About this project
“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 horrify, 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.
WE NEED YOUR HELP.
Our goal is not only to put up this show come February, but also to go into Foster Care Facilities in Los Angeles to provide free arts programming to youth in the system. We hope that through workshops such as clowning, basic painting/drawing, singing lessons, movement, and improvisation, kids will be able to find a therapeutic outlet for expression just as Pat did. WE CANNOT DO THIS WITHOUT YOU.
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.
To find out more about the Ahimsa Collective/the show, please visit WWW.AHIMSACOLLECTIVE.COM!
Please help us. Your support will go a very, very long way.
Love!
The Ahimsa Team
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on February 1, 2010.
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We bring locals together through boundary-pushing arts events and highly collaborative, ensemble-driven productions. We fill our audiences and our casts with people who are not interested solely in performing or solely in watching, but rather in sharing the experience of art with one another. We look to empower both long time and beginner artists by providing inspiring opportunities to create and perform, diverse and affordable workshops, and dynamic venues to meet and engage with like-minded visionaries. We believe that a community alive with art will thrive with conversation and understanding, and progress. Art conversing with people conversing with people conversing with art.
