Student Profile: Olyvia Brown
With hours of reading and rehearsal, English and theatre can be two time-consuming majors. Fitting both into one schedule is nearly impossible, but for Olyvia Brown ’14, it’s a labor of love.
“English feeds my love of theatre,” she says. “Theatre is so freeing because you can just be yourself and not care what anyone else thinks. A simple way to explain acting is that you are yourself on stage, and just like in everyday life, you tap into different parts of yourself.”
The Harper Woods sophomore has been acting since the seventh grade. In high school she not only participated in every production, she was also the president of the Drama Club—but that’s nothing compared to theatre at Alma College.
“To major in theatre, you have to take directing, dance and theatre crafts courses,” she says. “I had to un-learn almost everything I learned in high school, but the environment at Alma is amazing. You feel secure trying new things.”
Once she pulls the curtain on her Alma experience, Brown plans to continue pursuing her love of theatre by working on a Master of Fine Arts.
“It supposedly takes 20 years to get a real grip on theatre, but you could be involved with it your entire life and still learn something new,” she says. “I just want to keep learning because when you finally understand something, something inside you just goes off.”
