Meet Jane Robbins | Actress, coach, and author
We had the good fortune of connecting with Jane Robbins and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Jane, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My “business” used to be acting, although I fear it was dreaming. And waiting to be a Star to get my mother’s Attention. And there was more waiting. Waiting for an agent to get me an audition. Waiting for a producer to hire me. My ultimate business lesson has been: Don’t wait for someone else to do it for me. Dare to take the initiative. Dare to take action.
As an actress, I was in one Academy Award-winning film, Rocky. When I was hitchhiking in LA in 1975, I dared to take a ride from someone who turned out to be an actors’ agent. The man told me that “this little film” was casting, and where to send my picture and resume.
The director had seen a one-woman play that I’d produced for myself in New York. It was Off-Off-Broadway. I had rented a theater for fifty dollars, Monday nights only, when the theater was dark. The director had liked my work. He offered me the role of the pet shop owner with no audition.
Rocky was in 1976, but that didn’t guarantee me regular work as an actress. It’s the rare actor, even one from New York, with rave reviews, who can work all the time in LA. I needed additional income and wondered what else I could do that would give me pleasure.
Ultimately, I decided to leave acting behind. I didn’t want to pretend to be another person. I only wanted to learn to be my most authentic self. I now wanted to focus on my writing, particularly my poetry.
I thought I’d join a class and people recommended Jack Grapes. I took his class, and our last assignment was to come up with a chapbook (a short book of poems). Before taking his class, I’d written some poems about dogs in Topanga, and I had a dog. This would be my chapbook. Twenty-three pages and my first book of poetry.
I saw that many people seemed to be amused and delighted by my chapbook. They were even buying it. And there were more crazy dog poems in my head. So, in 2019, I published DOGS IN TOPANGA, 2000-2018. My dear friend in LA, Jewell Jones, a retired elementary school teacher who will be 100 this August, says when she wakes up depressed, she picks up the book and smiles.
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve lived in LA on and off for fifty years — everywhere from Hollywood to Beverly Hills to Topanga Canyon. Where I live now. During that time, I’ve written six books and three plays, one of which, A Radical Friendship, is now being optioned to be made into a movie.
The impetus for so much of my success, I now realize, is my deep desire to help people feel better. Yes, writing is something I do like breathing, but I’ve turned this addiction and pleasure into a profitable business. I guess I’ve had enough moxie, desperation, insanity, or inspiration to put myself out there.
When I first wrote ACTING TECHNIQUES FOR EVERYDAY LIFE, always in the front of my mind had been the dream that I would end up on talk shows promoting it, and that some movie producer would see me, and star me in his next film.
Who knows why I had to wait eleven years before that book was published? But by then, coaching people, seeing them come to me unhappy and afraid, and leave joyful and courageous, was so deeply rewarding that I only wanted the book out there to help people. I’ve always believed that that switch in my thinking was what ultimately got the book to be published.
My next book of poetry was CAFÉ MIMOSA IN TOPANGA. Perhaps only in Topanga would I meet Tommy Teeple — songwriter, guitarist, and landscaper who will only plant stuff that you can eat. One morning, over coffee at the cafe, Tommy mentioned to me that he’d written a song about the café. I’m thinking, what a lovely book that would make: some poems by me, and a CD of his song in its back pocket.
I self-publish, and the book won the Southern California Publicists Poetry Award, and it’s still selling today.
Three years ago, I was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis, a rare auto-immune disease. I wrote a book about it, despite my unhappy condition, which included triple vision and the inability to raise my arms or chew.
The book’s called MYASTHENIA GRAVIS: THE MUSICAL! Maybe I knew intuitively that writing the book would help my healing. By the time I finished the book, the worst of my symptoms were gone. Certainly, a lot of the book made me laugh. Laughter, even writing – good medicine.
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Café Mimosa is full of luscious French pastries and typical, odd, creative Topanga types.
Topanga Living Café, with equally delicious food and brilliant company.
Inn of the Seventh Ray, a restaurant with magical hanging lights, surrounded by ancient oaks and a creek where, the last time I was there, I saw a long-necked, shining white egret in the water.
Jalan Jalan, for its sacred and special stone statues and its awe-inspiring thirty-foot waterfall.
Topanga State Park, with its seemingly endless and breathtaking trails and views. There is even a healing vortex (if you believe in that sort of thing) on a plateau of rocks surrounded, at 360 degrees, by tall, velvet-green mountains. I visited one day when I was sick, and I believe I felt the power of the spot draw the toxins out of my body. Or maybe I was just ready to get better.
Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My obvious thanks go to Jack Grapes, Tommy Teeple, Claire Denis who owns Café Mimosa; Augustina Ferguson, who owns the Topanga Living Café; Lucy Yaney, who created the Inn of the Seventh Ray, and Brian Gibson, who found me my Laughing Buddha.
Website: https://www.janemarlarobbins.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janemarlarobbins/
Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
