Karen Olivo is retiring from acting

[ljay889]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#1

Posted: 3/18/13 at 1:23am

I'm kind of speechless.

http://www.karenolivo.com/blog/2013/03/18/starting-over/

[ljay889]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#2

Posted: 3/18/13 at 1:25am

well maybe not a retirement. More of a break, it seems.

[grumpyoptimist]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#2

Posted: 3/18/13 at 1:30am

I'm not sure...does this mean she's retiring from acting or just trying to leave behind the person she was, and instead concentrate on the person she wants to be, rather than who everyone else thinks she should be. As you mention in your second post, I kinda go for the latter...

[muscle23ftl]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#3

Posted: 3/18/13 at 2:27am

I don't think she is necessarily saying she is retiring from acting. She beautiful words, such a great actress, she's a jewel. Wish her the very best.

"People have their opinions and that doesn't mean that their opinions are wrong or right. I just take it with a grain of salt because opinions are like as*holes, everyone has one". -Felicia Finley-

[dramamama611]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#4

Posted: 3/18/13 at 6:11am

I don't know....leaving something behind sounds pretty "over" to me. Of course, who knows what the future will bring.

Sounds like she has some demons to face. I wish her well.

If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it? These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.

[best12bars]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#5

Posted: 3/18/13 at 6:27am

Sounds like she's definitely taking a break to focus on other things. It also sounds like she should.

I've seen many interviews over the years where actors and singers talk about "giving their all" in a performance. Patti LaBelle, I recall, said something like, "You never give your all. Give as much as you can, give a lot, but not all. You have to save some of yourself or you won't be able to go on again."

I'm sure I'm paraphrasing, but that was the gist of it.

Sounds like Karen needs to learn to strike a balance between herself and her art. I hope she finds herself first, then comes back to her art with a new perspective of how to manage the two, especially during a performance or a run or a filming schedule.

Best of luck to her.

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

---

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

Updated On: 3/18/13 at 06:27 AM

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#6

Posted: 3/18/13 at 6:33am

I get the sense that she's burnt out by the business. She probably needs a long rest. But, she shouldn't stay away too long. Otherwise, producers will forget her. from RC in Austin, Texas

"Noel [Coward] and I were in Paris once. Adjoining rooms, of course. One night, I felt mischievous, so I knocked on Noel's door, and he asked, 'Who is it?' I lowered my voice and said 'Hotel detective. Have you got a gentleman in your room?' He answered, 'Just a minute, I'll ask him.'" (Beatrice Lillie)

[iluvtheatertrash]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#7

Posted: 3/18/13 at 7:44am

All those absences really burnt her out, huh?

"I know now that theatre saved my life." - Susan Stroman

[PalJoey]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#8

Posted: 3/18/13 at 8:06am

What was the small show she refers to?

Also, don't discount the effect of the breakup of her second of two marriages on her psyche. Sometimes it's not just work problems that bring someone to this point, but a more holistic sense that life is not going the way one wants it to go, and that the problem is as much internal as external. Or maybe more so.

Whatever she does, her spirit will guide her. Here's wishing her the best.

[AC126748]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#9

Posted: 3/18/13 at 8:08am

PJ--the show to which she is referring is Murder Ballad at City Center.

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

[CarlosAlberto]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#10

Posted: 3/18/13 at 8:11am

“Just because I can, doesn’t mean I should.”
And with this knowledge I start a new chapter. I leave behind the actor and I start learning how to be me.

That's deep, and if she decides to walk away and do something else she wouldn't be the first to do so. Sometimes personal happiness trumps everything - I hope she finds it. She's a mighty talented lady.

[SondheimFan5]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#11

Posted: 3/18/13 at 8:41am

A lot of actors leave the business for one reason or another. Michael Maguire (Tony winner for Les Miz) is a lawyer now. Jere Shea (Tony nominee for Passion) works a 9-5 desk job now. Dona Correia (Tony nominee for Singin in the Rain & husband of Sandy Duncan) is a successful realtor now. Some choose to teach, others leave the biz entirely. It's a tough job.

Karen is a gifted woman so I am sure she will find success in whatever she chooses to do.

[steven22]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#12

Posted: 3/18/13 at 9:20am

is she still with Matt Capalan?

[DeNada]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#13

Posted: 3/18/13 at 9:22am

No, she's not still with Matt Caplan - as the blog entry says she split with him last year.

[everythingtaboo]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#14

Posted: 3/18/13 at 9:40am

I didn't realize she was married before Matt.

You have to respect someone make such a bold decision while really in their prime. At least we got to enjoy her while we could.

"Hey little girls, look at all the men in shiny shirts and no wives!" - Jackie Hoffman, Xanadu, 19 Feb 2008

[Bettyboy72]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#15

Posted: 3/18/13 at 9:49am

Now it all makes sense. As someone who tried to see her six times to no avail-this brings it all together. It sounds like her heart wasn't in it, or rather too much of her heart was in it to sustain.

I wish her all the best on her journey. Good luck Karen.

"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal "I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello

[wonkit]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#16

Posted: 3/18/13 at 9:52am

She writes beautifully. I wish her every success in finding happiness.

[Playbilly]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#17

Posted: 3/18/13 at 10:16am

Better to take a break now than to have a nervous breakdown later.

"Through The Sacrifice You Made, We Can't Believe The Price You Paid..For Love!"

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#18

Posted: 3/18/13 at 10:20am

I wish her all the best. I will never forget the first time I saw her live, it was in IN THE HEIGHTS and I couldn't take my eyes off her. I truly hope that she's taking a break from acting, but more than that, I hope she's able to find what she's looking for. We'll always have the memory of those performances where she did give it her all.

"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"

[GlindatheGood22]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#19

Posted: 3/18/13 at 10:41am

Oh my God. I wish her well, and I wish I had seen Murder Ballad.

I know you. I know you. I know you.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#20

Posted: 3/18/13 at 12:35pm

She'll be back. Actors are always saying "I'm leaving the business" only to return six months later (myself, for example).

Fun fact: Ron Rifkin left showbiz to work at his family's coat manufacturing company (or something like that) for a couple years before coming back, winning a Tony for "Cabaret" and co-starring on Alias.

[KylePKJP]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#21

Posted: 3/18/13 at 12:44pm

As much as many of you would like this to be about you, it is not. It has nothing to do with you. She really doesn't care about your opinion. She is leaving to repair herself and no BWW poster's advice is going to help or influence her.

Yes, she may be back in time. But right now, you are irrelevant and not even a thought in her mind. And when she comes back (if she does) if won't be for you, the fans. Otherwise, she would have given Rob the exclusive.

Now most of you, do the world a favour and close this window on your computer and get back to you actual job!

[CarlosAlberto]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#22

Posted: 3/18/13 at 12:47pm

^ You are one nasty piece of work

Now most of you, do the world a favour and close this window on your computer and get back to you actual job!

May I suggest you stop creating scenarios in your head that clearly don't exist and take your own advice...

[SonofRobbieJ]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#23

Posted: 3/18/13 at 12:56pm

^ Preach.

I have no opinion on this...but, I mean...she put out a message to her fans to explain what was going on with her. So saying it's 'not about you' when she decided to include them in the process is a little ridiculous.

[SamIAm2]

Karen Olivo is retiring from acting#24

Posted: 3/18/13 at 1:08pm

Kyle, offering kindness and compassion is never out of place. Whether or not it is received by Karen is not really relevant. Posters' hope that she returns to acting is, at its essence, a complement to her about what she has given and an honest expression that she will be missed by members of this community. Sorry you don't see that.