We recently connected with Karen Burns and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Karen, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
The most meaningful project of mine was writing an autobiographical solo show, An Otherwise Magical Life. In 2018, the serial killer who tried to ruin me in 1979 was finally arrested, and I finally started talking about it. I’d kept that memory, along with the all of the trials I’ve faced since birth so deeply buried I’d almost forgotten they were still part of me. That arrest broke me wide open. In 2019 The Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix gave me a slot in their 2020 season to perform something of my choice. So excited by this I started writing my life out as a solo show. This is harder than you might think! Constantly torn between what I wanted to say and the fear that literally no one would be interested, slowed the process way down. This idea seemed like the most egregious example of hubris. But maybe on a good day, it could be a public service announcement for anyone who has ever…lived? Or anyone who has ever buried trauma and had it come out through countless auto-immune attacks and clumsy accidents, might recognize themselves? I could only hope.
In 2012 for the Herberger Theater, my writing partner Debra Rich and I wrote a play based on our own experiences performed by us in the style of live storytelling. It was a success, which surprised us, and led us to write two more plays together in the same style for The Herberger. Encouraged after these three experiments, I’m still telling stories out loud at various storytelling events, including The Moth, which also went surprisingly well! It seemed that an entire show of stories, even if only about me, wouldn’t be that different? Now I know it’s not different, it’s just so much harder. An Otherwise Magical Life was to run for two weeks in June 2020 in Phoenix. Yeah, that got delayed until January 2022. There was that pandemic.
Eventually, An Otherwise Magical Life got the two-week run at the Herberger Theater which was quickly followed by a three-week run in February 2022 at Theatre Artists Studio in Scottsdale. In March 2023 I performed the show for The Power of Pink fundraiser benefitting Providence Hospital in Los Angeles. Later that March, Magical Life was accepted in the United Solo Festival in NYC and had one night on Broadway. Well, technically it was really more above Broadway…on top of a Broadway theatre. Still it was pretty magical. And a dream come true, however small and upstairs. Lovely anyway.
Immediately following the performance in Los Angeles I was interviewed by a doctor from Providence Hospital regarding my lifelong struggle with illness and injury. Right after this segment, a friend who is a book publisher attending the fundraiser offered to publish my story if I was interested. My heart did a few Simone Biles acrobatics while I tried to say yes, out loud. That was a year and a half ago. I’m still trying to finish this book…but when that miracle occurs, it will be published!
The entire process of creating a unique way to tell this story is why this project is so important to me. I didn’t know if I could do it. I’m disabled largely due to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome in conjunction with 42 other life threatening diagnoses. I took the energy to write down some incredibly painful events to gain perspective on my past and hoped that in the process, it might help someone else climb over their own debilitating obstacles. Ideally, I’d like to offer hope to anyone who has suppressed trauma or struggled to accept their physical and emotional challenges. Otherwise, if I never tell anyone all of the hell I’ve survived, then the hell would be for nothing other than keeping me down.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
How I got into this industry:
I started pursuing a career in dance during college. But the love of dancing began at Charlotte Crowley’s Dancette Studio in Santa Rosa, CA when I was four. At birth my legs faced backwards-ish in their hip sockets. I’d been in leg braces and in and out of hospitals since then. After two years of begging for ballet lessons, doctors and my mother barely agreed that ballet might finish the job of straightening my bones. And it did!
I moved to Manhattan a few months after graduating from CSU, Sacramento with a BA in Communications. I was too scared to commit to a degree in dance. Communications was my back up, it was an easy major that allowed me to dance and downhill snow ski almost as much as I wanted.
In my first NYC audition I was cast as a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall. It shocked me to my core that I might actually have two of the most famous straight legs in the world. I didn’t stop performing and teaching until my body gave up. After 40 years of professional dancing, every joint was done with my reckless choices. In all of the years I danced through, both literally and figuratively, I also wanted to write. When dancing started requiring multiple joint replacements, I started to write seriously. Now, I’m only a writer, with a book deal! I’ve written and performed in five of my own plays and one musical, won a Broadway World Award for best performer in a play for An Otherwise Magical life, performed one night, upstairs, on Broadway, and been published in a couple of literary journals, newspapers, etc.
Loving to dance only became a career because I was stalked by a famous serial killer/rapist during most of my time in college. One Christmas Eve, he came into my apartment, did the things evil men do, tried to kill me, but I escaped. He continued to stalk me until graduation. This is the only reason I felt confident enough to move to Manhattan to dance. He literally scared me into a career I have loved.
“I could’ve missed the pain, but I’d have had to miss the dance.” Tony Arata for Garth Brooks
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What are you most proud of and what are the main things you want potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc.
An Otherwise Magical Life is probably the hardest thing I’ve done. I have some pride for actually finishing it. In writing this show I laid out my life in terms of events. So I could see all of the poor decisions arranged nice and clearly in a row. Super fun. What I learned by writing and performing this show is that I don’t make those same mistakes anymore. Sadly, I make new ones. I don’t know if I’d have figured that out without being brave enough to share my story, out loud, to people who could hear me. Because of this torturous/loved every minute project, I’ve been able to forgive myself for some of the chaos, and that’s worth everything.
I’d like to encourage everybody to tell their story everywhere they can. You stand a better chance of making a difference to another human, and to yourself. Something will heal if you open up everything hidden deep inside.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Resilience is kind of a mystery. I hear it a lot now, after sharing my story with hundreds of people. When I was born I nearly died that day, from a staff infection. By the time I was 9 months old I’d already been in a coma and survived three near death experiences. Growing up battling crooked legs and weak immune system, gave me this iron will to gain as much strength as possible. I’ve been trying to prove I’m not a wimp since those darn leg braces were attached. I kept dancing even though as a child I wasn’t very good at it and was in constant pain. This determination was clearest to me during my run-in with Joseph James DeAngelo, the Golden State Killer, in college. When he told me he was going to kill me, all I thought was, “If you kill me, I’ll never dance again.” I escaped before he killed me because I was strong from dancing, skiing, biking, and not accepting my weaknesses. This man kept stalking me after his attack. So I moved to New York City to escape and got the career of my dreams. The fact that I’m still alive, I think, is due to resilience.
Herb Paine of Broadway World describes this better in his review!
“In her life-affirming autobiographical play, AN OTHERWISE MAGICAL LIFE, Karen Burns reveals an indomitable will to reign victorious over the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. An emotion-laden theatrical experience, tempered by humor and artistry, the work is a testament to one woman’s courage and resolve to overcome a “chronically debilitated” life.
…The traumas that she has survived ~ rape, stalking, a near-miss at the hands of the infamous Golden State Killer ~ she describes with raw candor…Burns recounts all this with the equivalent of a Mona Lisa smile ~ a glint of knowingness and affirmation. If there is a mystery as to how someone prevails over life’s trials and tribulations, Burns allows time to unravel the answer…She has defied her imperfections and modeled a life of affirmation.
She accentuates her victory and affirmation with graceful pas de bourrées across the stage and a stunning performance on piano…To see AN OTHERWISE MAGICAL LIFE is thus an uplifting encounter with bravery and courage in action.”
Good question. Thank you for asking.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I have two goals!
1) I’d like to give a Ted Talk about overcoming obstacles. I’ve been nominated, but apparently, I have to finish writing my book and actually give it to the publisher. This will help me in achieving goal #2, which is really more of a mission.
2) To lift up and empower other sexual-abuse survivors and those battling the super annoying Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, to build a life of joy and purpose. Life can still be magical, despite all of the landmines.. The only justification I can find in having survived multiple illnesses, injuries and trials, is to help someone else climb their own mountains.
“There will always be obstacles, shame, and evil. AND there will always be music, absurdity, and God. When given a chance to dance, dance. And laugh. It can save your life.” Last line of An Otherwise Magical Life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thekarenburns.com/an-otherwise-magical-life
- Instagram: reasonstodance58
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReasonstoDance/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karensburns-25263a18/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KarenBurns/videos
Image Credits
Mandy Case, head shot photographer
Mark Gluckman, photographer for An Otherwise Magical Life