Eliza Ryan(formerly Lay)

Apple

The good news about the blankness of these characters is that it gives the actors playing them a lot of room to invent. The best at this is Lay. It’s been too long since she appeared on a Boston stage and it’s good to see her again. She’s easily one of the most compelling stage actors in town. Her effortless, naturalistic performance turns an archetypal Other Woman role into a revelation.

-The Boston Herald

The Snow White Project

[The] Snow Whites, slightly creepy and undeniably militant, are all business. When you stare at them, they stare back, with eyes so glassy that for a moment you imagine you’re looking at a painting. Suddenly they snap their heads in another direction. Mirror, mirror on the wall — and poof goes the fourth wall.

– The New York Times full review (Eliza Lay pictured front page NYTimes Art Section)

A Hard Heart: Apri

…as queen Praxis, Eliza Lay, a mainstay of the local fringe scene, crackles on here, just as she did in Loves-Lies-Bleeding, and The Eight before that – I’m not sure what a girl has to do to win an IRNE or Norton nomination around here, because Lay seems overdue for both.

–The Hub Review full review

Love Lies Bleeding

Particularly moving is the always excellent Lay, whose borderline obsessive love for her catatonic charge is palpable. – Boston Herald full review

Best of all is Eliza Lay as the much younger wife, Lia. Something about Lay’s acting makes you forget that she’s acting. She has a compelling presence onstage, and yet she’s also utterly natural.

– Boston Globe full review

Sacred Hearts

Special praise goes to Eliza Lay, who delicately but persistently builds a layered portrait of Bridget as both deeply faithful and deeply conflicted. “Sacred Hearts” might not work as well as it does if the woman at its heart were less complicated. – Boston Globe

Eliza Lay creates a believable portrait of Bridget as a distressed individual who is hiding from the world.. Ms. Lay possesses a mercurial ability to project the intellectual ambiguity of her character, …it gracefully represents the underlying uncertainty about her experience and serves the play very well. – Epoch Times

Lay pours an astounding amount of intensity and intelligence into Bridget; she’s hands-down one of Boston’s most natural actresses. – weekly dig

Gorilla Man

…delightfully protean Eliza Lay – Boston Globe