We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Olga El a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Olga, appreciate you joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?
I’ve been an artist/storyteller since I was a baby. However, I didn’t start calling myself a playwright until I was in my mid-30s. Once I started doing that, a whole new world of opportunities and recognition for my work started opening up.
I often wonder if I’d be at least twice as accomplished in my playwriting career if I’d started 10 years earlier. However, starting then probably would’ve required a level of knowledge, direction, and focus that wasn’t accessible to me at the time.
I have a BFA in writing but, instead of continuing to pursue a field that cost almost 40k a year to study, I shifted my focus to dance, experimental theater, socio-political performance art, and community engagement. These things that were side projects when I was a student became the focus.
All those passions, as well as my love of music, come together in the theater. If I didn’t take time to step away from writing and explore, I may not be able to compose the multidisciplinary work I produce today.
I’m not sure I would’ve made the shift from prose/poetry/essay writing to playwriting without dabbling more viscerally in the performing arts.
While it still feels like I “started late” as a playwright, I tell myself that the path I took was ultimately the better one (I’m not sure it’s true.)
I also tell other people it’s never too late to pursue your passions.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am an award-winning emerging playwright, an experimental performance activist, and a folkloric dancer. I aim to create work that is immersive, socially-conscious, accessible, and unique in order to engage audiences in ways that inspire change—on the level of the personal, communal, or beyond—that will lead to a more just, compassionate, and healthy society.
As someone living at the intersection of several identities which still often lack access to positions of power within the arts, entertainment, and the larger societal landscape, authentic diversity is an important element in my work in terms of subject matter, creative team, and casting choices. Music, multimedia, and movement—particularly martial arts, aerial arts, and dances from all over Africa and the Diaspora—is seamlessly interwoven into my work.
In March 2011, I founded The Kandake Dance Theatre for Social Change after years of experimenting with similar projects. Through the dance-theatre I create free and low-cost shows, artist/activist resources, fitness/wellness/dance workshops, and a variety of other offerings including an artist-opportunity group on Facebook, which I started as a resource for friends at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, which now has almost 1000 members globally. In 2025, I plan a return to hosting more in-person events, including creative fundraisers for worthy causes.
My scripts have been translated and performed in Spanish; I’ve created arts programming for vulnerable populations such as formerly-incarcerated women and the children of sex workers; and more. I’ve also written a game—a queer, eco-thriller called <i>The Forest Protector</i>—that can be played on the Chapters App (search the title in Community Visual Stories or use the link on my website www.TheKandake.com.)
A few of the honors for which I’m grateful:
Playwrights’ Center Core Writer Program – Finalist (2024)
$30K Map Fund – Final Round, Random Elimination (2024)
Steinbeck Fellowship – Semi-Finalist (2024)
Hedgebrook – Vanetta Cutchin Memorial Fellow (2023)
Sewanee Writers’ Conference – Playwriting Fellow (2022)
Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights’ Conference – Semi-Finalist (2022)
90th Annual Writers’ Digest International Competition – 1st Place Scriptwriting (2021)
Off-Broadway Full-Script Solicitation – MCC (2019), The Public Theater (2015)
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Yes! Grants, fellowships, residencies, contests, awards, commissions, etc. I encourage other artists to apply for everything they can and try to focus on their specific field(s) as opposed to opportunities that cater to any type of artist (but apply to those too!) I only vaguely knew about these things before my mid 30s and what I knew was intimidating to me, as it is for many artists. These applications are not as hard as they seem and, if nothing else, you will put your name out there, build your resilience, and refine how you talk about your work.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Just show up. Come to shows, buy art, donate, spread the word, follow on social media, etc. Your love needn’t cost a thing. Also protect the arts from legislation that would defund, restrict, or abolish it. This is becoming more of a serious concern, even for larger arts organizations. Art always finds a way but your support helps so much. And art—films, books, comics, museum exhibits, shows, songs, poetry and so much more—will be there for you in your hardest of times.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.TheKandake.com
- Instagram: @thekandake
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thekandake
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/olgael/
- Other: FB (personal): https://www.facebook.com/olga.el.3
Tik Tok: @the_kandake