Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Isa Condo-Olvera. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Isa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

From a really young age, I always wanted to perform. Whether it was pretending to twirl through the hills of Austria as Maria Von Trapp or prancing around pretending to be a Jellicle cat (I embarrassingly, non-ironically, still love Cats), I had a sense that this is what I wanted to do since I was around three.

Despite my interest in the performing arts, there were very limited theatre opportunities in my country, Costa Rica. I knew I loved the idea of acting, but I hadn’t really gotten an opportunity to see whether I actually loved doing it, or whether I was any good.

When I was in high school, I decided to take matters into my own hands and took to producing, teaming up with a classmate to stage Les Miserables at our high school, holding open auditions for other young performers across the country. This was the first-ever student-run large-scale high school production in Costa Rica and was a major turning point for me.

I realized the impact theatre can have on a community, how it can empower artists and unite people from different walks of life. What was magical about it was that I didn’t even fully intend for it. Honestly, my motivations were selfish at the beginning, but the experience gifted me the opportunity to step outside of myself and focus on the people around me. I think that’s the core of what theatre can and should do for its artists and audiences alike: it allows us to imagine, examine, and empathize with realities beyond our own. And somehow, through this action of seeing, we are also able to feel seen. Through realizing the potential impact of storytelling through performance, I knew this is what I wanted to do with my life.

Isa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Yeah! I was born and raised in Costa Rica to a Mexican mom and an Ecuadorian dad. At first, I pursued my passion by taking singing lessons, working hard at school, and playing pretend with my brother Diego. At sixteen, the first musical theatre school opened in Costa Rica, offering me a sense of belonging and inspiration from those paving the way for performing arts in the country. I developed a deep passion for theatre, music, and the community of artists behind these moving works of art.

After graduating from high school, I took a gap year to explore working professionally in the Costa Rican performing arts industry, where I had the privilege of performing in the biggest venues of the country, including the National Theatre, and the National Auditorium Theatre. I also explored producing a bit, developing and producing a children’s show titled Pijamada de Princesas at Teatro el Triciclo and a solo concert titled So Long, Farewell at Hard Rock Café San José.

Shortly after, without having ever visited before, I moved to Minneapolis to study acting at the UMN / Guthrie Theatre Actor Training Program, where I was fortunate to receive top-tier classical theatre training. I found so much fulfillment in revitalizing classical text by bringing my whole self to the work. I also enjoyed incorporating music into my work as an actor because in many ways storytelling through music was my first love. During my time at school, I developed my passion for writing, dialect work, translation (Spanish-to-English and vice-versa), people-watching, and love. I combined all these passions in the development of my first play, a one-woman bilingual verbatim play, which I produced and performed while in school, and am continuing to develop.

I have since had the privilege of working as a professional actor across the US in a variety of projects including Shakespeare plays, musicals, contemporary plays, and new works. I have had the gift of being constantly challenged by the projects I embark on, always learning and growing in my craft. It’s kind of hard for me to narrow down my favorite type work to one specific thing because I’m passionate about so many! And I suppose that unique combination of passions and skills is what makes me stand out in my field.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Every actor – and I’d dare say every artist – needs to be extremely resilient. And I don’t quite know how we do it, we just accept the inevitability of constant rejection and still manage to hold on to hope.

I definitely admire my younger self for sticking with my gut when the odds felt so stacked against me. I wanted nothing more than to be in a play, and every time I got close – it would get cancelled. I truly had no idea whether I was even capable of doing this thing I’d dreamed of doing, because I’d never gotten the chance to do it.

At fifteen, it felt like it finally might happen. A theatre company was producing Annie, which was thrilling to me. I auditioned and got rejected. The production ended up getting cancelled anyways, but I was devastated. What if I didn’t have what it takes? If I couldn’t even get cast in a small community theatre production in Costa Rica, I assumed that meant this just wasn’t for me.

But somehow, and I don’t fully understand why, I couldn’t help but keep trying. Two years later, at seventeen, I saw a worldwide casting call for the remake of a movie musical, with a young Latina lead that sings the way I sing, and I submitted an audition, knowing it was a long-shot, and forgot about it. A few months later, they asked for a self-tape. This was insane, I’d never had a professional callback before for literally anything, I didn’t have any formal acting training at this point, but I tried my best, and sent it in and forgot about it. More months passed.

My last week of senior year, I got a call from someone from a casting agency in New York. They told me they were flying me to New York in like a week for a four-day audition workshop with the whole creative team. So, no acting training, minimal theatre experience, ridiculously insecure eighteen-year-old me walked into Lincoln Center, holding my mom’s hand. I auditioned for Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori and a bunch of other fancy people.

It was incredible and it was ridiculous, and it was terrifying, and I felt like a star, and I felt like an imposter and I felt so fat even though eighteen-year-old me was not remotely fat, but Hollywood is fatphobic and baby skinny eighteen-year-old me was still bigger than the two other girls they were seeing for the part and I HATED myself for it. And despite the anxiety and self-hatred and nerves, I did my best and before I knew it, the experience was over.

One month later, they flew me back for screen tests, and it was just another girl and I that they were considering for the role at this point. It would be either her or me. They built a whole film set for the screen tests and I poured my heart and soul into it. And then it was over, and I flew back home to Costa Rica and then I just waited. At first, they told me they’d let me know by early fall. They didn’t know by early fall. Then they said before winter. They didn’t know before winter. Then they said they’ll let me know by the end of the year. And they didn’t.

It wasn’t until seven months later that I got a call, and they told me they were giving the role to the other girl. And I was eating a hamburger with a friend, and I took another bite of the hamburger and I smiled, and I pretended it was fine and that I would just go on with my life. But when I Ubered home, the tears rushed outand my heart began to break while my family and friends held me.

I was devastated, but I had auditions for colleges, and I knew I still wanted to try and do this acting thing. So, in less than a week, I was flying to the US to audition for colleges. And although that in itself was a gigantic privilege, I couldn’t help but wonder what that dream life would’ve been like. It was a glimpse at a drastically different life than anything I had ever witnessed. And I fell in love with the possibility of that life.

Six years later, I can say I have fallen in love with my own life. It is still full of rejections and uncertainty, but that makes every “yes” all the more exciting.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, theatre is all about connection. There’s the connection with my collaborators – directors, other actors, musicians, choreographers, designers, stage managers, crew members, dressers – there are so many people that make theatre happen beyond the people we see onstage. And there’s always a sense of wonder in us all coming together and doing our part to tell a story. At a professional level, there’s the added layer of everyone having taken the leap to do this for a career – and the wonder that we got this “yes” and we get to collaborate and work and be in space together. I am constantly in awe of the people I am surrounded by, and their skills, talent, and generosity. I am drawn to people that are as passionate about it all as I am, and I learn so much from every single person I come across.

Even in the difficult moments, the people are what make it all worth it.

And then there’s the connection with the audience – the root of what makes theatre such a unique artform – we all come together to share the story and space and time for just a moment. In the words of Lauren Gunderson: “And then it ends. And we players stand up. And we look at the gathered crowd. And we bow. Because the story was told well enough, and it’s time for another.” How very magical.

Contact Info:

• Website: isacondoolvera.com
• Instagram: isacondoolvera

Image Credits
Karl Demer, Michael Brosilow, LaurenB, Alvan Washington, Dan Norman, John Dodd, Ning Goff, Karl Demer