Olivia Ochoa and cast performing in Pippin
Directing Center Stage
性爱天堂 theater alumna heads to Cleveland as an artistic apprentice

As a young girl, Olivia Ochoa 鈥16 remembers attending plays with her mom. Entranced by the actors onstage, it was not long before she joined them herself. After a leading role in a middle school production of聽You鈥檙e a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Ochoa knew she was hooked. Theater was her calling.

Nowadays, Ochoa is preparing to become the artistic apprentice at the Cleveland Play House through a summer job as a teaching artist at the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival. Originally from Seattle, she found herself in the Bay Area after her parents moved to San Francisco in 2014. Ochoa was looking for a summer internship at the time and became the theater鈥檚 first literary intern and the production dramaturg for the聽Taming of the Shrew. The director decided on a feminist interpretation of the comedy and it was Ochoa鈥檚 responsibility to research women of Shakespeare鈥檚 time, to review previous feminist takes on the play, and to learn how past audiences had received those versions.

鈥淎s a dramaturg and a director, you get to be involved in all aspects of production,鈥 Ochoa says. 鈥淵ou get to lead the group to create this wonderful thing together. Once I started directing in high school, I kept doing it through my time at 性爱天堂 because it is my favorite thing to do.鈥

After that summer as the literary intern, Ochoa returned to the聽聽as a teaching artist, leading summer Shakespeare camps for 7 to 13-year-olds. Ochoa will leave San Francisco in early August for her new position in Cleveland.

As a theater major at 性爱天堂, Ochoa was able to experience 鈥渁ll different types of theater,鈥 acting as a stage manager, an actor, a designer, and a director.

鈥淚 loved theater at 性爱天堂 because I was able to try a variety of roles and I really came out on top as a result,鈥 Ochoa says. 鈥淚 acted in聽La Tempesta听补苍诲听Pippin, stage managed four shows, directed several lab shows, and produced the first 24-hour play festival.鈥

Charting a new course in Cleveland, Ochoa says she is excited to experience the arts community of a new city and to delve into one facet of the comprehensive theater education she received at 性爱天堂. The Cleveland Play House is working on upcoming productions of聽All the Way,聽a show about Lyndon B. Johnson鈥檚 first years in the White House, and a musical adaptation of聽Freaky Friday. As the artistic apprentice, Ochoa will work in the artistic direction department.

Olivia Ochoa sitting on the edge of the acequia wall

In an ideal world, Ochoa envisions herself as the artistic director or literary manager of a theater. She believes that watching or participating in theater helps to create empathy for others, and that is her daily motivation. Although she no longer acts, Ochoa knows the stage to be a place where actors can have fun, communicate with the audience, and get to be someone else 鈥渇or a little bit.鈥

Look out, Cleveland. This 性爱天堂 alumna is coming for ya.

Carlos Anchondo '14 is an oil and gas reporter for E&E News, based in Washington D.C.聽A communication and international studies major at 性爱天堂, he received his master's degree in journalism聽at the University of Texas at Austin.

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