Today we’d like to introduce you to Kim Maxwell.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Growing up in a polite, sensible Canadian family in Calgary, Alberta I knew one thing: being a super famous actor would solve all my problems and bring happiness to me and to those I loved. Yikes. Blah blah blah unpopular blah blah blah loser blah blah blah a move to L.A. blah blah blah college and somewhere around twenty-one, after a gig or two, I joined the union and started my career as a professional actor.
Lucky for me, I managed to find my way to some pretty amazing teachers who encouraged me to expand my view on the world of stories and all it had to offer and I also started writing, directing, producing – and teaching.
Sometime in my late twenties, I tired of Los Angeles and the film and television business so there was a move to Ojai, a discovery of community and a sense of belonging.
From there came the closing of one company and flourishing of another, the end of a marriage and the realization that other than my two brilliant children – teaching was the love of my life.
In 2013 with the support of my Writer/Actor/Producer daughter Lily Brown (then a freshman at Bennington College) we launched a physical studio space called Kim Maxwell Studio (KMS) through which I currently coach private lessons. I teach people to launch their stories loudly and unapologetically into the world; to laugh more, risk more and have bigger lives.
In 2017 we created The Townies Podcast featuring the stories of my students as a way to further amplify the diverse voices that came through our doors.
In 2018 we founded a nonprofit called The Townies, Inc. to house more programming and expand scholarship opportunities so that we could better serve our community. Our focus is on new-works development, on connecting people one story at a time.
With 2019 came taking students to Italy for two weeks of writing, eating, drinking, dancing and performing in a 200-year-old opera house with KMS.
With 2020 came NOT going to Italy. Actually, not going anywhere. So then came learning how to teach online and perform online – and the realization that we could connect with more people than ever. Alumni that had left the area, people without transportation, out-of-staters, a group of brilliant youth writers in Harare, Zimbabwe for our first ever international Youth Workshop – connecting two continents of big-hearted wordsmiths.
I am thrilled by the upcoming opportunity to kick 2020 to the curb – but I am also grateful for the unexpected opportunities and connection it brought.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Yes. It’s always been easy and lovely and delightful and I never complained once!
Ha ha ha ha ha.
I think pursuing your heart’s desire is never smooth or easy – it’s just really worth it.
I lived in my car.
Lived off cottage cheese, melba toast and ramen.
Lived in terrible apartments.
Got robbed, got mugged – had my apartment broken into only to have the perpetrator not steal anything because I didn’t have anything worth stealing. #sad
Worked as a fragrance model.
Worked in restaurants.
Sold flowers by the side of the road.
Had big breaks.
Lost big breaks.
Lost too many friends to the AIDS epidemic.
Lost my way.
Had great teachers.
Had great kids.
Had great friends.
Found my way.
Dad died.
Mom died.
Started companies – lost them.
Tried again – kept them.
Became a great teacher.
Discovered that I was still a student.
Cried a bunch. Laughed a bunch. Traveled a bit.
Got remarried.
Grateful for every second.
Cut To:
There is no one that was a bigger baby than me in adapting to moving my work online. “I’ve been teaching this method for 30-years. It’s too hard. I don’t want to learn a whole new technology. It’s not going to be the same as being in person. It’ll never work. Wah wah wah.”
Thank god my Producing Director of a daughter (Lily Brown) and my Managing Director of a friend (Molly Allison) dragged me through it.
I’ll never forget the very first moment of my very first Zoom class. A sea of apprehensive faces – suddenly transformed after the first freewrite (story) was read.
I think I wept for an hour after that class.
It wasn’t me. It wasn’t them individually. It was us. Connected, listening, laughing, crying – discovering right there on Zoom, in the middle of the worst year ever – we were all a little less alone than we thought we were.
I love my job.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
At The Townies, Inc., we believe in the transformative power of the written and spoken word. Our mission is to “connect people one story at a time,” and that comes from the idea that both listening and being heard are vital to personal and societal development. Through workshops and events based in various storytelling mediums, we connect people to one another and themselves as stories are excavated and shared, creating living historical and artistic documents that contribute to the vitality and equity of the community. We advance justice and social change by developing storytellers and citizen historians, by creating an artistic home for all and by enriching communities through empathy.
Our most popular workshop at the moment is the Virtual Writers Room (VWR) which functions a little bit like a gym membership! A weekly, hour-long virtual workshop for those looking to write, laugh and share their experiences in a community, without a deadline for performance or publication. Current options are Mondays at 7PM, Tuesdays at 7PM, Wednesdays at 9AM and Thursdays at 9AM — all classes are full at the moment but we do have waitlists!
And we’ve got a lot of really amazing initiatives and programs on the horizon as we start to reopen! We’re really looking forward to bringing people back into our physical space on Ojai Avenue.
I am also available to work privately by the hour! I’ve helped my private students prepare for Ted Talks, speeches, wedding vows, auditions and more, through acting and writing exercises. I strongly believe in positive reinforcement, self-care and “you-are-enough-ness”.”
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” – Kurt Vonnegut
We stand on the shoulders of the great storytellers of the past. We might be terrified – but we are not alone. Many of them invented theatrical and literary forms, created political movements, gave their lives so that others might be heard. One of those they wanted heard – is you. Is me. And we deserve it.
It took me a long time to believe that. But I do, finally. I hope you believe it earlier.
And that’s what my class is for. To believe it earlier. To exercise those muscles. The “risk taking” muscles. To put you and your work out there week-after-week, get feedback, adjust and do it all again. That’s how we grow strong.
Some people are born with those muscles fully formed. Some have to develop them. I think the ones that have to develop them have an incomparable resiliency. They are terrified – but through all their fears and training and practice, practice, practice – they figured out how to do it anyway.
You aren’t crazy. Risking your whole heart for love or art or activism is terrifying. You think you’ll never be enough and there are a lot of people out there willing to confirm that.
F*ck those guys.
Yes, it would be easier if you just stayed home and never took that risk.
That’s why “those guys” stayed home. It’s easier to be critical than it is to take a risk.
Yes, you are going to get your heartbroken.
Yes, you are going to fail.
You might even end up on the rocks.
But if you are reading this article… and are of a certain age… then that has already happened multiple times.
And here you are, a survivor – in all your authentic, banged up glory.
You are a resilient and powerful thing.
Do it.
Adjust.
Do it again.
Cry.
Laugh.
Find a good teacher.
Do it again.
Pricing:
- Virtual Writers Room (VWR): $40/mo, scholarships available
- KMS Private lessons: $125/hr
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://thetowniesinc.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetowniesinc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KimMaxwellStudio
- Other: https://www.kimmaxwellstudio.com/
https://www.thetowniespodcast.org/
Image Credits:
Lily Brown Brandi Ajah Crockett Patrick Lashly Kim Maxwell
