Patrick Burns
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Patrick’s one-man-musical, From Foster Care to Fabulous was first presented by the Ahimsa Collective in Los Angeles in 2010. It has since received a workshop production at the UC Irvine Festival of New Musicals and was awarded a grant by the Puffin Foundation which funded a benefit performance for the Los Angeles-based foster care organization Fostering Imagination in March 2011. Mr. Burns has performed the show in Alaska as a fundraiser for Bay Area organization Beyond Emancipation and in 2015 in San Diego as a fundraiser for the organization Just in Time for Foster Youth. From Foster Care to Fabulous had its New York debut at the Bleecker Street Theatre as part of the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity in 2013 where it was nominated for Best Solo Production and Best Solo Performance. Proceeds for this production benefited the Children’s Aid Society. The show received the Planet Activist award for going above and beyond the call of duty while working with a charitable institution and raising awareness for a cause. Patrick has developed From Foster Care to Fabulous for the lecture stage exploring the healing benefits of art and music and their effects on those processing past trauma. This lecture was presented at the Naomi Chernoff Conference at Syracuse University in 2017. From Foster Care to Fabulous continues to astound audiences regionally, playing the Red House Arts Center in Syracuse, NY, the New Helvetia theatre in Sacramento, CA and most recently as part of the 20 th Annual New York International Fringe Festival. In 2014, the East Bay Children’s Law Offices presented Patrick with a special philanthropy and talent award for his national foster care advocacy work. In 2017, Patrick was invited to join the National Foster Youth Institute in Washington D.C. to participate in an advocacy summit and work directly with members of the House of Representatives to better the American Foster Care System. Burns wrote the score to the original musical Madwomen, which was featured as part of the UC Irvine Festival of New Musicals and then with a workshop production in 2017. The show is being further developed. Patrick has written songs and composed incidental music for productions of The Penguin Tango, Medea, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play at the Red House Arts Center where he was the composer and musical director in residence for three seasons. During that time he conducted productions of Carousel, Dreamgirls, Into the Woods, Ragtime, Seussical, 25 th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Color Purple, A Man of No Importance, A Year With Frog and Toad, Godspell, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Music Man, Next to Normal, The Phantom Tollbooth, and Junie B. Jones. During his residency at Red House, he also directed productions of Bring It On, 13, and Beauty and the Beast. He was nominated for Best Director for his work on Beauty and the Beast and was named the best musical director in the region two years in a row by the Syracuse Area Local Theatre Awards. Patrick is the musical supervisor for the Los Angeles-based company, The Album Project and has provided vocal arrangements and orchestrations for several of their productions. In 2017, Patrick was awarded the Lincoln City Fellowship by the Speranza Foundation to support the development of his new musical, Life Sentence, which explores the effects of the Prison Industrial Complex on American families. In 2017, Patrick participated in a musical theatre writing intensive at the Dramatist’s Guild under the instruction of Kirsten Childs. Patrick has been a featured contributor to the entertainment section of The Atlantic’s website. Patrick holds a Bachelor’s in Drama with honors from the University of California at Irvine where he studied musical theatre performance, acting, directing, musical direction and played four years on UCI’s premiere improvisation troop, Live Nude People (with clothes on). During his time at UC Irvine, Patrick was involved in over twenty-five theatrical productions as an actor, director, pianist or musical director. Patrick was an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Scholar, Arts Bridge Scholar, Guardian Scholar, Medici Scholar, and received the Edna Helen Beach Scholarship and the Steve Lyle Memorial Award, which is the highest award bestowed upon an undergraduate. As an actor, singer, and musical director, Patrick has performed regionally, off- Broadway and in national tours and is often noted for his incredible energy, immense heart, and commitment to collaboration and social justice. Patrick served as the Production Manager of Broadway Sacramento’s Broadway On Tour and Broadway At Music Circus from 2018 to 2023. Patrick is a member of the Dramatists Guild and Actors’ Equity Association.