Desiree Burch

Desiree hosts the 3rd Annual New York Neo-Futurist Benefit honoring THE MOTH

Desiree — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 03:49:12 +0000

The New York Neo-Futurists’ award-winning “Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind” is in its 8th year of an open-ended, 50-week-a-year run. We have written over 2,500 plays for “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind” and created and produced 7 full-length live productions – including Locker #4173b, which received the New York Innovative Theatre Award for “Outstanding Performance Art” and “The Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O’Neill”, which received rave reviews in the New York Post, New York Magazine, the New Yorker and was Charles Isherwood’s Critic’s Pick in the New York Times this September.

We are a theater force to be reckoned with. A force for Change. A force for Chance. A force for Chaos.

And this year, we honor The Moth:

Join us at the Maritime Hotel Monday, November 14th, for swanky drinks, dress and entertainment. Oh yeah, and me, looking like a Hot Pocket.

Desiree in Performa 11 – November 18 & 19

Desiree — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 03:36:39 +0000

The new Visual Art Performance Biennial returns to NYC with a fantastic new piece conceived and directed by Los Angeles-based artist Wu Tsang with Travis Chamberlain of the New Museum: Full Body Quotation.

The piece is a deconstruction of interviews from the seminal Queer/Trans documentary “Paris is Burning”. Major figures from the documentary on New York City’s Ballroom Circuit, including documentarian Jennie Livingston herself are celebrated, scrutinized, paired with and pitted against each other to call into question the authenticity of narrative, self-presentation, and intention.

Oh yeah, I’m in it. And I’m FABULOUS!

This Friday & Saturday November 18 & 19 @7PM

For More Information: http://www.newmuseum.org/events/574

Summer is back on!

Desiree — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 18:08:30 +0000

Hey All,

I’d like to be the first to welcome me back to the USA and summer-like weather from my trip around the UK and Europe. It was a fantastic 5 weeks, with well-reviewed and attended shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, and perhaps one of my favorite ever performances of 52 Man Pickup in Amsterdam. Check back here as I update the site with more info, pictures, reviews and upcoming gigs. As well as some new video projects that I am excited to kick off. Can’t wait to hear what you’ve all been up to as well!

“52″ hosted by Greg Shapiro, in Amsterdam Sept. 6, Griffioen Theatre, 20:30

Desiree — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 19:41:48 +0000

Come see Desiree perform “52 Man Pickup” in Amsterdam on 6 September at the Griffioen Theatre at 20:30. Click here for tickets.

Desiree Burch in Amsterdam on 09/06/10

Desiree — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 19:35:48 +0000

Awesome Review for 52 in Edinburgh

Desiree — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 19:20:49 +0000

Check out this great review of 52 at the Fringe.

Theatre review: 52 Man Pickup

By Fiona Shepherd
Published: 18/8/2011IT CAN be tedious enough listening to someone talking about one of their sexual conquests, let alone one for every card in the deck. But New York-based performer Desiree Burch is such a funny, frank, eloquent, entertaining and perceptive raconteur that it was a pleasure, of sorts, to hear all the gory, explicit details of her ample carnal encounters in 52 Man Pickup.

Burch didn’t lose her virginity until she was in her twenties but made up for lost time on her arrival in New York. These days her diverse record of sexual experiences makes Sex and the City seem like a Disney production.

Each card in her pack corresponds to a different individual she has slept with, their performance/relationship rated according to the number on the card. Aces high, of course. Plus more than her fair share of jokers.

Burch then plays a succession of card games and whichever cards come up determines the shagging stories she will share. So each performance of the show will be slightly different, according to how the cards fall. It’s a contrived device but Burch ensures a seamless flow of anecdotes.

For all the hilarity she finds in her predicaments, some of her character appraisals are positively poetic in their insight. Others are simply pithy – “never trust an Elvis Costello fan” is her advice. Yet she’s a helpless fool when it comes to guys called Dave, so Daves beware – or start queuing.

Burch is a force of nature, utterly upfront (that’s a tight corset she’s poured herself into) about her preferences but also her vulnerabilities. She expects a little quid pro quo and attempts to coax sexual revelations from her audience. By the time she demands some (harmless) participation from the guys then the girls, you will feel you know her sufficiently well to comply with her wishes. There’s even a special prize for the lucky lady who wins the final showdown.

Help Desiree Take Her Career to the Next …

Desiree — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 01:46:50 +0000

~FUND 52~
Help Desiree take her solo career to the next…

I’ll give it you you short and sweet:
It’s time for me to take my performing “to the next level” as it were.

In order to do this, I am taking 52 Man Pickup to the Edinburgh Fringe. I am taking this show because it is a tried and true product with wide appeal. To augment these things, I am producing the show in a known venue with PR support to get paying and important butts in seats. The goal is to get international booking and representation for this and future theater and on-camera work.

For the past 10 years I have been doing this kind of work – producing high quality, insightful, daring and important solo work – around NYC, the country, and most recently, the world. I would like this to become the focus of my life, and I am asking you to give me a boost in getting there.

I have started an IndieGogo Fundraising campaign to raise $10,000 to produce 52 Man Pickup in Edinburgh. Yes, this is a substantial amount of money. HOWEVER, if everyone reading this post were to donate even $10, we could make it happen.

So please, visit my IndieGogo page to find out more about the project, and consider donating a few drinks’ worth of cash to help make it happen. Just click on the link below today. I mean, it is payday, y’all. No time like the present*

52 Man Pickup Fundraising
On IndieGogo.com

*PayPal donations are posted instantly, and are therefore even more helpful covering the larger, preparatory expenses. If you have a PayPal account, please consider using it when making a donation.

New Yorker Ready For Tar Baby

Desiree — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:59:06 +0000

New Yorker says Tar Baby’s (got it) going on. See here.

Tar Baby Press Release

Desiree — Fri, 06 May 2011 04:39:33 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Desiree in “Tar Baby.” Photo by Tara Godvin.

May 5, 2011

CONTACT: Desiree Burch

tarbabyshow@gmail.com

PRESS REP
emily@emilyowenspr.com

terraNOVA Collective & Desiree Burch present

Tar Baby

As part of the
8^th Annual soloNOVA Arts Festival
May 12-28
9^th Space @ Performance Space 122
[5/21 @9pm, 5/22 @4pm, 5/24 @9pm, 5/26 @7pm, 5/28 @2pm]

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

It took over 200 years to build America. It will take Desiree Burch under two hours to dismantle it. In Tar Baby, the alt-comedy diva explores the commodification of race and identity in America, poetically moving between enjoying its thrills and comforts and feeling sick when the ride is over. Written with storyteller and playwright Daniel Ajl Kitrosser, Tar Baby is the collapsible space-and-time-machine ride at an Americana funpark, featuring: The glories of Manifest Destiny! The 8-bit Majesty of the Oregon Trail! The sideshow hilarity of Blaxploitation! The Haunted House of Christianity! Good and Bad Hair-raising Tales! The rollercoaster of White Liberal Guilt! The Hall of Not Black Presidents! Sheet forts! Night terrors! Childhood games! Punch and Pie!

Desiree Burch (Performer/Writer) has performed original works at Joe’s Pub, PS 122, Ars Nova, 59E59, Dixon Place, Galapagos Art Space, Yale University, and at Fringe Festivals in NY, New Orleans, Hollywood, and Edinburgh, in addition to her work with the NY Innovative Theater Award-winning New York Neo-Futurists. She has enlightened and elated audiences at Caroline’s, Gotham Comedy Club, Highlights (UK), on VH1, MTV, NBC, Comedy Central and the stage of Saturday Night Live. Her work has been called “hilarious” (NY Daily News), “vibrant” (Gothamist) and “surprisingly meaty” (Off-Off Online) and “pretty damn funny and pretty damn good” (Yale Herald). She is one of Huffington Post‘s “53 Favorite Female Comedians”, and New York Magazine‘s “Ten New Comedians that Funny People Find Funny”.

Dan Kitrosser (Co-Writer) is a writer, performer and storyteller. His plays have been performed at P.S. 122, The Ohio Theatre, Bleecker Street Theatre, and Urban Stages, with work developed at Primary Stages, The Lark Play Development Center and Rabbit Hole Ensemble, and grants awarded by Brooklyn Arts Council in 2010 and 2011. He is the resident storyteller at Central and Bryant Park, the Artistic Director of Writopia Lab’s Bestival and the Associate Artistic Director of Theatre 4the People. He will pursue his MFA in Playwriting at The New School in the fall.

Isaac Byrne (Director) has directed the NY Innovative Theater Award-winning To Nineveh, Green, Something True, I Used To Write On Walls, Diane and The Jessica, and the staged reading of Miss Lily Gets Boned (The LARK)—all by Bekah Brunstetter. Other directorial work includes Fresh Kills (59E59), The New Normal and the cowboy is dying (Coyote Rep), True West (Curious Frog Company) and Desiree Burch’s 52 Man Pickup. He is the former Artistic Director of Working Man’s Clothes, the current Artistic Director of Theatre 4the People and a teacher at New York Film Academy.

Tar Baby will run May 21 (9pm), 22 (4pm), 24 (9pm), 26 (7pm) and 28 (2pm) as part of the 8th Annual soloNOVA Arts Festival at 9^th Space @ Performance Space 122 (150 1st Ave at 9^th Street). Tickets may be purchased online at 9th Space.

Desiree tweets. . .

Desiree — Fri, 06 May 2011 04:29:40 +0000

. . . and is learning how to connect her website to her Twitter account. . .