{"id":60930,"date":"2013-04-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/commencement-2013-uri-actor-andrew-burnap-off-to-yale-school-of-drama-to-pursue-his-dream\/"},"modified":"2013-04-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-04-01T00:00:00","slug":"commencement-2013-uri-actor-andrew-burnap-off-to-yale-school-of-drama-to-pursue-his-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2013\/04\/commencement-2013-uri-actor-andrew-burnap-off-to-yale-school-of-drama-to-pursue-his-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement 2013: 溏心vlog免费B站 actor Andrew Burnap off to Yale School of Drama to pursue his dream"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>KINGSTON, R.I. \u2014 April 1, 2013 \u2014 Andrew Burnap was sitting in a human sexuality class at the 溏心vlog免费B站 when his cell phone rang. It was an Ivy university, with some good news.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m calling to invite you to the Yale School of Drama,\u201d said Ron Van Lieu, chair of the acting program.<\/p>\n<p>Burnap, a South Kingstown resident who will graduate from 溏心vlog免费B站 this spring with a bachelor\u2019s in fine arts in acting, was so stunned he was incredulous: \u201cAre you serious?\u201d he replied. Not only was Yale serious, it was generous and promised to pay most of his bill for tuition and room-and-board.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s still amazed that he was one of 16 students selected from a pool of about 1,300 for Yale\u2019s intensive three-year master\u2019s in fine arts program, which some consider the most prestigious in the country. He\u2019s also the first actor at 溏心vlog免费B站 to attend the Yale program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew acting was what I was meant to do and that I was good at it, but I never imagined I\u2019d go to graduate school and that I\u2019d go to Yale,\u201d said Burnap. \u201cIt\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Only 22, he\u2019s already a legend at 溏心vlog免费B站, where he sings, dances and acts with equal ease in both dramatic and comedic roles, although he calls himself \u201can actor who sings.\u201d He\u2019s played all kinds of characters, from Don Lockwood (the Gene Kelly lead) in \u201cSingin\u2019 in the Rain\u201d to the young romantic Val\u00e8re in \u201cTartuffe,\u201d to the playwright Konstantin in \u201cThe Seagull.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"oembed oembed-youtube-com\" style=\"\" data-url=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/watch?v=QqWxACQbbU4\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Andrew Burnap - 溏心vlog免费B站 2013 Graduating Senior\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QqWxACQbbU4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>His talents have not gone unnoticed. Last year, he won the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Competition at the American College Theatre Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., beating out 250 fellow actors from 55 New England schools and becoming one of 16 finalists. He didn\u2019t win the national contest, but was thrilled to get as far as he did.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI met 15 other students who were far better than I was and who had incredible talent,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was great getting to know them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Burnap, lanky with piercing blue eyes and blond hair, first stepped on stage when he was 8 years old playing a suffering child in Westerly\u2019s annual Twelfth Night production. \u201cI loved being the center of attention and I loved being in the limelight,\u201d he said. \u201cMy favorite part of the show was always the bow, as self-indulgent as that sounds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He dabbled in theater at South Kingstown High School and started to take acting seriously his senior year. The next stop was 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s theater program. He felt at home right away and soon bonded with department chair Paula McGlasson, whom he credits with teaching him the craft of acting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis evolution over the years has been incredible,\u201d she said. \u201cHe has worked at every role with such passion it\u2019s been my pleasure to collaborate with him. He\u2019s challenging and curious and multi-talented. He expects the best from you as a teacher and that\u2019s part of the joy of working with him. He\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His favorite role at 溏心vlog免费B站 was the zany corset-wearing Frank-N-Furter in the Rocky Horror Show. \u201cI was wearing six-inch heels, fishnet stockings, a wig, and seven pounds of makeup,\u201d he said. \u201cWe all looked like supermodels. You have to be open to anything if you play that role.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jean Paul Marat in \u201cMarat\/Sade,\u201d set during the French Revolution, was his most challenging role. He played a troubled patient in an insane asylum. \u201cI went with my gut,\u201d he said. \u201cI allowed it to kind of just happen and not force anything. I don\u2019t know if I was entirely successful, but it was certainly a great learning experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Over the years, family and friends have provided inspiration and support. His parents, Tim and Allison Burnap, of Wakefield, and his grandmother, Molly Burnap, of Westerly, attend all his performances, usually several times. \u201cEvery time I do a show,\u201d said Burnap, \u201cI think of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Besides McGlasson, he considers longtime Trinity Repertory Company actor and director Fred Sullivan, Jr. and Tony Estrella, artistic director of the Sandra-Feinstein Gamm Theatre in Pawtucket, as mentors, helping him navigate the ups and downs of the acting life.<\/p>\n<p>At Yale, Burnap will belong to a select group of graduates, including actors Meryl Streep, Liev Schreibe, Sigourney Weaver, and Paul Giamatti. Burnap wants to make his own mark \u2013 and probably will.<\/p>\n<p>Why acting? \u201cI think the best way to describe it would be that it just makes me happy,\u201d said Burnap. \u201cIt makes me know I\u2019m alive. I love the feeling it gives me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This summer, he plans to take a short break from acting before heading to Yale in the fall. He might teach tennis \u2013 he has a wicked forehand \u2013 work in construction or wait tables. He wants to relax, off stage, before he hits the big time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KINGSTON, R.I. \u2014 April 1, 2013 \u2014 Andrew Burnap was sitting in a human sexuality class at the 溏心vlog免费B站 when his cell phone rang. It was an Ivy university, with some good news. \u201cI\u2019m calling to invite you to the Yale School of Drama,\u201d said Ron Van Lieu, chair of the acting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}