Meet Jessie Brownie | Performing and Teaching Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jessie Brownie and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jessie, what do you want people to remember about you?
In my pre-teen and teenage years, I was in an artistic environment that was highly competitive and full of confusing power dynamics. I also attended a very competitive Musical Theatre program in college. I’ve had to work through a lot of lingering anxiety as an artist, specifically in that I tend to take things way too seriously and find it hard to let go of perfectionism in almost all aspects of performing. It’s just not a good way to create art – it’s stifling. I don’t think I consistently started feeling true freedom in my performing until after I moved to Atlanta in my early 20’s.

Now that I’m working and teaching in the performing arts full-time, I really want to create artistic environments that feel open and free. Lately, my top rule for my students (and myself) is that we must never make art without maintaining a sense of play. Even though I’m still very much working on it within myself, I would really love to be a spark of playfulness and joy in a profession that has the tendency to skew towards an overly competitive and cut-throat dynamic.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Honestly, my career started in elementary school. I started training at a really young age and my first professional theatre job was in 4th grade. I grew up in Houston, Texas where the theatre scene is so vibrant so it kind of just snowballed from there. I had full support from my parents to pursue theatre so I just went for it (although my parents were very against uprooting our family life so I could do film – I’m still grateful for that to this day). It sounds really idyllic but it definitely came with hardships. When I was growing up, there were some very unstable adults in the educational theatre scene who hid under the radar for a very long time. Myself (and unfortunately many other teenagers) were subjected to some very impactful experiences that have continued to stick with us to this day and probably always will. I threw myself into auditioning for Musical Theatre college programs and was fortunate to end up getting my BFA in Music Theatre from Elon University. I think when I got there, I thought it would be a clean start as an artist, but the anxiety that came from those early days of theatre stayed with me for sure. I ended up getting a great performing arts education, but struggled with my mental health a lot – especially when it came to perfectionism and overly wanting to please whoever happened to be in charge of each rehearsal or class. I worked some performing contracts directly after college and it was much of the same there as well.

I think that moving to Atlanta right before the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 was what caused me to start the healing process so I could get back to enjoying creative spaces again. Because theatre was on a hiatus, I couldn’t jump from one performing contract to the next, so I finally had to sit with myself and think, “Is my mentality surrounding performing healthy?” It also just so happened that I started coaching for MK Performing Arts at that same time, so I had even more reason to question what I really thought about being an artist. I wanted to make sure that my voice and acting students were getting the most positive messaging I could give them after dealing with so much negative messaging in my own head.

I think if there’s one thing I’m the most proud of in my career so far, it’s staying curious enough to find the answers I needed to heal so I could be a more responsible artist and educator. I’m really glad that I’ve had the time to reset and redefine what being an artist means to me. 5 years later, I’m now the Director of Education at MK Performing Arts and I’m very proud of the work we do to create safe spaces for artists of all ages to create and learn. It’s been very fulfilling to re-enter the performing arts field taking the good parts from my early theatre experiences and leaving the bad behind.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Check out the restaurant scene, hands down! Fun fact: I’m a major foodie with a collection of over 50 cookbooks. My husband and I are currently working our way through a long list of Atlanta’s best restaurants and keeping a log on a restaurant tracker. A couple favorites so far: Hankook Takorea, Heirloom Market BBQ, Lloyd’s Pizza Parlor, Banshee, Miller Union, and Buttermilk Kitchen. Definitely try them out and eat support local Atlanta restaurants. Atlanta has such a cool restaurant scene so let’s keep her thriving!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My husband, Matthew, is my best friend in the world and supports me beyond measure. There aren’t enough words to describe how special he is. I want to thank my loving, generous, and wise parents who have always believed in me. Even when being an artist didn’t feel like it was working, they believed I would find my way and made sure to tell me that. I owe them every ounce of thanks I have. I’m fortunate to have some of the most incredible friends, near and far, who believe in me, want the best for me, and push me to grow. My voice teacher, Dan, was the one to start untying the anxiety knot that performing became for me and showed me that there could be joy in it after all. I hear his voice coming through in the things I now teach my students and I will forever be grateful to him for the impact he’s had on me. My therapist (I have to give her MAJOR thanks as well) is always reminding me that we are a community-based species who need each other to grow and survive. I hope I never take for granted how fortunate I am to have such fulfilling relationships in my life that help me do just that.

Website: https://mkperformingarts.com/coaches/jessie-brownie

Instagram: @jessiekbrownie

Image Credits
Jake Pearce Photography
Alice Park Photography
Matthew Cesari Photography