MEET OUR GRADUATES: This Actress & Hope Scholar is Unstoppable

Olivia Lancellotta is one of the hardest working actresses at RIC.

A graduating senior who’s double majoring in theatre and communication, Lancellotta averaged a jaw-dropping 27 credits a semester and still managed to maintain a high enough GPA to earn her a Hope Scholarship* and free tuition.

On top of her classes, she was working two off-campus jobs, one on-campus job, attending rehearsals for RIC performances that could run until 10 or 11 p.m. at night and commuting to New York for auditions in professional theatre.

You’d expect someone like that to be bleary-eyed or at least in a perpetual bad mood from lack of sleep (her average bedtime, she says, is 2 a.m.), but Lancellotta remains bright-eyed, with the energy of a cheerleader. What’s evident is that she simply loves what she does. 

“I’ve been commuting to auditions in New York since my junior year, but I also audition in Rhode Island, Boston and Connecticut,” she says. “There’s a lot of great regional theatre in New England where someone starting out can get their feet wet.”

Her first professional show was last summer. She performed in “Oklahoma” at the Reagle Music Theatre in Boston.

For any aspiring actor, that’s big. But if you ask Lancellotta to point to the show she enjoyed most, she’d say “Cry-Baby” – RIC’s spring musical, citing the great music, the strong cast and the overall direction of the production. “It was also my last show here and the first time I’ve played the lead role, so that made it very special,” she says.

Set in the 1950s, this musical is about a straitlaced teenage girl who falls for a juvenile delinquent boy. Their relationship throws the community into an uproar, with the conservative squares facing off against the leather-clad delinquents.

One of Lancellotta’s pre-show rituals is to put images that are character inspired or time-period specific on her dressing room mirror. For “Cry-Baby,” the images she chose included magazine covers from the 50s, images of people dancing swing and a photo of Johnny Depp who played Cry-Baby in the original film (see headline photo).

“You can do hard things. I remind myself and others of that all the time. Sometimes things may seem overwhelming, but you can do it.” 
— Olivia Lancellotta

Lancellotta states that RIC prepared her “immensely” for professional work in the theatre: “Our professors are also our directors, choreographers and musical directors. They’ve all had professional experience, so they teach from their experience and prepare you to be a professional when you graduate.”

The actress is using the skills gained from her second major – communication – to keep from becoming another starving artist.

She runs the social media sites for Advanced Production & Design, an event management company in North Kingstown, and for Emerald City Theatrical Costumes, a company that rents professional costumes for regional shows. The beauty of both jobs is that she gets to work remotely.

What quickly becomes evident is that she simply loves what she does.

When asked how she manages to stay physically and mentally sane with such a hectic work schedule, Lancellotta pauses and then thoughtfully replies:

“You only live one life. I try to seize every opportunity. Truly.”

“I also live day by day and not too far into the future,” she says. “I don’t think too far ahead. I think about what I need to do now, at this moment.”

She admits, “I wasn’t always this way. I credit my voice teacher and mentor, Flo St. Jean, for showing me this way of living. She’s a special human being. She saw how I kept overwhelming myself. I don’t do that anymore.” 

“I don’t think too far ahead. I think about what I need to do now, at this moment.” 
— Olivia Lancellotta

“There’s something else Flo told me that has stuck with me. She said, ‘You can do hard things.’ I remind myself and others of that all the time,” says Lancellotta. “Sometimes things may seem overwhelming, but you can do it.”

“So, it’s these little mindsets,” she concludes, “that can change your overall mindset.”

Not to mention that all of this is fun. Be it stage, film or television, Lancellotta intends to revel in a theatrical career. “The biggest thing theatre gives me is community,” she says. “I can’t imagine my life without it.”
 

*Lancellotta is currently starring in a TV commercial for the Hope Scholarship.