Terra Taylor Knudson

First and foremost, I am a performing artist and, like so many others, I need to create to live and to thrive. When there’s no obvious outlet or opportunity, I create one for myself. My urge to express myself artistically became painfully urgent during the pandemic, when the lack of opportunity led to deep depression. When I returned to the stage, I was overcome with joy and understood again just how essential arts are for my mind, body, and spirit.

For over two decades, I’ve worked professionally as an artist in a wide variety of modalities; acting, directing, educational outreach, project management, and producing. I’ve written and staged numerous original pieces that have been showcased in LA and Orange Counties, as well as in northern California, Colorado, and Arizona. I’ve worked in non-profit arts organizations, founded, and run my own theatre company, Olio Theatre Works,  for a decade, and have toured live and virtually with my award- winning, solo-show, Willy’s Lil Virgin Queen, since 2016.

I’m inspired to tell modern allegories about life, interpersonal relationships, and inner journeys through the lens of Classical or period pieces. I have a Classical theatre background, specifically Shakespeare and Greek history and my passion is to write and think about contemporary issues through the guise of languages and cultures from bygone eras. I’m passionate about language, and humor, and the ways they can be used to elevate critical thinking, while making people laugh and feel joy. My art is multivalent, deep and entertaining. I seek to understand people who are driven to be themselves despite social and cultural constraints. I’m interested in the ways older generations expressed or repressed love, because of societal conditioning or emotional dysfunction.

Beyond this, I’m passionate about introducing children to theatre arts. I want to ignite the same passion for various forms of art in youth that I experienced when I was a child. I want to share the magic that I found in the darkness of a room, and the exhilaration I felt the moment a spotight began to glow.

For me, the play has always been “the thing.”