Step 1 :Given that the attendance at Ryan's town's theater is 219 people, the mean attendance of all theaters in the state is 261 people, and the standard deviation of the attendance of all theaters in the state is 19 people.
Step 2 :We can calculate the z-score using the formula \(z = \frac{X - \mu}{\sigma}\), where \(X\) is the attendance at Ryan's town's theater, \(\mu\) is the mean attendance of all theaters in the state, and \(\sigma\) is the standard deviation of the attendance of all theaters in the state.
Step 3 :Substituting the given values into the formula, we get \(z = \frac{219 - 261}{19}\).
Step 4 :Solving the above expression, we get \(z = -2.21\).
Step 5 :This means that the attendance at the theater in Ryan's town was 2.21 standard deviations below the mean attendance among all the theaters in the state.
Step 6 :Final Answer: (a) The z-score of the attendance at the theater in Ryan's town relative to the attendances among all the theaters in the state is \(\boxed{-2.21}\).
Step 7 :(b) The attendance at the theater in Ryan's town was \(\boxed{2.21}\) standard deviations below the mean attendance among all the theaters in the state.