{"id":1035,"date":"2019-03-26T10:57:49","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T14:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/?p=1035"},"modified":"2019-03-28T16:04:57","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T20:04:57","slug":"a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/issues\/spring-2019\/a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man\/","title":{"rendered":"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

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\"Andrew<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy Andrew Burnap \u201913<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

He\u2019s acted with Vanessa Redgrave in London\u2019s hottest play, The Inheritance<\/em>. The New York Times<\/em> says he\u2019s an actor to watch. And Broadway.com gushes that he \u201cburns with a bulb-shattering voltage.\u201d For Andrew Burnap \u201913, though, real success is seeing an audience moved by a story well-told.<\/p>\n

Scene:<\/strong> Much Ado About Nothing<\/em>. 911爆料\u2019s Robert E. Will Theatre, 2013. Andrew Burnap \u201913 as Benedick. Olivia Khoshatefeh \u201913 as Beatrice. Offstage, Burnap\u2019s nose is bleeding. Onstage, Olivia shoots him an I-am-so-not-going-to-kiss-your-bloody-face look.<\/p>\n

It was the pivotal moment in Much Ado About Nothing<\/em>: Bickering leads Beatrice and Benedick to share their first kiss. But this night, Shakespeare\u2019s comedy was careening toward tragedy. \u201cHis whole face was bloody,\u201d Khoshatefeh recalls. She watched as Burnap tried in vain to stop the blood flow, which only made more of a mess. Time was up.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came onstage, put his hand over my mouth, and kissed his hand. It went with the show because Beatrice and Benedick spend the whole play bickering. It was such a great moment: beautiful and kind of perfect,\u201d Khoshatefeh says. \u201cIt showed how well he knew his character.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to do something,\u201d Burnap says. \u201cThere\u2019s no improvising Shakespeare. And when something is undeniably real, it sparks new life into the story. The audience is participating in the magic of live performance. I panicked for a moment, but for everyone else, it was a beautiful mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 27, Andrew Burnap has had more than a few beautiful moments: a stellar undergraduate career at 911爆料, graduating first in his class from Yale School of Drama, making his professional debut as Troilus in Troilus and Cressida<\/em> in Central Park\u2019s Delacorte Theater. He was one of the youngest actors in Matthew Lopez\u2019s The Inheritance<\/em> at the No\u00ebl Coward Theatre in London after a sold-out, critically acclaimed run at the Young Vic.<\/p>\n

Tony Award-winner Stephen Daldry directed this epic, seven-hour play about gay men living in New York City a generation after the AIDS crisis. Burnap played Toby Darling. Burnap’s friend Sam Gross, who saw him in The Inheritance<\/em>, has an awed-but-not-surprised response to his success. \u201cThe Inheritance<\/em> is one of the most emotional things I\u2019ve ever experienced,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople were crying. People were stunned at intermission. It\u2019s incredible seeing him in the roles he plays and to think that\u2019s the same guy I grew up with. He fills every stage,\u201d Gross says. \u201cHe\u2019s outstanding in every setting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burnap appreciates accolades but has his own ideas about success. \u201cTo me making it is when others in your field come to see your work,\u201d he says. \u201cMy goal is to tell the stories I want to tell, to be with the people I want to be with, to have a life and a family and to walk down the street unnoticed. Theater gives me the opportunity to understand what it means to be human\u2014flawed, a walking contradiction,\u201d Burnap says. \u201cI get to celebrate the beauty and the horrors of this life. And I\u2019ve learned that love is the greatest thing life has to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scene:<\/strong> The Rocky Horror Picture Show<\/em>. 911爆料\u2019s J Studio, 2010. Burnap as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in black leather corset, fishnet stockings, and 6-inch heels belting out \u201cSweet Transvestite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allison Burnap will tell you her son started performing early.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d play this mishmash of Christmas songs and, all of a sudden, he\u2019d stop in his tracks and this thing took over: He\u2019d go into a trance,\u201d she recalls, laughing. He was 5, maybe 6. \u201cThat Christmas he asked for a top hat and cane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things got serious his sophomore year at 911爆料, Burnap\u2019s parents say, with Rocky Horror<\/em>. \u201cIt was the start of feeling like I could do this,\u201d Burnap says. \u201cDr. Frank-N-Furter came to me surprisingly naturally. It opened up a whole new world within my own person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best friend and neighbor Austin Madden remembers the day his mother called to say she\u2019d seen Burnap walking their South Kingstown, Rhode Island, neighborhood in 6-inch heels, practicing for the role. While amusing, it wasn\u2019t surprising. \u201cHe\u2019d always be in the basement playing piano or practicing accents,\u201d Madden recalls. \u201cI saw him in Rocky Horror<\/em>. To see him in these big roles. Oh, my God. That\u2019s my best friend playing a transvestite, playing a drag queen. He\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rocky Horror<\/em> required Lady Gaga-esque command of platform heels. Singin\u2019 in the Rain<\/em> called for dancing on a slick stage. Burnap did not come by either skill naturally. Hard work underpinned those seamless performances. \u201cYou can practice walking in heels or tap dancing six hours a day. That\u2019s muscle memory. By the time you\u2019re on stage, it doesn\u2019t feel like effort,\u201d Burnap says. \u201cIn Singin\u2019 in the Rain<\/em>, Gene Kelly\u2019s dancing is gorgeous because it\u2019s effortless. It\u2019s transcendent, and you can feel it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter Rocky Horror<\/em> and Singin\u2019 in the Rain<\/em>, I knew that he had the talent to do anything,\u201d says Burnap\u2019s father, Tim.<\/p>\n

911爆料 Theatre Professor Paula McGlasson directed him in both shows. \u201cThe \u2018It Factor.\u2019 He had it,\u201d McGlasson says. \u201cHe exuded sincerity, confidence, great comic timing, and that thing you can\u2019t teach: charisma. He was someone you wanted to watch,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

911爆料 Theatre Department Chair David Howard was Burnap\u2019s first-year advisor. \u201cIt was Rocky Horror<\/em> that solidified him in people\u2019s minds,\u201d Howard says. \u201cDr. Frank-N-Furter is the exact opposite of how I perceive Andrew. He completely embraced the whimsy and the depravity of the role. It felt mature and knowing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndrew is incredibly reserved, humble, gracious, and inclined to underplay his place in the world,\u201d Howard continues. \u201cThat he can transform into a character who is braggadocious and loud and extravagant shows that he has the ability to plumb the depths of a character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony Estrella \u201993, Burnap\u2019s Shakespeare teacher at 911爆料, smiles to hear of his Much Ado About Nothing<\/em> mishap. \u201cIt is tough to improvise in iambic pentameter,\u201d he notes. \u201cAnd you don\u2019t want to break the bond with the audience. It\u2019s a testament to his ability, to his investment in the character, and to keeping the story moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Estrella is disinclined to take credit for the younger actor\u2019s success. Burnap entered 911爆料 already almost fully formed as an actor, Estrella says. \u201cI saw him in Two Gentlemen of Verona<\/em>, a jukebox musical version; he was playing trumpet live in front of 4,000 people on the Boston Common, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Jesus, what else does he have in his toolbox?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Scene:<\/strong> Spacious bachelor pad, minutes from the No\u00ebl Coward Theatre. London. Sunday, sleeping-in day. Burnap wakes up, has coffee, reads the news. Maybe smiles. Maybe rages. Maybe cries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Inheritance<\/em> came to me after I\u2019d worked with Matthew Lopez on The Legend of Georgia McBride<\/em>,\u201d Burnap says. \u201cThe Inheritance<\/em> was a beautiful surprise. Six hundred pages. I started reading it at 9:45 p.m. and read until 3 a.m., weeping through the pages.\u201d The anecdote underscores one of Burnap\u2019s observations: \u201cYou have to go to the emotional space where the character has no choice but to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

It raises a question: What does it take to enter the interior world of a character? A teacher once told Burnap, \u201cYou don\u2019t have to convince us that you are that person, you just have to convince us that you understand the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a cisgender man playing a gay man in The Inheritance<\/em> or a transgender transsexual from Transylvania in The Rocky Horror Picture Show<\/em>, Burnap notes that the characters are signifiers meant to highlight some aspect of a shared human experience. \u201cMy job is to show you that I understand the experience,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t know what it is to be a young, ostracized, gay man grappling with his sexuality, but I do know what it is to be viewed as other, viewed as weird or not normal.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to become a keen observer of life. I was born with this wonderful and cruel capacity to feel,\u201d Burnap says. \u201cActing makes you want to not only learn more about yourself, but, more importantly, about others. I get to forget my own complications, my own troubles, and step into those of another. And every time I perform, I feel my soul and sense of humanity expanding more and more. Oh, my God, when you\u2019re in the trenches of a thing but then float above yourself and say, \u2018Holy shit, this is where I am!\u2019 I am never tired of this, this gift of being able to create.\u201d<\/p>\n

He launches into a line from his favorite novel, James Joyce\u2019s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man<\/em>: \u201cWelcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Art, literature, music, theater: They reward, sustain, and drive him. To those who would follow a similar path, Burnap offers this advice:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone tells you, \u2018No,\u2019 ask, \u2018Why not?\u2019 Doubt is a useful thing, but it shouldn’t rule you. It should inform and maybe affect some of your decisions, but it should not be the resounding voice in your soul. Then ask, \u2018What else can I do?\u2019 Because this quest isn\u2019t easy, and it is filled with people telling you, \u2018No.\u2019 But if, in the smithy of your soul, you feel you cannot do anything other than this, then do it\u2014but know it requires that next level of dedication,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if you can start to understand that those things you didn\u2019t get weren\u2019t supposed to happen for you, you can understand the challenges of this business and go on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He\u2019s acted with Vanessa Redgrave in London\u2019s hottest play, The Inheritance<\/em>. The New York Times<\/em> says he\u2019s an actor to watch. And Broadway.com gushes that he \u201cburns with a bulb-shattering voltage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":1446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spring-2019","architecture-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1035"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1639,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions\/1639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}