Man behind the script
By: Jessica Ricks, Staff Writer
As a senior and theater major, Timothy Huth’s love for playwriting has grown through his experiences at Towson, the many plays he has written and his involvement with Actors Anonymous and other theater groups.
“When I was in high school, I was told that you should major and get a career in the thing you can’t see your life without,” Huth said. “I don’t know what I would do if I wasn’t a playwright.”
Before getting into theater, Huth originally started out with music. He sang in a children’s chorus in his hometown from third grade up until his senior year of high school. He started theater in elementary school, and by the time college came around he decided to focus on theater.
“I loved singing, but I realized the theater classes were more fun,” Huth said. “I was having a better time and progressing more naturally through the theater classes. I decided to double major and now I’m just a theater major.”
With a focus in playwriting, Huth has written plays such as “Steam” and “Conversations with a Lesser God.” His latest plays that will premiere this month are “Dracula,” which runs April 8-9, and “After,” which runs April 20-23. He has also written “Cinderella” and “Sleeping Beauty” for the music department’s Children’s Opera, where he is a co-writer. Huth is also the president of the club Actors Anonymous and does scenic design and stage-managing on the side. Although most of his work as of right now has been done within Towson, he has spoken with several theater companies about producing his work after college.
His two favorite things about playwriting are the ability to create characters that the actors can bring to life and working with incredible artists every day. The actors also provide feedback on what can enhance the characters.
Huth believes that being at Towson has given him experiences that have made him a better artist. The University is one of the best he has ever seen in fostering new student work, and is incredibly adaptive in encouraging students by providing them with opportunities to have work read and occasionally performed publically.
“Towson has such a strong theater community where I get to spend all day, every day making art with brilliant people who make me a better artist, and I hope they feel the same,” Huth said.
Huth is most inspired by real life experiences and the people he’s around on a day to day basis. Being around artistic people inspires him to work hard on his projects. Huth has gotten into the habit of pushing himself to write every day, even when the inspiration isn’t there.
“I do some of my best work sitting with the scenic designers of my department because they are working on such brilliant artistic pieces, and I’m like ‘I want to make art as nice as your visual art.’”
When people read or see his work onstage, the most important thing to him isn’t what the audience thinks of it, but getting them to feel a genuine, real emotion no matter what that is.
“Writing is always first to me,” Huth said. “I don’t identify myself as a director or a stage manager, I am a playwright.”
Whether it’s the tears he saw from his cast after a reading of “After” or the genuine laughs from the kids watching the Children’s Opera plays, the honest and real reactions toward his plays are what makes Huth the happiest.
After graduation, Huth wants to get his work out into the world of theater. Eventually he will go back to grad school to hone his talent.
He wants to travel outside of Maryland, where he’s lived his whole life, to learn about other cultures and incorporate other human experiences into his work.
In the future, Huth also wants to be a teacher in order to become what Towson has been for him.
He wants to create a safe space for others to fail, succeed and grow, and to foster new work for students. Huth strives to empower students who feel like they may not have representation to make their own.
“I’m also really into equity and parity in theater,” Huth said. “I try really hard to encourage the voices of women and the voices of people of color and disabilities because I feel like those voices aren’t represented enough on stage.”
