Alumni Profiles

B.A., double major: theatre studies and international studies, 2000

M.F.A., Lighting Design, 2007

Yale University School of Drama

Burke Brown Lighting Design

To watch an interview with Burke, click here.

Burke Brown sums it up this way: “China changed my life.” He was just a kid from the little town of Sanford, N.C., who decided to go enroll at Guilford College, less than two hours from home. But in his sophomore year at Guilford, he signed up to spend a semester studying in China … and the semester turned into a year.

“It was my first time to travel outside of America, and I loved it so much that I had to stay a second semester,” he says. His classroom time was spent learning Chinese language and culture, as well as studying Chinese literature and Chinese films. But outside the classroom was equally meaningful, with various trips to Chinese temples and other sites.

“That year in China has proven useful in thousands of different ways,” Burke says. “To start with, I learned that the world is more than the U.S., that time does not begin in 1776, that other countries have buildings that are centuries older than America is. That kind of world perspective is very useful, especially in our new global lives.”

In addition to crediting Guilford College with facilitating his world view, Burke also says that the college’s Quaker tradition prepared him well for his career: “The process of building consensus was a great background for me, giving me specific training and experiences that help me thrive in a collaborative work environment, which theatre most definitely is. The creative process for a lighting designer involves collaborating with directors, set designers, costumes people, etc., so in essence that’s what I do for a living — I collaborate to create.”

Burke’s father, a general contractor, “always had project blueprints on the kitchen table, and as a kid I loved to study those. They were fascinating puzzles to me, endlessly intriguing. And my mother was always involved in some crafts or arts world that I found interesting. But I never thought of applying the blueprint and crafts interests to a career until I went to Guilford College. That was where the realization hit me — Oh! I can make a living at this!”

He realized that theatre made financial sense especially for those in the technical areas of the industry: “As long as there is live theatre, people will always need to hire lighting designers. It’s not like the artist who paints on a canvas and then hopes someone will want to purchase the work — this is being hired up front for each project. I can actually pay the bills this way!”

After graduating from Guilford College in 2000, Burke went about building a career path for himself. He worked technical theatre jobs all around the country, accumulating and refining various skills, making connections and, eventually, planning on graduate school. “I applied to and was accepted at other places as well, but I chose Yale graduate school because it offered a great education and invaluable connections,” he says.

Some of those he connected with at Yale — other graduate students in lighting/sound/ technical areas  — were also Guilford College alumni. In fact, Burke says his Yale School of Drama classmates came from many different undergraduate schools, but only Harvard, Princeton and Guilford College had three students each in the program. (Of course, Yale College — the undergraduate program of Yale University — had its share.)

Burke feels that his nonacademic experiences helped him get into Yale, but he credits his critical thinking skills as much as anything other factor: “My theatre and international studies double major at Guilford gave me the ability to read a play and understand what’s involved, what’s needed to bring it to life. Being able to do that — to write about it and to articulate it in the Yale selection interviews — that really helped me get into the graduate program.”

He certainly has been happily employed since his graduation from Yale. Some of his recent designs include productions of “The Brothers Size” at the Public Theater in New York’s East Village, at the Studio Theatre in D.C. and at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin; “Going Down Swingin’” at the New York Musical Theater Festival; “Lulu” at the Yale Rep; “The Flight of Icarus” for the Soho Think Tank at the Ohio Theatre; “God Is a DJ” and “Eye” for the Ensemble Company for the Performing Arts (Summer Cabaret); and the Ballet Pro Musica Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Burke stays in touch with some of his Guilford College classmates, and he was even working in Greensboro recently — hired to design the lighting for a production of Euripides’ “The Trojan Women.” On the campus of Guilford, he reflected about his undergraduate years: “I received an interesting and useful education at Guilford, and you know what? It’s important to engage in both ways throughout life — that is, you need to do things that are both interesting and useful.”

He added this: “Guilford College is a great place to discover what you want to do in life. If you flounder at Guilford, you don’t get left behind like you would at a large school. Also, at Guilford you get more than a conservatory [arts-only] education; you get a truly broad, liberal arts education with an emphasis on social responsibility. You’re encouraged to make you own way in whatever areas offer interest and meaning to you.”