Plays and Players: Finding Your Voice, Mingled with Others

“To become a character—essential to both acting and writing—is to allow a constructed consciousness, another identity, to briefly guide your thought processes. You’re not choreographing, but rather intuiting and channeling the life of the character. A writer has to understand the mind and motivation of every character he creates and to color the world from these perspectives.” These are the reflections of Taylor Geu, a high school senior from Sioux City, Iowa, on the occasion of studying theater and playwriting in a CTD course he took last summer.  Geu recorded his experience in a journal which was recently reproduced in Imagine (www.cty.jhu.edu/imagine), a magazine published by Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY). Geu’s journal is an inspiring commentary on how to grow as an actor, writer and analytic thinker. His writing reveals a self-aware examination of the experience he came with, surprises and challenges—especially his newfound fondness for collaboration—along the way, and where he is taking his talent in theater and acting.  He’s already won a Gold and Silver Key in regional Scholastic Writing Competitions and is currently working on two more plays!  To hear more from this up-and-coming playwright, visit www.cty.jhu.edu/imagine/docs/CTDplays_players.pdf. Has journaling enriched the learning and discovery process of your gifted child or student? Theater buffs—check out the Summer Program website for courses such as Playwriting & Drama (grades 4 through 6), Plays and Players Honors (grades 7 and 8), Persuasive Storytelling (grades 9 through 12), and many more.  Although the regular application deadline has passed, applications are still being accepted for open courses at the 2012 Summer Program.  Courses close quickly, so don’t wait any longer!