Karen Burns

My name is Karen Burns, and I'm a professional actor, mover and maker from Adelaide.

I've been invited to particpate in a five-month, Creative Entrepreneur Company Internship with Brisbane's  internationally-renowned physical theatre company, Zen Zen Zo. I will be closely mentored by acclaimed, Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre company co-founder and Artistic Director, Dr Lynne Bradley, alongside nine other selected artist Internship applicants from around the world.

 This experience is the culmination of my consistent, artistic investment in the fundamental Butoh, Suzuki and The Viewpoints physical theatre techniques I learned throughout my actor training, and during two consecutive Stomping Ground Summer School intensives with Zen Zen Zo, in 2018 and 2019.

               (Making movement as an Ophelia within Sleep, Perchance to Dream, a co-production between Alex Travers & Tantrum Youth Arts.)

Internship engagement occurs through regular, weekly attendance of seminars, fitness bootcamps, physical theatre training, creative developments of self-devised work and involvement in Zen Zen Zo’s remount of their Matilda Award-winning 2009 production, Shakespeare’s The Tempest. This incredible experience will further enrich what has exclusively been an annual, two-week training relationship I’ve developed with the Zen Zen Zo company, by being welcomed into their close-knit company culture and representing Zen Zen Zo as one of their company members.

                                                             (As Atlanta within Joanna Murray-Smith's Atlanta, at the Bakehouse Theatre.)

I will undertake an advanced actor-training program, specialising in Physical Theatre. This will happen through twice-weekly physical theatre training sessions, weekly acting classes, a unit on auditioning, and a graduating performance. In addition to this, I will be exposed to a number of artistic fields through core seminars, led by Dr. Lynne Bradley, including administration, finance, starting my own company, planning and producing my own work, auditioning, directing, leadership skills and creative entrepreneurialism.

                                       (With makers and friends from Picnic Parken, led by Benoit Gasnier for Carte Blanche's Pop-Up Kulturhus.)

Since graduating, my artistic trajectory has led me to work as an actor and theatre maker with world-class, professional theatre companies and leading industry practitioners abroad and interstate. Each experience affirms my desire to continue in mastering my specialised areas of devising and physical theatre, and to share these invaluable skills with emerging actors within Adelaide’s professional actor-training institutions, giving them the greatest possible chance to generate innovative, new work, here, in South Australia.

                                                                                         (Getting those ideas down in Viborg, Denmark.)

The skills acquired during this Internship will support me in realising my vision to develop and pitch to world festival leaders a new iteration -and inspired other works of the same flavour- of an audience-immersive theatre experience I produced while working with premiere, Danish sensorial theatre company, Carte Blanche, in 2017. This piece, then known as A Peaceful Escape, will be redeveloped for Australian audiences, and allow for collaboration and eventual touring with fellow, Adelaide artists. In doing so, I will continue to nurture the artistic relationships I am building with Zen Zen Zo and my international contacts and invite an influx of creative ideas and work opportunities into this city’s artistic community.

Thank you for your love and generous support. xx

I'm $1,000 away from my estimated target, which will cover:

Getting there: the drive from Adelaide to Brisbane. ($250)

Eating: four week's worth of groceries while I hunt for a stable source of income. ($250)

Internship: the remaining outstanding program fee. ($500)