Ariana Burns

Ariana Burns

Ariana is a playwright, novelist, artist, stagehand, producer, motorcyclist, and anthropologist. She has ten years’ experience in technical theatre, including two seasons on Stage Ops with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She managed the University of Idaho's University Auditorium and has worked for several independent theatre groups. She studied playwrighting under Micki Panttaja & David Mark Cohen...
Ariana is a playwright, novelist, artist, stagehand, producer, motorcyclist, and anthropologist. She has ten years’ experience in technical theatre, including two seasons on Stage Ops with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She managed the University of Idaho's University Auditorium and has worked for several independent theatre groups. She studied playwrighting under Micki Panttaja & David Mark Cohen and is a UI alumna with a BFA in Technical Theatre and an MA in Cultural Anthropology.

Works include: Morphia Studio, comic strip; Moon's Apostles, A Picturized Novel. A Stick in the Spoke, won a staged reading at the Northwest Drama Conference; Patchwork, won a prize & production from the Northwest Playwrights Guild; Tiny Lives, Tiny Deaths, Silver Wings on Blue, Cheap Atomic Romance, The 3 Keys of Captain Hellfire.

Plays

  • Cheap Atomic Romance A PLAY IN TEN SCENES by Ariana Burns
    Cast: 
    9–10
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, period, science fiction
    CHEAP ATOMIC ROMANCE is set in a desert at small American diner. It is the beginning of the Atomic Age, when despite the danger, this new energy source promised a “World of Tomorrow." Mardell who is said to do “impossible things” comes to the diner to visit her Aunt Edna. When a bomb test goes awry and sets fire to Edna’s pond, Edna decides her place will be saved by her miraculous niece.

    ...
    CHEAP ATOMIC ROMANCE is set in a desert at small American diner. It is the beginning of the Atomic Age, when despite the danger, this new energy source promised a “World of Tomorrow." Mardell who is said to do “impossible things” comes to the diner to visit her Aunt Edna. When a bomb test goes awry and sets fire to Edna’s pond, Edna decides her place will be saved by her miraculous niece.

    CHEAP ATOMIC ROMANCE is framed within a traditional motif of Westerns and film noir: the stranger comes to town, upsets the local order with his or her presence, and then is looked to for restoration of balance. The stranger is Mardell who is said to do “impossible things.”

    CHEAP ATOMIC ROMANCE looks at romances, both great and small, that provide people with reasons to work, to hope, and to live.

    This script is an ensemble show for seven women and three men set in and around the environs of the diner.
  • Tiny Lives, Tiny Deaths by Ariana Burns
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: death, grief
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental, fable/folktale, fantasy, tragedy
    Keyword: death, grief
    Set at the wake, four characters struggle with the passing of a close friend. A look at the grieving process and the effort to continue on. Death just wants to collect the Ghost and go.
  • The Oubliette by Ariana Burns
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, fable/folktale + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: horror, dark comedy
    Genre: dark comedy, fable/folktale, fantasy, tragedy
    Keyword: horror, dark comedy
    Friends try to relate when one is hemmed in by fear.

Recommended by Ariana Burns

  • Up Chimacum Creek by Benjamin Gonzales
    8 Jan. 2019
    “ Excited to see this staged. The austere writing belies and reinforces the depth within the story. It is a spiral that twists in on itself, constricting the reader with a deft hand. Loved it. ”