A Dynamic Collective, A “Satellite” System: Buran Theatre Company

Featured Member Profile

Somewhere between Lawrence, Kansas and Vilnius, Lithuania, a theatre company was born. Conceived at the University of Kansas in 2005, with the original intent of producing new work without having to charge students and the local community for tickets, Buran Theatre Company (”Buran” being an amalgam of the founders’ surnames that just happens to mean “blizzard” in Russian) has extended their mission of “producing new works for new audiences and bridging the gap between spectator and actor” to have an international reach. Co-artistic director and founding member Adam R. Burnett describes how a “satellite system” of multi-disciplinary artists creates work in a number of communities simultaneously.

What sets Buran Theatre Company apart from other theatre companies?

What sets us apart is that our base is constructed wherever the work generates or wants to live. In our “satellite system” of multi-disciplinary artists we can carry on the spirit of our work in a number of communities simultaneously. We’re a collective of actors, directors, writers, designers, musicians, dancers, choreographers, painters, composers, teachers, inventors, and historians who commune in various locales across the globe, and every company member is essentially a co-artistic director. Most company members are aligned due to their consistent interaction and involvement in the company since we left the Department of Theatre at University of Kansas in the spring of 2008.

The fact that we have no fixed home can be difficult for our audience base, I think, although the benefits of conducting our work this way is quite ideal. We hope that over the years our presence will become a fixture in various communities (New York; Kansas City; Albuquerque; Vilnius, Lithuania; Lawrence, Kansas; etc.) and we’re able to have numerous projects happening all over the globe engaging a dissimilar group of artists.

Would you tell us about Meilė be Akcento, your first international production?

The production of Meilė be Akcento is a perfect example of how our satellite system works. Alicia Gian-Maciuliene, who co-founded the company in Lawrence, Kansas, moved to Lithuania to live with her husband and company member, Marius Mačiulis. After about a year in Vilnius, she started throwing ideas off of company members and fellow theatre artists. I was able to make it over to Lithuania during January and February of 2009 and work with her on initiating the project.

Alicia’s intent was to share American musical theatre with Lithuanians in a cross-culture exchange. She had chosen the work of Lithuanian graphic artist Stasys Krasauskas as the texture upon which she wanted to ground the project. Alicia chose classic musical theatre songs by Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Sondheim — songs that had never been translated into Lithuanian. This was the first time a Lithuanian audience was hearing “September Song” or “I Love Paris” in their own tongue on stage. Alicia received a grant from the American Embassy of Lithuania to produce the show as part of American Cultural Month. Meilė be Akcento premiered in May 2009 as a co-production between Buran and Elfų Teatras, but the demand for the piece has kept it playing in repertory. This is a huge success for Buran, and for Alicia and Marius especially, who continue to work to keep the production running smoothly, alongside Elfų Teatras artistic director Romas Viksraitis.

What has been your greatest success to date?

This past year has been such a marvelous success in generating new work in various communities: a workshop production of Napoleon Exiled! in New York City, a full production of Meilė be Akcento in Vilnius, and a full production of Money Buckets! The Untold Story of FDR in Kansas City. But aside from the productions, I feel that our greatest success to date is our most recent. In August, we invited about 40 artists from all over the globe to commune in Albuquerque for a week to discuss and explore how we might assist each other more directly. We were astounded at how many people jumped at the opportunity to show up. Sixteen people made the trek to New Mexico on their own dime to partake in the first annual Buran Summit. We spent ten days — from morning ’til night — giving voice to new material, participating in round table discussions/workshops and attending performances as a part of Tricklock’s 10th Annual Revolutions International Theatre Festival. This artistic commitment from company members and collaborators from across the globe has been a huge success.

How does your Fractured Atlas membership benefit Buran?

Fiscal sponsorship through our Fractured Atlas membership allows us to apply for grants and fund-raise for our projects, which is invaluable to the sustainability of the company. We rely heavily on our donors, as we try to keep our tickets as cheap as possible. We have the support from everyone at Fractured Atlas, whether it’s in grant-writing or in processing a donation. I have always felt like Fractured Atlas has been a collaborator in the process of making projects happen. Would Fractured Atlas like to be a company member of Buran?

Have you come any closer to finding “your authentic obsession”?

I think so. Someone said to me today, “I wish there was an intervention for the addiction of writing.” I echoed that thought. My obsession is a constant willing suspension of disbelief: in seeing the entire creative act through, from putting it down on paper alone, to the rehearsal room with actors and musicians and designers, and finally, with and for an audience. My responsibility to a piece of work — to finding a specific, specialized methodology for each project I direct — is what drives me. This is why I love working on new plays with the playwright present: to have everyone in the room is so important. In no way do I believe that a text is sacred, but I believe a performance can be, and the mutual responsibility of everyone involved allows it to stand, or not. Buran looks for a configuring of the ensemble that extends beyond the company and includes the audience as well. I consider myself a very lucky playwright in this regard, to be involved in this collective of artists who are always open and willing to give a voice to untested work.

Do you have any pipe-dream collaborations?

We have many open-ended ones. For years we’ve been pining to do a co-production with Theresa Buchheister’s Title:Point Productions (also a Fractured Atlas member!) — I think it’s a matter of just waiting for the stars to align. A while back we were throwing around the idea of a pared down version of The Seagull, where we’d rehearse out on a farm in Kansas by a lake during the summer and then tour the mid-west to small towns and perform in their parks, community centers and performance spaces. Alicia and I have been talking about an original musical to premiere in Vilnius, focusing on the events surrounding Lithuania’s independence from the Soviet Union in January, 1991. Company member and jazz composer Ben Leifer has been discussing a jazz piece to produce in NYC that incorporates dance/movement and text into a visual narrative. For years I’ve wanted to sucker singer-songwriter Emily Jane Powers into working on a theatrical project about construction of memory via her music and this cycle of Chopin plays I’ve written. Co-artistic director Justin Knudsen has recently discussed the desire for Buran to work more with movement-based, image-induced narratives and less with text.

The biggest pipe-dream is that I’d like to see Buran perform in either the Ellen Stewart Theatre or the Annex at La MaMa ETC and for there to be a dialogue between the companies. As I see it, that would be a sort of “coming home” in that we have such a fondness for what Ellen Stewart and all of her crew does. But, we’re in no hurry. It really is about just waiting for the right time to come (and funding) for these collaborations to occur. You can’t rush them. It’s becoming easier and easier to collaborate using e-mail and Skype. I think that as long as you are mindful in the act of doing rather than just talking about, then collaboration is bound to occur.

Aside from collaborations, another real dream is to have a space in north-eastern Kansas within the next ten years. There’s an airplane hangar just south of Eudora, Kansas, that I’ve been eying since 2005. What we’d want is a performance space that also works as a rehearsal hall and housing for visiting artists. Ideally the space would be somewhere out in the country, to serve as retreat for our visiting artists and audiences.

Where will you be in 2010 and what will you be performing?

Coming up next we have a reading of a new play I’ve written, Bournijka the Boxer: American Mythology, Vol. 1, at the Pearl Studios in NYC on March 19th, directed by Theresa Buchheister and featuring an incredibly talented cast of twelve actors! This May, in Albuquerque, we’re putting up a workshop production of Mars Mraz’s The Cotton Plantation, his anachronistic and timely turn on Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.

The real meat of our season is our summer production, which will play in Topeka and Lawrence, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, during July and August. We’ll also be teaching workshops all over north-eastern Kansas during this time and hosting the currently aptly titled “Buran Burlesque” in Lawrence, Kansas, modeled after Tricklock’s infamous Reptilian Lounge. The summer production will be chosen by vote, which we’ll send out in ballot form to our e-list in late March, so watch out for that and sign up for our e-list.

Next fall we plan on doing a series of workshop productions of new plays in various cities. We’d like to see workshop productions of new projects by new voices in all our satellites: Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Kansas City, Chicago, Lawrence, Minneapolis, Vilnius, and New York City. And finally, next winter Justin and I will be premiering a new two man show (somewhere!) — currently it’s titled The Shirley Temple Story (I haven’t told Justin that yet). We plan to take this show on the road beginning January 2011 to various cities, towns and hamlets to perform in theaters, bars and backyards.

How can we learn more about Buran Theatre Company?

We’re on Facebook and Twitter — just look up “Buran Theatre” and there you will find us. We also have a website, www.burantheatrecompany.com, and a blog: http://burantheatre.blogspot.com.

And finally, our work is all about collaboration and community. If you want to work with Buran or want us to come and see you and perform our work wherever you are in the spring of 2011, email us. To submit your creative work to Buran for consideration, send a letter of inquiry and a full copy of your script or score or portfolio of pictures or drawings or songs to Lara Thomas Ducey.

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Photos:
1. Erin Phillips, Adam Burnett, & Erik LaPointe perform a piece devised during the Buran Summit in January 2010. Photograph by Joshua Efron.
2. From Meilė be AkcentoNightmares: An Artful Demonstration of the Sublime. L to R: Justin Knudsen, Brady Blevins, Erik LaPointe, and Meg Saricks.
3. From Nightmares: An Artful Demonstration of the Sublime. L to R: Justin Knudsen, Brady Blevins, Erik LaPointe, and Meg Saricks.
4. From the summer 2010 production of Money Buckets! The Untold Story of FDR at the KC Fringe Festival. L to R: Marius Maciulis, Alicia Gian-Maciuliene, Val Smith, Justin Knudsen, & Brady Blevins.
5. A Greater Release - Matthew Crooks as the Waiter, and Erik LaPointe as the Great American Novelist.