'Love Song' struck a chord with Glen Ellyn director
Bryan Burke defies the Chicago theater stereotype. He doesn't live in the city (he lives in Glen Ellyn). He is not right out of college (he graduated in 1986). And he is not planning to move to L.A. or New York as soon as he gets a couple of nice reviews.
He is happy where he is, a member of the Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, where he acts and directs. He also is an adjunct professor of theater at the College of DuPage.
Burke is directing the Buffalo Theatre Ensemble's current production, "Love Song," which opens in previews Thursday, Feb. 11.
"'Love Song' is a contemplation about love and about what love really is," Burke says. "The playwright's inspiration was listening to some love song from the '80s. He wondered what it was about these songs that hook you and make us feel something. That squishy middle of the song that tells you what love is."
Burke has been associated with Buffalo Theatre since the mid-'90s, when he was invited by associate artistic director Amelia Barrett to be part of a production.
The two met when they were both part of the Cactus Theatre, a small, tight non-Equity ensemble Burke helped found in late 1980s. The Cactus Theatre was a true ensemble, responsible, for a time, for some of the most intense non-equity productions in Chicago.
Since joining BTE, Burke has been in a dozen shows, and directed three of them: "The Weir," "Three Days of Rain" and now "Love Song."
"I like my relationship with BTE," Burke says. "I am developing myself as a professional. I get to act, I direct. I was even able to direct some college shows at COD."
As part of the ensemble, Burke helps pick the plays for each season. "Everyone brings in suggestions for shows," Burke says. "And we read through them."
Reading "Love Song," Burke "fell in love with it."
"I don't mean to be clichéd," Burke says, "I just thought it was a great play. It has a modern edge, but it has some sentimentality in it, too. I liked the fact it is called a comedy. But it is not a straight comedy; it has a serious side about what we think love is."
When Burke supported the play he had no idea he would direct it. Or even whether the play had made the final cut.
Soon after Barrett and Artistic Director Connie Canaday set the season, they contacted Burke and offered him the directing job.
"I jumped at it," Burke says. "It just seemed like a really good opportunity." "
"Love Song" is a four character show, focusing on a main character, Beane. "He is an isolated, lost soul," Burke says. "Life has left him behind. And his older sister, Joan, is worried about him. Then somebody comes into his life, and everything changes."
"(Playwright John Kolvenbach) never sets out to right a comedy," Burke says. "He says he just tries to write something true. You can't write jokes. In a real play, even the most serious play, the humor comes out. When they offered it, it was a definite yes on my part."
• "Love Song" opens Thursday, Feb. 11, and runs through Feb. 28 at the Buffalo Theatre Ensemble at the McAninch Arts Center at the College of DuPage, Fawell and Park boulevards, Glen Ellyn. For tickets call (630) 942-4000 or visit this Web site www.cod.edu/artscntr/tickets.htm.