more. It made me realize how much more work there was to do. I was at Buff State from 1990 to 1995, and they were among the most formative years of my life; I loved it. I loved the faculty; I loved the students. They were great years.”

Ruiz returned to Buffalo State for an alumni day last year.

“Buffalo has changed dramatically in 10 years. I remember the Elmwood area as kind of bleak; it is much more beautiful and alive now. I have never understood why Buffalo doesn’t cross over, why more people don’t know about it. I’d look at [the Richardson towers] at the Psych Center next door and think, ‘Why hasn’t anybody used this as a movie location?’ It is destined to be a movie location!”

At UConn, Ruiz studied Suzuki acting technique.

“It’s not the same guy as the violin. That’s another Suzuki. This is training for actors. A rigorous physical and aerobic workout to learn how much energy it takes to be on stage, even in stillness. If you want to have a presence, your motor has to be running. You must come off sweating, even if you’ve been sitting at a table.

“I rejected the notion that you had to be in pain to act at first, but watching the other students, I learned. I remember one guy who was very flamboyant in everything he did, and the teacher forced him to do the exercise-work longer and harder, and then he let him relax, and while sweating and crying, he did the St. Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V—‘No, my fair cousin: / If we are mark’d to die, we are enow / To do our country loss’—and all of a sudden, he was an actor. It was amazing. He had played a fop in everything we had done, and suddenly he was a soldier come from battle.”

After graduate school, Ruiz got a job with the young company at the Berkshire Theatre Festival.

“My mentor’s wife ran that company, and it was great, because all the other actors were just out of Juilliard. This was good for me, because all Juilliard kids have agents before they leave school, and those agents came to see them at the Berkshires. Well, they saw me too, and that’s how I got the agent I still have to this day.”

Ruiz has worked constantly since 1998. He’s had two Barrymore nominations in Philadelphia and currently has a Carbonell nomination for his work in South Florida.

He has only worked as an understudy once.

“It was worth it. I had a small role in Two Gentleman of Verona, and understudied a principal actor, but it was Shakespeare in the Park in New York City! It was a perfect theater experience. I grew up in New York City, but for the first time, I felt like a New Yorker—living and working in the city, and I thought, ‘I could get used to this!’”

Other favorite roles include Nicely Nicely in Guys and Dolls.

“I’ve played that guy four times! Guys and Dolls delivers every time. ‘Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat’ is the ultimate showstopper and even a choreographer or director who tries to mess around with it can’t kill it. I like the original way. Why fix it? It works every time! It’s two verses and a big finish and the trick is that it is too short. It is the first time in the show that all the guys and all the dolls sing together. The audience hears the full ensemble for the first time and then the song ends before they are ready, and they beg for more—every single time. Perfection!”

Ruiz also played Officer Barrel in the national touring company of Urinetown!

“When I saw Urinetown! on Broadway, I knew I needed to play that role. The original actor never left it, but I got the tour and it was wonderful. That’s a big highlight of my career. It was new and dangerous and edgy and entertaining. I never got tired of doing it. Even in Birmingham, Alabama, where they hated us, I still loved it. People in Birmingham sat with their arms crossed and never uncrossed them. We were staged to move during the applause after the opening number. In Birmingham, there was no applause. You heard the amplified sound of our feet moving. It was awful! We traveled with the concession girl and she’d report on who walked out. One guy actually threw the program at her and said, ‘We’re better than this shit!’ He was too good for a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, but not too good to throw a program at a concession girl; go figure!”

Ruiz is loving the Sweet Charity tour. His presence is the show looms large, though he actually has relatively little stage time.

“Herman is a small role. I have four walk-on scenes and one song. It may not be as enriching as Hamlet, but I love what I am doing. The trick is to keep it fresh. After doing a show for several months, the time comes when you play the scene, and as you walk off the stage, you don’t remember having done it. You were not present. You were just waiting for your cues. That is the ultimate injustice. We have done it many times before, but the audience is new. If that happens, I bring back my Suzuki exercises. When that happens, you go back to those basic Acting 101 questions: ‘Who am I? What do I want? What was I doing before I entered this scene?’ That works.”

Ruiz confirms that that show’s star, Molly Ringwald, is every bit as charming and endearing as her screen persona.

“Molly is the sweetest person. She had the world handed to her on a plate at a very early age. Most of us work our entire lives and never achieve that level of success. Being a star like Molly Ringwald is a unique thing that most of us never experience, and she wears it very well. She handles it with wonderful grace. She has a beautiful family a wonderful husband and lovely child, and she does the shows she wants to do. She’s great in the show, and audiences adore her. It doesn’t get better than that!”

Ruiz has enjoyed many exciting opportunities in theater, but the Buffalo production of Jeffrey still holds a special place in his heart.

“Jeffrey was wonderful because there were not a lot of ‘out’ gay guys at Buffalo State. That was isolating. I was the gay confidant character in all those backstage theater department dramas. Then I took the job off campus, and to be in a BUA show with all those smart, sensible, happy gay people doing a great show was wonderful. I was happy to be working professionally and happy to be gay. And the show was great; we really tore it up with that show. It was edgy, and it was a hot show. I loved that. It was also my first professional job, so I will always remember that. I would urge students to work in Buffalo’s professional theater—proximity to Buffalo’s theaters is one of the big advantages of Buffalo State. I still have important friendships in Buffalo. They were excellent years. The whole thing was education, and coming to Buffalo is like coming home.”

Sweet Charity continues at Shea’s through Sunday.