Southport Magazine

Contributed by Sophie Zapf

Editor’s Note: Our family met the Tewells through the Brunswick Little Theatre working on Wizard of Oz in Odell Williamson Auditorium back in 2012. Melanie was the Wicked Witch, her youngest son Nick was her flying  monkey minion and her son Ryan played a variety of ensemble parts. Ryan had been a “theatre kid” long before we met him, but we had the pleasure of watching him grow into a happy and talented young man actor. He was always around, willing and excited to do anything from star in Godspell to help me behind the scenes putting on The 39 Steps in The Amuzu. He was always a joy to have around and we will miss him. He was killed in a car accident last month, shocking  and devasting everyone who knew him. We reached out to one of his peers, another “theatre kid,” Sophie Zapf, to write a tribute/remembrance of Ryan. 

Something you will always hear in relation to theatre and theatrical productions is the people involved talking about how much they love the people they work with. As someone who has been on the inside, experiencing this firsthand, I can attest to how true it is. 

In the summer of 2011, I participated in my second or third production with Brunswick Little Theatre, a lovely show many know: Oliver! There, I met someone who would become one of my best friends for life, Ryan Tewell. He was playing the Artful Dodger, which is a role I can picture no one else in. What stands out in my memory the most was this giant top hat with a red feather; a truly wonderful piece from costuming, and something I will  always associate with him. The hat was just a little too big for the then 11 year old Ryan, and if you bopped the top of it just right, it would fall down over his face. I did this many, many times. Over the next nine years, he and I and everyone in our theatre family grew closer. It was sort of hard not to, having spent nearly every weekend as well as many weeknights working and creating together. Ryan worked as hard as he could, all the while staying positive and friendly. It wasn’t just that he worked hard either, he had this talent for everything he did and put his mind to. He loved his friends and loved what we all did together. Ryan was one of the strongest people I will ever know. Opinionated, headstrong, and stubborn, even when faced with adversity that required a tenacity few people his age possessed, he never gave up. 

Instead, he kept creating.

So as I and countless others struggle to find reason in the tragic, unspeakably painful matter of losing him on September 6th, the best thing I can do right now is to follow in his example; I will never give up. And when I feel like I can’t go on or everything feels impossible, I’ll think of my friend and how disappointed he would be if he knew I gave up on something I really wanted. I urge everyone, whether you had the wonder and charm of knowing him or not, to keep fighting. Keep creating, loving, learning, and trying. Ryan never stopped doing those things. 

Even when everything seemed to tell him to stop or give up,

he never listened.

Sophie Zapf is a senior theatre education major at Appalachian State University, with minors in English and Nonprofit Management. She is graduating in December 2020. She hopes to work to make theatre more accessible for all communities and audiences, especially students and young people, to pass on the joy she felt having access to theatre while she was growing up.