All New England's a stage for SK's Burnap

By Doug Norris/Features Editor

KINGSTON - South County audiences have marveled at University of Rhode Island junior Andrew Burnap's performances for URI Theatre in roles ranging from a frat boy who develops a conscience in "Spinning Into Butter" to the Transylvanian transsexual Frank-N-Furter in "The Rocky Horror Show" to the lovelorn, tormented artist in Chekov's "The Sea Gull." Now all of New England knows why.

Burnap, a South Kingstown resident, was the first URI student to win the prestigious Irene Ryan Competition, topping a field of 250 acting nominees from 55 New England schools at the regional Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, held last month in Fitchburg, Mass. Burnap's victory was the crowning achievement in a terrific week for the URI Theatre program as four out of the 16 finalists were URI students.

"It was kind of surreal," Burnap said. "It sounds like a Hallmark card, but we were all so close. The greatest thing about it is when they announced that four of us had made the final 16, we all sang the Rhode Island fight song [I'm Rhode Island born and Rhode Island bred and when I die I'll be Rhode Island dead, so go-go Rhode Island, go-go Rhode Island, go Rhode Island U-R-I!]. Everybody else there looked at us as if we all had three heads."

Burnap was one of 11 URI students nominated to compete in this year's competition - chosen for his performance as Alfieri in Arthur Miller's "A View from the Bridge," directed last semester by Bryna Wortman. As part of the requirements, he had to put together two scenes and one monologue, collectively running no longer than 6 minutes. Benjamin Hill, a URI sophomore, served as his partner in the scenes. Wortman was his coach.

"The first thing we heard when they announced the winner was 'the University of Rhode Island'," Burnap said. "Everybody jumped up, but we made so much noise...I thought I heard my name called, but I wasn't one hundred percent sure. It was just a blur. I was in utter disbelief."

But he still had the presence of mind to bring his acting partner up on stage with him after the announcement.

"I wouldn't want it any other way," he said. "He was as much a part of it as I was."

After choosing and then rejecting two scenes and a monologue, Burnap settled on a scene from "All Hail Hurricane Gordo" by Carly Mensch, a scene from Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" and a Prince Hal monologue in Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Part 1."

"Six minutes," Burnap said. "It's tough to show the artistic journey in that amount of time. Usually it takes at least two hours for that. That's the most challenging thing about the festival - how to find the differences within those pieces and characters, physically and emotionally."

Burnap chose the role of Gordo for its comic possibilities. He already knew the play, having had performed it in a different scene with URI Theatre student Cory Crew a couple of years ago at the festival.

"He's a younger man with some sort of mental disease," he said. "He's 22 years in age, but 12 in his mind. That makes him reckless, dangerous. And that's what makes him funny. You don't know what's going to come out of his mouth next. It could be anything."

For the next scene, he chose a poignant and tragic moment, performing as the character Pryor in "Angels."

"It's the scene where he reveals to his lover that he has AIDS, where he shows him this lesion," he said. "I tried to think about what it must have been like to be a gay man in New York City in the 1980s dying of AIDS when so little was known about the disease. But Pryor holds his head high through the suffering. He might be the best character in maybe the greatest American play written in modern times."

For the monologue, Burnap chose to play Prince Hal in Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Part 1."

"It's the role [in Shakespeare], other than Hamlet, that I've always wanted to play," Burnap said. "Prince Hal is a boy trying desperately to become a man. And this is the scene, basically, where in one monologue, he is able to convince his father that he is ready to become Henry V."

Burnap described the rehearsal process as very relaxed, about twice a week for four weeks during the winter break over January. After the URI contingent carpooled to Fitchburg, rehearsals were held every day. As the week went on, Burnap became more impressed by what he saw from URI Theatre students.

"It really struck me," he said. "You know, when I first went to URI I thought I might be settling a little bit. I grew up 10 minutes down the road. Went to South Kingstown High School. I had dreams of NYU, Emerson, Juilliard. But I love it at URI. And, no kidding, it's one of the unsung heroes of the undergraduate theater world. It's one of the greatest training experiences I could ever ask for, from the professors and instructors to the conservatory-style program. I'm just so impressed with all that URI offers, and it really showed at the festival."

For someone who began his theatrical career as an 8-year-old, playing "a suffering child" in a tale of good and evil at Westerly's annual "A Celebration of Twelfth Night," Burnap already has accomplished more than he ever expected on stage. But he's not done. First, he will perform in URI Theatre's "Tartuffe." In April, he'll go to Washington, D.C., to represent New England in a theatrical showcase at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. After that, he will play Don Lockwood, the Gene Kelly lead, in URI's spring musical, "Singin' In the Rain."

"When I was up there on stage with Ben, all I could think about was how many people have helped me along the way," he said. "Like Bryna, Paula [McGlasson, URI Theatre Department chairwoman], Fred Sullivan Jr., Tony Estrella, Joe Short. So many people. And they've made me realize that success is being able to do the kind of theater you want to do. I can't thank them enough. It's a lesson I'll always take with me."

 

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