Andie Burns '14MA played a major role in the theatre program as an actor and technician while she was a student. Fast forward, and she's now taking her talent and passion to Broadway.
In November 2021, she joined the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Co. as a D.C. production assistant for the now Tony-nominated show A Strange Loop. She says:
I worked alongside the deck stage manager to run a side of the stage and manage our crew. We had an extremely successful run at Woolly, but were of course victims to the Omicron surge running rampant through Washington D.C. as well as all over the country.
When that stage manager became ill with COVID, Andie stepped up for the final week of the show's D.C. run, managing the entire deck by herself. The show began its transition to Broadway in January 2022, and by March, Andie was tapped as a production assistant. She soaked up as much of the experience as possible, learning everything she could in case she would need to fill in for other crew members.
She says:
During previews I began a stage manager contract in which I was 'training' to be a sub stage manager in case anyone on the team went down for any reason. What ended up happening is that I developed and synthesized the stage management cues on deck into a 'One Deck Track,' essentially building the track that stage management would use moving forward in the run.
It was recently announced that A Strange Loop has received 11 Tony nominations, including best musical, which is the most for any show this year.
"Andie was such an integral part of the program at MA, bringing her multitude of talents to all aspects of production with a tireless work ethic," says Jarrod Yuskauskas, Director of Theatre Arts at Moravian. "It's no surprise to see her as a sought after member of tremendously successful production teams!"