Octavia Biggs

About Me

Octavia Biggs is a lecturer of theatre at Morehead State University’s Department of Theatre, where she is also the director for The Little Company. This educational tour company prepares college students to perform and teach drama workshops across the state of Kentucky. Octavia is also the director of Shooting Stars Youth Theatre (SSYT) with Lexington Children’s Theatre (LCT).

In 2013, she was awarded a $2.5 million endowment from the W. Paul and Lucille Caudill Little Foundation for Shooting Stars YouTheatre. Biggs has been awarded grants by The Kentucky Foundation for Women, Steele Reese, Kentucky Arts Council, Arts & Democracy for Social Change, Morehead Tourism, JustFundKY and The Kentucky Heritage Council. In 2018, 2023, and 2027, she received invitations to bring the performance art piece Einstein’s Dreams, the devised show Mr. E of Imagination: Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and, in 2027, will take the world premiere of “Obscenity” by BA Yates to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. While in Scotland, she was commissioned to teach workshops based on Augusto Boal’s concept of Theatre for the Oppressed.

Biggs has partnered with The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Very Special Arts to develop a special-needs drama program, fulfilling a desire to build a collaborative partnership with neurodivergent students, families, and their educators. Following the devastating 2022 flood in Eastern Kentucky, Octavia was awarded a grant from Rura-Urban Exchange (RUX) to develop a devised performance art piece in which children affected by the flood created their own poetry and unique artwork, then performed for families in that region. This compilation of materials written by children will be published as a book titled Hear Our Roar: The Night the Rains Fell. In 2020, Octavia was awarded the Innovative Teaching Award from The Kennedy Center for her work regarding “student success in the area of pedagogy and theatre arts.”

In the classroom, Ms. Biggs works hard to advise, encourage, and inspire people of all ages through theatre education programs. To develop a passion for the arts and a commitment to life-long learning in diverse communities. To celebrate the transforming power of theatre through its ability to challenge hearts and astonish minds. In every collaboration she undertakes, she strives for transparency. By nurturing relationships, she improves outcomes through problem-solving and artistry in her work. Her leadership skills in each organization she has partnered with enable her to organically develop a teaching practice that can be measured onstage and off.

In 2021, she was awarded the Appalachian Arts and Entertainment Award for the Best Drama Educator in Appalachia. Octavia received her BA from Morehead State University and her MFA from the National Shakespeare Conservatory in New York City. She has worked as an actor, director, and educator across the United States for the past 45 years. She and her wife, Christina, live in Morehead with their 3 dogs!