Karla Burns
Encyclopedia
Karla Burns is an American
operatic mezzo-soprano
and actress who has performed nationally and internationally in opera
houses, theatres, and on television
. She is notably the first black person, African-American or otherwise, to win the Laurence Olivier Award, Britain
's most prestigious award for theatre.
, Kansas
to parents Ira Willie Lee Burns and Catherine Burns. Burns credits her parents for inspiring her musical gifts. Her father was a jazz and gospel pianist and her mother sang spirituals and old hymns at church. Burns attended Wichita State University
from which she earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Music. After leaving college, Burns appeared throughout the world in musical and classical theatre productions, operas and revues. Highlights of her career include performances with the Paris Opera, the Teatro Real
in Madrid
, Cairo Opera
, and the Royal Shakespeare Company
in London. She has also appeared in performances at the Metropolitan Opera
as Lilly in Gershwin's
Porgy and Bess
and in Raymond Wilding-White
's Trio at Carnegie Hall
in New York City. Burns is probably best known for her Drama Desk Award
winning and Tony Award
nominated performance of Queenie in the 1983 Broadway
revival of Jerome Kern
's Show Boat
. The show was brought to Broadway by the Houston Grand Opera
. When the show moved to the London stage in 1991, Burns won an Olivier Award for her work in the show. This was the first time a Black person was awarded this prize. The London production was produced by Opera North
. Burns again reprised the role of Queenie with Opéra national du Rhin
in Strasbourg
, France
in 2002.
Burns has also appeared in many regional theater productions including parts in several Shakespeare
plays, Bloody Mary in South Pacific
, Katisha in The Mikado
, Berenice Sadie Brown in The Member of the Wedding
and Calpernia in To Kill a Mockingbird
among others.
Burns' television credits include the role of Hottie in the 1984 TV movie The Parade with Geraldine Page
and the roles of the Duke of Ephesus/Luce in the 1987 PBS broadcast of William Shakespeare's
The Comedy of Errors
. The latter was a live recording from Lincoln Center
of the 1987 Broadway
revival which was Burns' only other starring role on Broadway. She also made appearances in One of a Kind and True Blue
with Robert Earl Jones
.
Burns is also known for two one-woman musical shows that she has toured with and occasionally still performs. The first show entitled Hi-Hat-Hattie was written by Larry Parr and examines the life of Hattie McDaniel
, America's first Black Oscar winner. McDaniel and Burns' lives have some striking similarities. Both Burns and McDaniel were born in Wichita and both played Queenie in Show Boat. McDaniel was the first black actress to win an Oscar and Burns was the first black actress to win the coveted British Olivier award. They are also both similar physically in many ways. Burns first performed Hi-Hat-Hattie in Wichita in 1994. She went on to perform the role in several other cities including Off-Broadway in New York and the Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre in California. She last performed the show in 2004 at Wichita State University
. Burns' other one woman show is Boogie with Burns Broadway Revue, a cabaret show, which she performed in various venues up through 2007. In 2008 she had surgery to remove an almost ten pound goiter from her neck. The surgery significantly affected her singing voice and she is currently in the process of regaining her vocal abilities.
Burns recently was returned to Wichita to direct the children of Music Theatre for Young People's production of Hello Dolly along side director Mike Roark. She now lives in New York but frequently returns to Wichita to visit her mother.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
operatic mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
and actress who has performed nationally and internationally in opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
houses, theatres, and on television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. She is notably the first black person, African-American or otherwise, to win the Laurence Olivier Award, Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's most prestigious award for theatre.
Biography
Karla Burns was born and raised in WichitaWichita, Kansas
Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...
, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
to parents Ira Willie Lee Burns and Catherine Burns. Burns credits her parents for inspiring her musical gifts. Her father was a jazz and gospel pianist and her mother sang spirituals and old hymns at church. Burns attended Wichita State University
Wichita State University
Wichita State University is a NCAA Division I public university in Wichita, Kansas with selective admissions. WSU is one of six state universities governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The current president is Dr. Donald Beggs....
from which she earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Music. After leaving college, Burns appeared throughout the world in musical and classical theatre productions, operas and revues. Highlights of her career include performances with the Paris Opera, the Teatro Real
Teatro Real
The Teatro Real or simply El Real , is a major opera house located in Madrid, Spain.-History:...
in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Cairo Opera
Cairo Opera House
The Cairo Opera House , part of Cairo's National Cultural Center, is the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. Home to most of Egypt's finest musical groups, it is located on the southern portion of Gezira Island in the Nile River, in the Zamalek district west of and near downtown...
, and the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
in London. She has also appeared in performances at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
as Lilly in Gershwin's
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...
and in Raymond Wilding-White
Raymond Wilding-White
Raymond Wilding-White was a composer of contemporary classical music and electronic music, and photographer/digital artist.- Biography :...
's Trio at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
in New York City. Burns is probably best known for her Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
winning and Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
nominated performance of Queenie in the 1983 Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
revival of Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
's Show Boat
Show Boat
Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working...
. The show was brought to Broadway by the Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...
. When the show moved to the London stage in 1991, Burns won an Olivier Award for her work in the show. This was the first time a Black person was awarded this prize. The London production was produced by Opera North
Opera North
Opera North is an English opera company based in Leeds. The company's home theatre is the Leeds Grand Theatre, but it also presents regular seasons in several other cities, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays and the Theatre Royal, Newcastle...
. Burns again reprised the role of Queenie with Opéra national du Rhin
Opéra national du Rhin
LOpéra national du Rhin is an opera company which performs in Alsace, eastern France, and which includes the Opéra in Strasbourg, the company's ballet in Mulhouse , and the "Opéra Studio" , a training centre for young singers, in Colmar...
in Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in 2002.
Burns has also appeared in many regional theater productions including parts in several Shakespeare
The Plays of William Shakespeare
The Plays of William Shakespeare was an 18th-century edition of the dramatic works of William Shakespeare, edited by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. Johnson announced his intention to edit Shakespeare's plays in his Miscellaneous Observations on Macbeth , and a full Proposal for the edition was...
plays, Bloody Mary in South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
, Katisha in The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
, Berenice Sadie Brown in The Member of the Wedding
The Member of the Wedding
The Member of the Wedding is a 1946 novel by Southern writer Carson McCullers. It took McCullers five years to complete—though she interrupted the work for a few months to write the short novel The Ballad of the Sad Cafe....
and Calpernia in To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was instantly successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature...
among others.
Burns' television credits include the role of Hottie in the 1984 TV movie The Parade with Geraldine Page
Geraldine Page
Geraldine Sue Page was an American actress. Although she starred in at least two dozen feature films, she is primarily known for her celebrated work in the American theater...
and the roles of the Duke of Ephesus/Luce in the 1987 PBS broadcast of William Shakespeare's
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's earliest plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. The Comedy of Errors is one of only two of Shakespeare's...
. The latter was a live recording from Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side. Reynold Levy has been its president since 2002.-History and facilities:...
of the 1987 Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
revival which was Burns' only other starring role on Broadway. She also made appearances in One of a Kind and True Blue
True Blue (TV series)
True Blue was a short-running NBC Television series set in New York City which aired on Friday evenings in 1989 and 1990. The hour-long drama followed the exploits of a squad of uniformed officers assigned to the specialized trucks of the NYPD's Emergency Services Unit.-Starring:* John Bolger as...
with Robert Earl Jones
Robert Earl Jones
Robert Earl Jones was an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the films The Cotton Club and The Sting and as the father of actor James Earl Jones.-Early life:...
.
Burns is also known for two one-woman musical shows that she has toured with and occasionally still performs. The first show entitled Hi-Hat-Hattie was written by Larry Parr and examines the life of Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind ....
, America's first Black Oscar winner. McDaniel and Burns' lives have some striking similarities. Both Burns and McDaniel were born in Wichita and both played Queenie in Show Boat. McDaniel was the first black actress to win an Oscar and Burns was the first black actress to win the coveted British Olivier award. They are also both similar physically in many ways. Burns first performed Hi-Hat-Hattie in Wichita in 1994. She went on to perform the role in several other cities including Off-Broadway in New York and the Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre in California. She last performed the show in 2004 at Wichita State University
Wichita State University
Wichita State University is a NCAA Division I public university in Wichita, Kansas with selective admissions. WSU is one of six state universities governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The current president is Dr. Donald Beggs....
. Burns' other one woman show is Boogie with Burns Broadway Revue, a cabaret show, which she performed in various venues up through 2007. In 2008 she had surgery to remove an almost ten pound goiter from her neck. The surgery significantly affected her singing voice and she is currently in the process of regaining her vocal abilities.
Burns recently was returned to Wichita to direct the children of Music Theatre for Young People's production of Hello Dolly along side director Mike Roark. She now lives in New York but frequently returns to Wichita to visit her mother.
Recordings
- Burns recorded the role of Queenie in EMI/Angel's landmark 1988 recording of ShowboatShowboatA showboat, or show boat, was a form of theater that traveled along the waterways of the United States, especially along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers . A showboat was basically a barge that resembled a long, flat-roofed house, and in order to move down the river, it was pushed by a small tugboat...
This is the only recording of the show's complete score with the original 1927 orchestrations and vocal arrangements. - Burns recorded the role of Hattie in Cole PorterCole PorterCole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
's Kiss Me, KateKiss Me, KateKiss Me, Kate is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. It is structured as a play within a play, where the interior play is a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The original production starred Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang.Kiss...
with the London SinfoniettaLondon SinfoniettaThe London Sinfonietta is an English chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble specialises in contemporary music and works across a wide range of genres, performing modern classics alongside world premieres, and includes music by electronica artists as well as folk and...
on the 1990 EMI Studio recording.