Patrick Page

John Patrick Page was born in Spokane, Washington, and raised primarily in Monmouth, Oregon. His father, Robert Page, was a theatre educator at Western Oregon University (then named Oregon College of Education). Page's early love of Shakespeare took hold when his father performed with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, in 1964–1965. His mother, Geri, was an administrator at Oregon State University. Patrick has two brothers, Robert and Michael, and one sister, Gayle. In his teens, he developed an interest in magic and illusion. In 1978 he won the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians Stage Competition and in 1979 he was chosen by the International Brotherhood of Magicians as the Outstanding Teenage Magician in the stage-magic category. Page attended Central High School in Independence, Oregon, graduating in 1980. During high school, Page was active not only in theater, but also in speech and debate tournaments and became the first person to win the national championship title twice, as the National Forensics League's Speaker of the Year in both 1979 and 1980. Next, he attended the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts at Allan Hancock College. He then graduated cum laude from Whitman College in 1985 and was chosen as the valedictory speaker for his class. During his time at Whitman, Page was twice chosen as the Outstanding Competitive Speaker in the Nation by the American Forensics Association, leading the Whitman team to an overall second-place finish at Nationals.