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!

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

Bare is Back!

In case you missed it last time, Bare is back!

November 14th and 15th at the Hudson Theatre which is the theatre that Bare originally premiered at ten years ago!

For more information you can check out the facebook page or the Bare-LA Website

Don't miss out!

This is me rapping. It's on.

One Man Show

Some of you may recall my original One Man Show I performed a reading of last May in Irvine:

It is my joy to announce that I will be having a three week, fully produced run of the show in Los Angeles in early 2010!

Opening night will be January 30, 2010. We will run for three weekends at The Improv Space in Westwood. The show is being produced by the good people at the Ahimsa Collective under the direction of Negin Singh.

For those of who not familiar with the show, it chronicles my experiences in foster care in the Bay Area. It boasts with laughter, tears, music and a quirky cast of characters.

Stay tuned for updates!

graphics by Ray Ramirez.

Bare

Come see me this weekend in the LA Concert Production of Bare: A Pop Opera

Friday and Saturday October 2nd & 3rd in Hollywood!

More information and tickets available at the Bare Website

Current and Upcoming!

As I have mentioned before, I am working this summer as the Music Assistant at Sacramento Music Circus. Please come check out our shows, they are top notch!

Altar Boyz opened this past Tuesday and is receiving great reviews!

Guys & Dolls is opening this coming Tuesday, July 21st.

More information here: Music Circus - Guys and Dolls

The Last Five Years

Just the other day I found that there are some videos on youtube from the production of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years that I musically directed and accompanied this past March.

The sound quality isn't incredible (and there is some weird beeping sound), but it's still worth looking at. Plus, Ashley and Ian are wonderful singers!