From stage to classroom, local thespian takes lead role as new Central High theater teacher

Theater-goers might recognize Jordan Ray as the young actor who brought thoughtful Jekyll and gravely-voiced Hyde to life in Macon Little Theatre’s recent musical production, but students at Central High School know him as Mr. Ray.

Ray, a 2021 Central graduate, returned to the classroom Aug. 4 for the first time in four years as the school’s new theater teacher.

Walking through the familiar hallways and working with colleagues who once taught him, Ray said it felt, “like going through a time machine.”

Four years isn’t a long time, said the 22-year-old teacher, and though Ray said he still feels like he’s going to class sometimes, a lot has changed.

“I’m just a completely different person than I was the last time I walked through these doors,” he said.

Ray said he has felt nervous every day and his goal is to do for his students what the school once did for him: help foster a greater appreciation for theater.

“I don’t want to fail these kids,” he said. 

Ray is just one week into the job, but it seems that his students have picked up on his passion and desire to help them learn. 

Central junior Nyla Belgrave hopes to study musical theater and said being in Ray’s class offers a chance to connect with other thespians. 

“I love how open he is,” she said. “He makes me feel like I’m heard.” 

Ray keeps them on their toes, Belgrave said, but he also listens to his students and works to strengthen specific skills and techniques. For Belgrave, she wants to improve her singing and stamina.

In high school, students learn the fundamentals of theater, Ray said, and college opens the door for more of a focus on technique.

He says he hopes to add a new level of training to the high school’s curriculum in the six classes he’s teaching this year. 

From script analysis to tinkering with technique, Ray said theater is partially psychological; he doesn’t want his students just reading from a script.

“Good theater will hold up a mirror to the society around it and allow people to feel, to actually look at what’s going on and be like, ‘we need some changes around here,’” Ray said. 

Ray said he plans to introduce his students to traditional theater studies, such as the Meisner Technique — which instructs actors to focus on other performers and their environment instead of themselves — while also writing new and original material for them to perform.

It’s important to have the experience of originating a role, Ray said, which means working on an entirely new role where the student can’t just look up how it’s done on YouTube.

Some students aren’t die-hard thespians longing for the spotlight, instead they just need the class credit, but Ray says that’s okay, too.

“My job is not to turn you into a performer,” he said “It’s not for everyone, but maybe I can give you an appreciation over something that you didn’t know before.”

Ray’s own appreciation budded at Central, where a musical performance in the tenth grade cemented his love of theater.

Finding the stage

Ray, a Macon native, is the youngest of five siblings and the only one with a penchant for theater. He played the cello and performed in his first show in the eighth grade, but he always planned to study law.

Ray said learning about the Civil Rights movement in school made him want to become a lawyer so he could make an impact on his community.

“I still have an impact on people now,” he said. “It’s just in a different way.”

It wasn’t until the last night of his performance as Seymour in “Little Shop of Horrors” that Ray realized he wanted to pursue theater professionally.

“The second I realized I wasn’t going to perform it anymore, I was like, ‘but I really love this. I miss this. I want to be doing this all the time,’” Ray said. “It was like a switch just went off in my head.”

The once-aspiring lawyer had fallen in love with theater as a form of storytelling and its ability to connect him with an audience.

Ray helped Central take home two regional trophies for “Pippin” and “Little Shop of Horrors” in Georgia’s One Act competition.

Ray earned his bachelor’s degree in musical theater from Brenau University in Gainesville.  

He said he felt like a “fish out of water” in college surrounded by others who seemed to know more, but the experience helped him hone his technique.  He also produced three original musicals: an Italian opera parody, a tap musical and a rap musical.

During the summer, he helped his mom — a teacher at Ingram-Pye Elementary — teach kids at the Next
Level Community Development Center.

After graduating from Brenau, Ray came home to Macon and saw a theater teacher position open up at Central. 

“In a way, to me, it felt poetic,” he said. “It felt perfect returning back to the place that birthed my love of
theater.”

Ray has played many characters on the big stage. He’s performed at  Theatre Macon in plays such as “Newsies,” “Spongebob” and “Singing in the Rain,” but “Jekyll & Hyde” was one of his dream roles and marked his debut with Macon Little Theatre.

Ray slipped into the dark, brooding character of Hyde for two weekends in a row, switching back and forth from his regular voice to a much deeper, raspier voice. 

“The voice is an instrument, much like a violin or a piano, and it needs to be trained,” he said.

During the pandemic, he spent six months mastering ventricular fold phonation, or the vibration of a layer of unused vocal cords called false vocal folds. 

Ray learned the vocal skill in hopes of one day starring in “Beetlejuice,” but the skill came in handy for his role as Hyde.

“Not everyone can do it,” he said. “It’s like being able to roll your tongue.”

Coming full circle

Ray will return to Macon Little Theatre in September as the wolf in “Into The Woods.” 

Someday he said he wants to perform in “Phantom of the Opera,” “Dear Evan Hansen” and “Rent.”

Those who have seen Ray on stage might find it hard to believe he ever shied away from the spotlight, but the teacher and performer says he used to have severe social anxiety.

“I love theater because I found it was easier, at first, being confident as someone who wasn’t me,” he said.

As a teacher, Ray sees the same struggles he faced in his students who he says “wear their personalities on their sleeves.”

He said he hopes to be a “comforting force” to those who haven’t yet found their voice and a mentor to the young performers who want to pursue theater professionally one day.

“Someone who doesn’t care that much about theater and someone who is in love with theater — these two students aren’t different to me,” Ray said. “My job as an educator is to be there for your success, and I tell them that because that’s all I want, no matter what their success looks like.”