Profile

Upon popping out of the womb in Austin, Texas, little Kymberly started staging "live band" shows, boxing matches, talk shows, and choreographing dance routines to the theme music of "Dallas" the TV show—and guided anyone she could find on tours of the magical forest. Thus her love for hamming it up began.

Oddly enough, along with a fervor for the game of soccer, her enthusiasm and presence led her to attending cheerteading camps at the age of five. She especially took a liking to the dances because it allowed her to put her own individual spin on it. Other endeavors included fashion shows at Dittard's department store and embarrassingly, something sort of like a drill team. Then she went to see a production of "Annie," and lo and behold, she discovered all that she was doing should be translated into the theatrical world.

She had her mom enroll her in professional acting classes in 2nd grade and participated in every theatrical event she possibly could. Then in high school she served as Drama Club President and acted in everything from "Our Town" to Chekhov to "The Crucible." Furthermore, she competed in Speech events doing dramatic interpretation and improv.

In the summer of 1995, at the age of 17, she moved to New York City to attend New York University's Theatre program at the Tisch School of the Arts. Tisch is affiliated with several different professional studios within the City, one of those being The Lee Strasberg Institute, which is where Kym started her studies at the school per her audition. After spending two solid years at the Institute, she decided she needed something more ..something more creative and mufti-disciplinary. And luckily, there existed within Tisch the Experimental Theatre Wing (ETW). This is where Kym was able to take all the play and imagination she had as a kid and make something out of that. NYC and ETW is where Kym found her artistic foundation. At ETW, she took classes in clowning, self-scripting, contact improv, physical character acting, Brechtian theatre making, African dance, choreography, jazz improv, singing among many others. Not only was she challenged to continuously create her own work, but she acted in many mainstage and experimental stage and film productions. And in the summer of 1997, she attended a training program in Amsterdam.

Upon graduation in the Winter of 1998, she moved to Hawaii to hang out and surf for a bit. After finding herself in NYC again, and then Austin for two productions in Austin Shakespeare in the Park, she started doing stand-up comedy, which was definitely the most challenging arena of performance she had entered as of yet. She also started collaborating with local musicians writing and singing music, performing in the Frontera Festival (a local fringe fest) and in other venues, and acting in numerous films and commercials. Then in the summer of 2000, she set forth on the road with a dear friend and fellow artist to film a documentary about spontaneous performance in random sites. (Note: this was before reality TV was such a craze.) The trip ended in California and a pass through San Francisco told her it was time to try out that City by the bay. (She also washed windows in Eureka for cash.)

Thus in January 2001, she embarked in a U-Haul and $1000 to the City by the sea. During a slew of temp jobs and finally steady employment as a cocktail server at a swanky Ian Schrager bar, she explored the local arts scene. She wrote a one-woman show entitled "The Cheerleader Show" a TV show about connecting to your own inner cheerleader which was performed at various venues around town. She founded an improv troupe called Tilted Frame with some other actors and performed shows with them monthly. She sang in a cover band. During her stay here in San Francisco, she has performed in a number of theatrical and film productions and is currently attempting to focus her ablitities on her singing and songwriting.

Three months ago she returned from a one-year trip in Mexico and Central America by her, herself, and she. It was the best year of her life thus far so she's making art out of it. The show will be titled "El Camino Loco," a journey of one year abroad in jungles, volcanoes, Indians, surfing, getting lost and loving it, foreign affairs and all the other adventures along the way. It will be explored through music, characters, mask, images and photography. If the lottery goes in her favor, she will also be performing it in the San Francisco Fringe Festival. Kym's style is described as "circus, cartoon, clown-like."

Exclusive Interview

Special Message
Kym thinks participating in Campout Betty sounds like a magical opportunity and hopes to meet you all there! She also is a total outdoors freak so this is perfect!

Q&A
Click here to ask Kym a question, then check back here soon for her answer!

Workshops: Generating Solo Work (a.k.a. Creating Your One-Woman Show)
Through Viewpoints Theory, physical exploration, character-based work and writing exercises, participants will create and share 3-minute pieces. The workshop will begin with a physical/vocal warm-up including "the cat," a physical, vigorous, energy-invoking exercise.

Contact