Today we’d like to introduce you to Hayley Brown.
Hi Hayley, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ll spare you early life details except to say my family is originally from California but we moved to Athens, Georgia when I was a kid, and then I went back to California to study theatre at USC. Now we’ll skip to when I fell in love with Shakespeare because that’s what it feels like my life as a performer largely revolves around. I guess technically that was when I was Officer 2 in Twelfth Night in 9th grade, but I didn’t really pursue studying Shakespeare until I was in college. And actually, the Intro to Shakespeare class I took at USC was kind of a disaster. The professor who taught it was wonderful, but it was her approach or nothing else, and her approach just didn’t work for me at the time. I left the class feeling I was too stupid to do Shakespeare. But all the professional actors I admire most have some kind of classical theatre background and I truly believe that if you can do Shakespeare, you can do anything. So I did a couple of summer programs through the British American Drama Academy (BADA) and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in England that helped me immensely. I think I learned more in the two-month RADA Acting Shakespeare program than I did in four years of college.
After that, I did a performance internship with the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga Canyon, CA that introduced me to a group of incredible artists, including three amazing women, Mary Ellen Moreno, Hannah Pell, and Julie Dietz, with whom I co-founded a classically-based theatre company in Los Angeles called Mine is Yours Theatre Company. We produced seven shows over the course of about 2.5 years, including an entirely gender-reversed Romeo and Juliet and a candle-lit, extremely intimate production of Women Beware Women by Thomas Middleton in a historic loft in Koreatown that included some ill-advised use of glitter that we had to cut after the first weekend of performances (live and learn). Over time, our four founders/co-producers dwindled to two, myself and the magnificent Hannah Pell, and then I left L.A. at my mom’s urging “for three months” to “try out Atlanta.” That was in October of 2016. After years un-repped in L.A., I finally got representation in Atlanta. I’ve been with Kathleen Schultz Associates (Atlanta) and Marilyn’s Agency (Greensboro, NC) since 2017.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Pretty sure “smooth road” and “being an actor” are incompatible. Just surviving as an adult while getting paid for anything except the one thing you want to do is psychologically and physically draining. I spent nearly a decade in L.A. not getting paid to be an actor. I created my own work, which I’m absolutely proud of, doing theatre with Mine is Yours, and I produced a musical parody short called Les MiseraBaristas that’s pretty great, but I was working anywhere from two to eight different freelance jobs at any one time, driving all over kingdom-come to make ends meet, and still not really standing on my own two feet all the time. I’m fortunate enough to have parents that could bail me out of the occasional emergency, like my car getting towed after too many parking tickets I couldn’t afford to pay (you know they’re like $75 EACH in L.A.? And they get worse when you don’t pay them right away?? And if you’re a 25-year-old idiot, you have to pay a huge idiot tax to get your car back??? Live. and. learn.). I did Lyft, Uber, Instacart, Care.com, personal assisting, data entry, temping, Postmates, background work, dog-walking, cocktail waitressing, you name it. All in the name of being available at a moment’s notice for acting gigs that never came. Moving to Atlanta was the best thing I’ve done for my acting career and for my overall happiness. There are people I miss in L.A., but I don’t miss the way I was struggling. It’s still not easy being an actor in Atlanta, but it’s easier to live and I’ve enjoyed my life more in general. I also had a full-time normal-adult day job for a while, which was challenging in different ways than the freelance life but was enormously helpful for a time. Then the pandemic happened and I was laid off in September 2020 because of COVID, so we’re back to freelance again, but it’s a little easier this time. Two steps forward, one step back. And because I’m freelance right now (anybody need a copywriter or proofreader by the way?), no one could tell me not to move to Mexico temporarily. COVID changed a lot and I think we’ve all spent a lot of time rethinking our priorities and how we want to live these precious lives. I’vespent a lot of time sticking in one place in the name of acting, but I think so much growth happened for me as a performer and as a human when I unlearned “I have to stay in L.A.” and made the move to Atlanta, and I’m excited to see what will happen as I unlearn “I can’t travel the way I want to if I want to be an actor.” I’m learning Spanish and being in love in Guadalajara, Mexico, and I love this journey for me.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
When I first moved to Atlanta, I reconnected with a friend from the summer program I did at BADA, the unstoppable Elizabeth Ann Miller, and she got me involved with her insane project, Shakespeare On Draught, which is purposefully under-rehearsed Shakespeare in a bar (or brewery since we moved to Orpheus Brewing). I’ve been in (…I don’t know how many, maybe like 8? 10? How many have we done?) several SoD shows, and have played a range of roles, from a couple of leads (Hermia in Midsummer, Isabella in Measure for Measure), to a UPS Delivery Person a.k.a. a Messenger in Richard III, to a unicorn-riding Roman soldier a.k.a. Aemilius in Titus Andronicus. I’m the self-proclaimed Queen of the Bits. I love Shakespeare On Draught because no one can really tell me not to do the half-baked, stupid idea I have for the bit roles they toss my way. You don’t get that kind of freedom anywhere else, especially with Shakespeare, where people have some convictions about “how it should be done.” There absolutely should not be an uncontrollable unicorn on stage in Titus Andronicus. But if I show up with it on the day of, no one can stop me. It’s too late. It’s happening.
This is how I’ve grown as an artist in Atlanta and what I think I’m known for: I’ve learned how to commit to the bit. Sometimes the bits don’t work. We just don’t talk about those. Just focus on the unicorn. The unicorn was great.
Oh, and then I accidentally co-founded another theatre company in the midst of a global pandemic. RoleCall Theatre’s Stephen Beehler asked me if I wanted to do something in the Ponce City Market amphitheater for their Shakespeare in the Ponce series, and I knew I had a cut of Twelfth Night for six actors from Mine is Yours’ first production (cut by Christopher Greenwood), and I figured six people were few enough to coordinate in a socially distanced, masked, outdoor production. Together with my intrepid director Lyssa Hoganson and our multi-talented stage manager Victoria Nation, we made it through an entire run with no COVID cases and a pretty damn delightful show, if I do say so myself! I produced it, so I cast myself as Lady Olivia and Sir Andrew. Doubling as a buffoon and a countess felt like a really good fit for me at this point in my artistic life. I’m very comfortable in both of those spaces. Queen of the Bits, you know? Lyssa and I branded ourselves as Mirth Theatre and did Much Ado About Nothing in the spring of 2021, and while I’m on my Mexican “sabbatical”, Lyssa and our amazing co-producer Evan Fields are keeping everything running with Mirth’s first full season of shows. Go see Macbeth at RoleCall this spooky season!!
Oh, you know what I’d like more people to know about me? I’m freakishly good at memorization and cold reading. The show in Shakespeare in the Ponce before Twelfth Night was A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and an actor got COVID and had to drop out for the final three performances. With 4 hours notice, I learned Lysander and Flute. That was nuts. But I did it. And it went pretty well, I think! Also, I love singing, but outside of karaoke I don’t get to do much of it. I’d like to do more of that. I got to sing a bit for Theatre Buford’s Christmas Carol, but as Ariel sings, “I want moooore.” Oh and also I started doing stand-up after taking Lace Larabee’s Laugh Lab class and I really love that.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Who knows, y’all. I’m in Mexico right now and I would not have seen myself here a year ago. I know that I am personally invested in the Atlanta entertainment industry. I think we have the infrastructure, the talent pool, and the quality of life that will keep a lot of production here. I don’t see it leaving any time soon. And I think we’ll see even more of our homegrown Atlanta talent in larger roles. There are a lot of people doing really amazing work in Atlanta who deserve to be recognized. Friends have been booking really exciting things and I’m thrilled to see our community get the opportunities we’ve trained hard for. I’ve got my self-tape setup here with me in Mexico just in case, and I can fly home if needed for a booking, but for now I’m okay with just being here; Atlanta will still be there when I get home.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hayleybrownishere.com
- Instagram: @hayleybrownishere
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4864358/
Image Credits
Lola Scott, Jack Miller, Pocket Size Pictures, Tyler Ogburn, Wes Milton
