Karla Burns was an American mezzo-soprano and actress who performed nationally and internationally in opera houses, theatres, and on television.
26 Facts About Karla Burns
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Karla Burns's career spanned a broad repertoire from musical theatre, to opera, and stage plays.
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Karla Burns's work included performances with the Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opera, the Teatro Real, Cairo Opera House, and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
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Karla Burns toured nationally for many years in her one woman show, Hi-Hat Hattie, in which she portrayed fellow Wichitan Hattie McDaniel, the first black entertainer to win an Academy Award.
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The youngest of four children, Karla Burns credited her parents with inspiring her love of music.
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Karla Burns's father was a jazz and gospel pianist and her mother, a seamstress and employee of the American Red Cross, sang spirituals and old hymns at church.
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Karla Burns graduated from Wichita West High School, where she played clarinet in the band and sang in the choir.
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Karla Burns attended Wichita State University, from which she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music Education and a BA in Theatre Performance.
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Karla Burns made her professional stage debut in 1977 while still a WSU student at the old Victory Theatre in Wichita.
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Karla Burns first performed the part in 1981 at the Lyric Theater in Oklahoma City.
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Karla Burns won a Drama Desk Award and was nominated for a Tony Award for her work in this production.
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Karla Burns commented in an interview that Egyptian audiences struggled to comprehend how a character with so little power could be important to the story.
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Karla Burns again reprised the role of Queenie with Opera national du Rhin in Strasbourg, France in 2002.
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Karla Burns recorded the role in 1988 for EMI Classics with the London Sinfonietta and a cast that included Frederica von Stade, Teresa Stratas and Jerry Hadley.
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Karla Burns portrayed Bloody Mary in Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific at the Darien Dinner Theatre in 1986.
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Karla Burns appeared in The Comedy Of Errors again, this time as Nell, with New York's Shakespeare in the Park starring Marisa Tomei in 1992.
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Karla Burns returned to Shakespeare in the Park in 1993 as Mistress Overdone in Measure for Measure with Kevin Kline, Blair Underwood and Andre Braugher.
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Karla Burns reprised that role with several opera companies during her career, including Opera Pacific in 1996 and the Chautauqua Opera in 1997.
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Karla Burns is known for the one-woman play Hi-Hat Hattie whose script was written by Larry Parr and examines the life of actress Hattie McDaniel.
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Karla Burns went on to perform the role in several other cities including off-Broadway in New York and the Florida Studio Theater in Sarasota, Florida.
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Karla Burns performed the show in 2006 in honour of the issue of a Hattie McDaniel stamp and as late as the spring of 2018 after recovering from health issues.
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Karla Burns appeared as Karla the Klown in the children's program One of a Kind, and in the crime drama True Blue with Robert Earl Jones.
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Karla Burns taught private voice lessons in Wichita, utilizing a piano that was once played by Duke Ellington.
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Karla Burns was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2016 from Wichita State.
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Karla Burns resided in Wichita and was active as a performer in regional theatre productions up until 2020.
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Karla Burns died in Wichita on June 4,2021, following a series of strokes, at the age of 66.