Who I Am
Valyn Lyric Turner (she/her) is an actor, writer, and educator hailing from Northeast Georgia. Valyn is a graduate of Boston University where she earned her BFA in Theatre Arts and BA in Spanish. Some of her recent theatre credits include VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE at Gloucester Stage, JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN at The Huntington, DIASPORA! and A RAISIN IN THE SUN at New Repertory Theatre (2024 Elliot Norton Award), SEVEN GUITARS at Actor’s Shakespeare Project, and the world premier of Kirsten Greendige’s LITTLE ROW BOAT, OR CONJECTURE at Boston University’s School of Theatre. Valyn’s first play, MARIAN, a TYA adaptation of Robin Hood premiered at Locust Grove High School in Henry County, Georgia in November 2022. A workshop production of her second play, HALF, a biographical drama based on her mother’s life, premiered at Boston University’s School of Theatre in April of 2023. On film, Valyn stars in LIFETIME’s My Acting Coach Nightmare. She is represented by Andrew Wilson Agency.
As an educator, Valyn has worked for the past three years at the Boston University Summer Theatre Institute, moving from a Teaching Assistant to the program’s Assistant Director in just two summers. She also works as a substitute Spanish teacher for the Public Schools of Brookline. Valyn has collaborated with several educational equity initiatives across the country, including the Minnesota National Association for Multicultural Education, Gwinnett Educators for Equity and Justice, Georgia State University, Kalamazoo College, Gwinnett County Public Schools, Eden Prairie Public Schools, Georgia First Generation Association, and Kern County Superintendent of Schools to help educators foster cultures of inclusivity and equal opportunity for students of color through spoken word poetry. Some of Valyn’s most notable poems include “Race in the Classroom: Seeing Color” and “Bleeding Red, White, and Blue,” both of which have been featured on the podcast “The Only One in the Room” with Laura Cathcart Robbins, and are used for professional development in schools across the country. Valyn’s mission is to inspire, empower, and serve others through her craft.
What I Believe
In process and performance, I value authenticity, empathy, and excellence. I do not believe that we must ever sacrifice the former two values for the latter. In fact, the further we lean in to the former, the closer we get to the latter.
I enjoy watching and engaging in theatre that is thoughtful, well researched, and fully embodied. I’m interested in creating new work that reflects the new world.
My Teaching Philosophy
Everything I offer in classes & coaching is only that, an offering, so actors may decline that offer, but what I do ask is that they first truly look at the offering for what it is, hold it, touch it, smell it, try it on — if it doesn’t move something in you, let it go. We’ll find what sticks.
I believe in the power of imagery – and in imagination and presence as muscles you can exercise.
I believe in the wisdom of the body & that the secret to truthful acting is trusting it. There is nothing truer than physical sensation. So how can we utilize this somatic honesty to situate ourselves in imagined circumstances?
I take a student centered approach, meaning I want to know what YOU want to know and HOW you want to learn it – knowing that I’m facilitating the learning and we can’t please everyone in our community at all times.
Everyone is welcome and encouraged to bring their full identity into the space, whatever that means to them. I do not teach to fit actors into a mold, but to bring out what is already within them — help you define the shape you’re already in.
My teaching is not based in any one technique – Meisner, Stanislavski, Uta Hagen, Spolin, etc, but in fortifying our own built-in understanding of human behavior. Of course, my acting is influenced by many of these teachers, primarily Stanislavski, but in an effort to decolonize our dramatic education, we want to recenter our own bodies as the authority. All the tools we need are already within us – its just a matter of extracting and refining – there’s nothing we have to put on, only bring out.