BURIAN LECTURE SERIES
Funded by the Jarka & Grayce Susan Burian Endowment
This yearly event brings leading scholars and practitioners of the art of the theatre to the Albany campus.
Funded by Jarka and Grayce Susan Burian, the lecture honors Dr. Burian's long and influential service at the University.
Jarka Burian (pronounced "Yarka") Professor Emeritus of Theatre at the University at Albany, was the leading American scholar of Czech theatre and is the author of the award-winning book The Scenography of Josef Svoboda, a seminal critical study of the work of one of the twentieth century's most influential theatrical designers. He received his B.A. from Rutgers, an M.A. from Columbia, and a Ph.D. from Cornell. Burian served on the faculty of the University at Albany from 1955 to 1993, and also taught at Cornell, Berkeley, the Banff School of Fine Arts, and the University of Central Florida. He died August 25, 2005.
Grayce Susan Burian received her B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University at Albany, where she taught for many years. She is best known for her long tenure as the director of the theatre program at Schenectady Community College, which she founded and nurtured into one of the most successful two-year theatre programs in New York state. Grayce died November 16, 2023, after a short illness. We remembered "The Amazing Grayce" at a celebration of her life on May 18, 2024, at UAlbany.
Read a Q&A with Grayce Burian at The Conversation, July 2020.
Grayce and Jarka Burian
The Burian Lectures
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1st Burian Lecture: Marvin A. Carlson - 1997
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2nd Annual: Ming Cho Lee - 1998
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3rd Annual: John Simon - 1999
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4th Annual: Tina Howe - 2000
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5th Annual: Peter Sellars - 2001
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6th Annual: John Lahr - 2002
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7th Annual: Harold Gould - 2003
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8th Annual: Mary C. Henderson - 2004
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9th Annual: Ruby Dee - 2005
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10th Annual: Richard Schechner - 2006
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11th Annual: Wallace Shawn - 2007
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12th Annual: Michael Mayer - 2008
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13th Annual: A.R. Gurney - 2009
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14th Annual: Rita Moreno - 2009
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15th Annual: John Patrick Shanley - 2011
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16th Annual: John Sayles 2012
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17th Annual: Colman Domingo - 2013
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18th Annual: Chris Durang - 2014
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19th Annual: Tina Packer - 2015
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20th Annual: Pam MacKinnon - 2016
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21st Annual: Dael Orlandersmith,- 2017
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22nd Annual: Eugene Lee - 2018
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23rd Annual: Charlayne Woodard - 2019
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24th Annual: Lisa Kron - 2020
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25th Annual: José Rivera - 2022
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26th Annual: Stephen Adly Guirgis -2023
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27th Annual: Ruben Santiago-Hudson - 2024