Marin Women's Hall of Fame

Ann D. Brebner
By Nancy Nakai

    When  describing  Ann  Brebner,  people  use words like "mentor", "leader", "creator", and "entrepreneur".    As  evidence  of this, Ms. Brebner  recently "did  the impossible"  and serving as Board President guided the Mill Valley Film Festival from a struggling, debt-ridden   organization    to   a   broadly   respected   arts organization.  A Festival board member  credits "the  strength of Ann's  vision,  her  sensitivity  and  integrity" to be the major ingredient in this success.

     Jean Ann Brebner has come to Marin County via a circuitous route, one  that  took  her  from  the ranchlands of New Zealand to "the center of it all" in London and finally to Sausalito.  Ann's life began   in 1923;  sadly, her  mother's life  ended in her child's birth.* An only child, Ann was raised by  a father,  John H. Don, whom she  termed "a  very remote man", and her great aunt "a very loving woman", her memories of  a  New  Zealand  childhood abound with  visual  images  of  open fields, snow covered mountains and clear, large lakes.  It was at one  of the  those lakes  that Ann loved to  spend her  summers, often  alone on the lake in a boat, sometimes with a friend.  She loved the unstructured time and the space to  be curious  and inventive. "It was where I did a lot of my dreaming." 

     Mostly  Ann  dreamed  of   becoming  a   great  concert  pianist.  Starting  at  age  ten,  she  devoted  up to six hours per day to practice her  craft at  the keyboard.   She  says that  she had a clear  vision  of  herself  on  the stage, a knowledge of what it would feel like to perform.   Above all,  she believed  that stage performance would enable her to gain recognition for being "who I really was". 

    For at that tender age, she already felt the stress of fulfilling roles that she did not want.  Her father had wanted a son.  With his daughter, he taught  her those  things he wanted to share with a son.  For example, before she reached puberty she could assist in the  tear down  and reassembly  of a  car engine.

    But she never gained confidence in the social skills she felt she could have learned from a mother.   In  fact, she  feels the most vulnerable when she is in an unstructured social situation, where she has no specific role to fill (i.e., guest speaker).  At school she was  active in  sports, as  a member  of the tennis team and  the swimming  team.  It helped to be so active and away from home for long hours.  For her great aunt, a wonderful, loving, "traditional" woman who had enjoyed gardening and cooking and  sewing,  had  suffered  a  stroke  and  was  now permanently hospitalized.  Thus, from the age of twelve, Ann came home to a long series of housekeepers. 

*Her mother's name was Jean McBey Robertson Don  

    Her  busy  father  had  a thriving reconstructive  surgery  practice  and  had little free time; his high standards at home led  to  the  housekeepers  quitting after short periods  of time.   "I  pretty much raised myself from then on," she states.

     When asked about who had most influenced her as a  youngster, Ann speaks about her beloved uncle, her mother's brother.  He owned a large ranch and had five children. (Ann was  one year  older than his oldest  child.)   "He believed  in me.  He would stand up for me."   She always  felt special  to him.   Much  of his practical wisdom still surfaces in her thinking now and then.  Her favorite insight from him came when she asked him what to  do in  case she ever  got  lost.    He  replied  that she must: 1) not run around crazy - rather stay still until you know where you  are; then, 2) you'll know where to go when you know to go.  It is a piece of wisdom that she made sure she passed on to her two sons.

     When it came time  for college,  Ann wanted  to pursue  her piano studies in  Germany, with a mind toward her vision of a career on stage as a concert pianist.   But, her  father wished  to finance only  a  liberal  arts  course  of  study.    After she completed college, she could "pursue that foolishness" if she  wanted.  She never  went  back  to  the  concert  piano.   Graduating from the University of  New  Zealand  with  a  double  degree  in abnormal psychology and  theoretical music,  she did  postgraduate work in psychology.  She applied to medical  school with  an intention of obtaining an M.D. in psychiatry.  But on the day she received her acceptance into medical school, she also  received word  that she had been awarded a government scholarship to study theater at the famous Old Vic Theatre School in London.  Much to  the chagrin of her father, she opted for the Old Vic.  "He  said  he  wouldn't  support  me, and he didn't," she claims.  Leaving New Zealand was  hard for  her, and  she realizes  it was also hard  on her  father.   But it  was something she had to do.

    Quoting a New York Times article, "The self  gives up  images and expectations and  moves to  write its  own history."  That is how she felt about arriving in London to begin study at  the Old Vic.  "I was really 'out there'!   But what a wonderful time it was!"

    There was  a faculty  of thirty-five,  and two groups of eighteen students (it  was  a  two-year  program).    "There  was somebody watching  you  all  the  time.    Not  critically,  but rather to question and  mold the  experience. ..'Why? Why?  Why?' they would ask always  seeking to  bring you to understand the 'Truth of the moment'."  Her  group  produced   one  complete   production  per semester.

    They designed the sets, the lighting, and acted in the production as well.  if the  scenery  had  been  designed  out of scale, if it didn't fit in the door; if the lighting didn't light what it was supposed to; and/or if the sound system they designed was inadequate, it was  their problem. 

      This  complete technical training helped Ann to gain an expertise and build a firm foundation upon which to construct a career in the theater.  She loved the time spent there.  Often actors like Sir Lawrence Olivier would come to the Old Vic to practice their craft.  The opportunity to speak with and learn from such legendary theater artists was a priceless experience.

     Another outcome of her two years at the Old Vic was that she met her husband, John Brebner, there.  He was her stagecraft instructor.  They were married in New Zealand in 1953.  Ann remembers that the night before her wedding was the first time her father ever spoke to her about her mother.  It was a bittersweet experience.  But, the Brebners did not settle in New Zealand.  Having spent some time in the Bay Area while on a Fullbright scholarship at Stanford, John Brebner wanted to return to San Francisco and live in his “Nirvana”, namely, Sausalito.

     For the next two years, Ann directed stage and television around Northern California.  She gave lectures at Stanford University.  She taught acting and directed plays for three years at Dominican High School in San Rafael.  In 1960, she co-founded the Marin Shakespeare Festival and served as its Executive Director.  The Shakespeare Festival was to continue for the next ten years with annual, outdoor summer productions of three and four plays per season.  Ann directed one of these plays each summer.

     That same Year, her husband began teaching acting classes under the auspices of a San Francisco talent agency.  Shortly thereafter the owners of the agency decided to retire and the Brebners took over the agency.  Brebner Agencies, Inc. was informed almost immediately that the film, “The Pleasure of His Company” was coming to town for filming and needed to have an entire cast.  Could the Brebner Agency fulfill this need?  Indeed they could, and they were on their way.

     Ann’s husband stayed with the agency for a year or two, but soon returned to children’s theater and directing.  Over the next twenty-three years Ann handled the location casting on all major motion pictures, television series and television commercials which were made in Northern California.  During the last five years with the Brebner Agencies, she also represented screen actors and well as screen writers for motion pictures, television and commercials.

    In  1962,  she  was  hired  to  create  a drama department at the College of Marin.  Since  she  was  familiar  with  the technical aspects  of  theater  productions,  she also helped to design the theater that now  stands  on  the  College  of  Marin's Kentfield campus.    She  taught  drama  for  one  year,  but a credentials controversy (the state community college system  would not credit her  post-graduate  work  at  the  Old  Vic),  led her to cut her affiliation.

    Her capabilities grew enormously during this  period in  terms of her  aims  and  ambitions,  her  love of understanding how things worked, her love of variety and  change and  her need  to discard repetition and  old securities.  Unhappily, one of the results of this was a divorce in 1972 from her husband, who  was changing at a different pace and in a different direction.

    The work  at the  agency began  to get to the point where she was involved  almost  exclusively  in  administration  work  such  as insurance, contracts  and legal  papers.   Less and less did she have time to do casting work and exercise her artistic judgment.  The practical pressures of the job, "making a fiscally safe place for creative people to  operate"  led  her  to  have twenty-eight phone lines  on her  desk. Combined  with the  emotional strain - "There is always someone road at  you,  be  it  the  actor  or the director, etc."  - her  enjoyment of  agency work began to erode.

    Her own creativity was "screeching to get out!".  In other words, those things  that had  attracted her to agency work in the first place were almost absent  from her  daily contributions at work. 

     She  decided  to  sell  the  agency  in 1982.  She sold it with a twinge, but was glad to be rid of the routine managerial details she found so boring.  Now she could get on with the rewards of the entrepreneurial process that came so naturally.   In 1983, Ann was honored for her contributions to the profession in a tribute held at the Stanford Court Hotel.    Over four  hundred members  of the motion picture and entertainment industry attended.

     In  1984,   she  was  the  casting  director  for the film Massive Retaliation and the American Playhouse Production of Smooth Talk.  She co-authored  with Roger  Freeburg the  screenplays for Dearly Beloved, Going Home, and The  Anniversary.  Since  1986,  Ann has taught  acting  workshops  in  San Francisco, Denver and New York City. Since 1984, Ann  had facilitated  workshops with  actors in New York,  Denver and  San Francisco.  The workshops focus on the specific problems of film  acting and  work with  a method (which she has  devised) of  learning a script in just one reading.  She works with groups of ten actors, although she prefers to have had a private session with each student prior to working with them in a group.   In  these  private  sessions  she  counsels  actors on matters  such  as  relocation  strategies,  working  with casting directors and agents, etc.  Often her psychology  degree comes in handy as  she helps  some clients  come to  grips with angers and tensions that serve as an impediments to their careers.

    In 1987, she became the  first  woman  recipient  of  the Pioneer Award from  the Association of Visual Communicators.  Her list of accomplishments continues.  She has  recently directed  a play in New York City entitled "Queen's Night", a biographical, political play about  the  historic  trial  of  Marie  Antoinette.  She has written  a  book.  Setting  Free  the  Actor; Overcoming Creative Blocks,   (published  by  Mercury  House)  which  deals  with  how creative blocks  get in  place and how to overcome them.  She has begun work  on another  book.   She has  done some pre-production work on  a favorite film project of hers, with a working title of "Hard Laughter".  She no longer wants to  produce it  (maybe cast it or direct it instead) and is looking for "adoptive parents" to take over the film  and get  it the  producers and  money it will need to get on the screen.

    In addition  to all  of this, Ann has managed to find the time to assist the Mill  Valley  Film  Festival  in  its  quest  for both financial  solvency  and  industry  credibility.  As the Festival continues to prosper upon  the firm  footing she  has established during her  seven years of involvement, her contemporaries on the Festival board laud her efforts: "...to friend and foe alike, she conducted herself  with grace  and dignity and with her integrity intact."  She is excited that the 1990 Festival will  continue to bring  to  Marin  County  films  that  the local population might otherwise not see.  It will also involve film makers  from around the world,  lending a multi-cultural flavor.  She also hopes that an environmental awareness can be woven into the 1990 theme.   As always, the  residents of the county and the Bay Area will be the beneficiary as a number  of film  experts, etc.  come to brighten our community for the two to three weeks of the celebration.

    She also  serves as  a member  of the  board of the Pickle Family Circus.  She is on the  Advisory Boards  of both  Bread and Roses and AASK.   She is a founding member of Northern California Women in Film.  And on a daily basis, as one person wrote, "..she has a deep  and  respectful  reputation  with  all  whom  she  comes in contact.  Her intelligence  and  insight  are  an  inspiration to many...."  For  a  New  Zealand  girl  who aspired to "be someone unusual, ..to be recognized  for  achieving  something different", Ann  Brebner  has  certainly  achieved  one of her most important childhood goals.  Ann  has other  projects in  the works: another play  to  direct;  a  project with Tamalpais High School students based  on  a   journal-writing   assignment;   another   year  of involvement with  the Mill  Valley Film Festival; and, others yet uncreated.  Always a contributor, Ann's personal motto is "Wait a minute, I  haven't finished  yet!!!!"   We await her next efforts with anticipation.

Written 1999

Thoughts on the Theater Industry
from Ann Brebner

 How do film acting and stage acting differ?

 "Film acting is subtractive, becoming simpler to your own internal truth until you are  totally  open  to  the camera.  Stage acting  is additive - you need to create aesthetic distance to cover yourself.  You need to become  larger than  life.  True artistry in  acting leaves space in the performance to allow the audience room to add their own  feelings  and  emotions,  and to identify and make the final connection."

 Directing?

"A director must assume that the play written is your road map.  The director is then the one who decides what the audience will see as they follow the roadway.  sort of a visual traffic cop.  The director chooses the piece of emotional thread to show where the vulnerability of the play is.  The challenge of directing is the fear.  I feel, “I wonder if this is the one where I fall flat on my face?  When I begin a production, I lose myself in it. It is a leap of faith; the audience will let me know.”

 As the director:  Special skills?

"I use my original gut instinct,   my initial  reaction to  what I feel is  the focus  of the  play.   I make  that the  focus of my directive efforts."

 Advice for fledgling directors?

"Do it!  Don't think about it.  To learn  a craft  or skill, you absolutely have to do it."

Advice for a new talent agent?

"Be true  to your gut feelings.  Don't try to twist things around in a way to please other people.   It just won't work."

 Your philosophy in the profession (and beyond)?