Let the Summer Begin!

It's been an eventful week! Carousel at the Downey Civic Light Opera closed this past Sunday.

The show was a lovely experience and I met so many talented people including the illustrious Marsha Moode. This truly is Richard Rodgers' most beautiful score! It was a joy to sing it. a

Reviews of the show appeared in The Los Angeles Wave, Stage Scene LA.com, Backstage, & more!



This Sunday I will be leaving Los Angeles for two months to assistant Musically Direct at Sacramento Music Circus! This is my third season with them and it's definitely going to be a good one!

Fostering Imagination

On May 23, 2010 From Foster Care to Fabulous will be the main feature of a Foster Care Awareness Event hosted by Fostering Imagination!

Fostering Imagination was created in 2005 by family law attorney Ilia Lopez in response to the growing number of foster youth who become destitute when they emancipate from the foster care system. Working with experience youth advocates, she set out to develop innovative programs that would empower youth and help them make a successful and healthy transition to adulthood.

More information on this event is available here!

From Foster Care to Fabulous Trailer!

My one man show, From Foster Care to Fabulous, was a big success at The Improv Space in Westwood. The show is going to happen again once the right opportunity arises. Please check out the trailer that is now on YouTube and show your friends!

March Updates!!!

It has been a while since I've blogged and so much is going on!

Last night I went to the premiere of a documentary called See What I'm Saying. The film is directed by Hilari Scarl and it tells the plights and joys of being a Deaf entertainer in America. Not only is this film incredibly funny, inspiring and emotional but it is also the very first open captioned commercial film. This means that if you go to see this movie at a theatre, you will be part of the first time that Deaf, Hard-of-hearing, hearing and anybody else can all sit in the same movie theatre and understand the entire film. For more information on the film visit the website.

As for me, I'm musically directing a musical revue for the Pasadena Musical Theatre Program! This program is a chance for middle and high school students to participate in musical theatre performance. The show is a musical revue featuring songs from musicals based on classic plays. With songs from Kiss Me, Kate; West Side Story; My Fair Lady and Hello Dolly the night should be a lot of fun. Especially if you love kids.


I'm also still playing in the pit for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in North Hollywood! The show is through the Interact Theatre Company and is a lot of fun! There's two weekends left for this show, so if you want to come, check out the website.

A Good Run!

From Foster Care to Fabulous ended its run at The Improv Space this past Saturday night!

We had an incredible run! Every night had a sensational audience and ending with a standing ovation. The Ahimsa Collective has made some wonderful connections because of this show with some incredible programs who are looking out for California Foster Youth. Representatives from Children's Law Center, CASA and Fostering Imagination came to see the show and participate in talk backs in which the audience was able to ask questions about foster care and the show.

If you missed the show, don't worry! There will be another chance to see it. And if you'd like to have the show performed in your theatre or home, contact me and we'll talk.

A big thank you to all those who helped in making the run of this show so successful!





Patrick Burns with Ahimsa Collective Artistic Director Negin Singh

photo credit: Raymond Liu

Opening Weekend

Opening weekend of From Foster Care to Fabulous rocked. We had AMAZING audiences at both performances and the show is being very well received. Standing ovations both nights!!!

Also, at tonight's show (Sunday) we had two very special guests from the Children's Law Center of Los Angeles. Two attorneys from this organization came out to see the show and then participated in a talk back with the audience and myself after the show. This is a wonderful organization that advocates for Foster Youth. Check out their website at www.clcla.org

Another member of our audience works with an organization called CASA which stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates. This organization provides advocates for foster kids. These people are volunteers and are people from the community. You could be one of them!!! Check out their website at www.casaforchildren.org

This past week the show was featured as a cover story article for the UCLA newspaper, The Daily Bruin. The article is available online here!

And if you haven't seen the show and don't plan to, please change your plans! We have a Saturday night show next week and the week after at midnight and we have Sunday night show next week at 8pm which will include another talk back with representatives from the Children's Law Center.

Thanks to everyone who came to see the show!!!

From Foster Care to Fabulous!

Opens this Saturday night in Westwood!


Opens this Saturday night in Westwood!

Here's what's being said about the show:

“It’s all truth,” Patrick Burns explains as he describes “From Foster Care to Fabulous”, his one man autobiographical musical extravaganza that chronicles his teenage years in and out of foster care. “Sometimes the truth is horrifying. Sometimes the truth is hilarious. But it’s never cliché. It’s never preachy. It’s just the truth.”

Between the ages of fourteen and seventeen, Patrick Burns lived with four foster families in the Oakland, California area. His self-written, self-performed musical details this experience from the day he moved into his first foster home to the moment when he cut ties with his last foster mother. The one-man musical features myriad songs (both well-known and original), a plethora of jaw dropping anecdotes and side splitting yarns, and an avalanche of horrifying, hilarious, and ultimately heartbreaking characters. Indeed, a major reason why Burns decided to sculpt his stories into a one-man show is precisely because he had spent years riveting his friends and acquaintances with the stories of his life. While doing so, he became adept at portraying the parts of his multiple foster parents, sibling, and relatives as well as the roles of his biological family. The stories were so vivid, the characters so captivating, and Burns’ personal portrayal of his life was so mesmerizing that a theatrical retelling of this chapter in his life performed by Burns himself is nothing short of an inspired next step.

Foster care is an institution most of us modern Americans know little about. The creative team behind “”From Foster Care to Fabulous” are committed to breaking down the hackneyed clichés associated with the subject, and replace these commonplace stereotypes with complex truths. As Burns says, “This is a personal account of foster care. This is my story. There are so many stereotypes of foster kids-orphans, troublemakers, and victims. But I wasn’t a stereotype. I wasn’t just some kid.” At its heart, this is what “From Foster Care to Fabulous” is about. Behind every statistic is a face that refuses to be blurred into the background. Behind every cliché is reality demanding to be recognized.

From Foster Care to Fabulous runs from January 29th to February 13th, midnight on Saturdays and 8PM on Sundays at the Improv Space in Los Angeles. Produced by the Ahimsa Collective, the show is written by and stars Patrick Burns and is directed by Ahimsa Collective Artistic Director Negin Singh. For tickets visit www.ahimsacollective.com

photo credit: Raymond Lui
article credit: Kit Steinkellner

Mwaka mpya mwema!

People are still saying "Happy New Year."

How long do they get to keep doing this? In an effort to not be an asshole, I will reply "you too," or "Oh yeah, New Year." I guess we're only nine days in and the sentiment to continue to congratulate me on flipping the biggest page on my calendar is in good spirits. But I have to think about whether anything worth talking about has occured in these people's lives since the ball dropped. If I were to blatantly ask this question of my holiday well-wishers and the only response they could muster was "well, it is a new year," I would throw the nearest colorful thing at them and yell in Swahili. At least then they could tell their friends about that instead of boring them with the holiday slogan that is starting to wear out its welcome.