On-stage Sensations
Gov. Honors 91¶ÌÊÓƵ Alumni Performers
Commanding on stage, humble in person, grateful for every opportunity and generously giving back to the community are characteristics that led two Weber State alumni to receive the 2021 Governor’s Mansion Artist Award.
Gov. Spencer Cox honored Ta’u Pupu’a, football star turned opera singer, and Alicia Washington, a 2010 musical theatre graduate, who, along with her sister, Camille, founded Good Company Theatre in Ogden.
Pupu’a is a world-renowned operatic tenor whose unconventional path included a contract with the NFL. He grew up in Utah after his family moved to Salt Lake City from the Kingdom of Tonga when he was a child. A football scholarship paved Pupu’a’s way as a Wildcat standout in the ’90s, where he also planned to earn his bachelor of music degree.
His education was interrupted when the Cleveland Browns drafted him in 1995 as a defensive tackle. However, an unexpected injury early in his career pushed him to follow his other passion: opera.
Pupu’a moved to New York where he met his mentor, Kiri Te Kanawa, who helped him get an audition at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music. He attended on a full scholarship and graduated in 2011. Pupu’a now performs around the world.
As the 2021 Weber State commencement speaker, he told graduates, “Wildcats, our greatest capacity to change the world is our capacity to change our own minds about the world.”
The powerhouse sister duo of Alicia and Camille Washington codirect in downtown Ogden. It is the only independent theater in the Mountain West created, owned and operated by Black women.
Work at a small production company is often immense, but also immensely satisfying. Even during a worldwide pandemic, Alicia and Camille created innovative ways to enhance the Ogden art scene, such as “The Window Seat Sessions.” Each weekend for four weeks, one or two performers presented 20-minute sets, three times a night, just inside the studio’s five floor-to-ceiling windows. Good Company set up five seats on the sidewalk outside the building, where five audience members per performance got a front-row seat in front of each windowpane.
Alicia also serves on the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities Advisory Board. She co-created Ogden’s Town Hall Conversations on Race and volunteers with a Salt Lake City-based human-relations organization dedicated to overcoming hatred, bias and exclusionary practices.
“Our passion at Good Company Theatre is to bring the community together,” Alicia said. “We share this award with all those who support our love and commitment to the arts.”