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= B. Pat Burns = B. Pat Burns (born Brian Patrick Burns; Dec 9, 1952 – Feb 16, 2019 was a Canadian actor, director, and educator. He appeared in Canadian television shows such as Cowboys & Indians: the Shooting of J.J. Harper starring Adam Beech and as Lorne Milgaard in Hard Times: The David Milgaard Story. He was awarded a Lifetime Membership in ACTRA  (Association Of Canadian Radio And Television Artists) for his years of work in the development and delivery of training and education for Manitoba actors in the film and television market, and in the live theatre and dance markets.

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, B. Pat Burns' performing arts career spanned over 30 years within theatre, dance, film, TV, and multi-disciplinary projects. Among others, he worked with the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Manitoba Theatre for Young People, Theatre Projects Manitoba, Popular Theatre Alliance of Manitoba, the Manitoba Puppet Theatre, the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, the Gas Station Arts Centre, Mimeworks, the Association of Community Theatres, the School of Contemporary Dancers, the Manitoba Association of Playwrights, Summer Theatre School Manitoba, and the Manitoba Drama Festival. B. Pat was a Founding Member of a number of Canadian theatre companies including the Actor’s Company (Manitoba), the Boardwalk Theatre (Gimli, Manitoba), Shakespeare in the Ruins (Winnipeg, Manitoba), and Explorational Theatre Co. (Toronto, Ontario).

As an actor, B. Pat Burns worked in a wide spectrum of disciplines from mime, mask, Commedia Dell’Arte and puppetry with Mimeworks (Winnipeg, Manitoba), and The Manitoba Puppet Theatre, to independent productions such as The Foundation with Canadian choreographic icon Tedd Robinson (Dates), Echoes for The Actor’s Company, Trial by Bus for Ron Jenkins and Treehouses for Theatre X (Winnipeg). His professional mainstream debut was at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in Miles Potter’s 1985 production of Born Yesterday. B. Pat was one of the three Founders of Winnipeg's Shakespeare In The Ruins (founded in 1993 and still in operation in 2022) as well as having appeared in SIR’s productions of Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, and Much Ado About Nothing. He is also known for his work as the Artistic Director of Theatre Projects Manitoba and appearing in its iconic production of Ce Weekend La (playwright source).

Directing credits included The Shawl by David Mamet for Theatre Anywhere, the premiere production of Anniversary by Carol Shields and Dave Williamson at the Gas Station Theatre (Winnipeg), Etienne by playwright/actor Steve McIntyre, and SEE BOB RUN by Daniel MacIver for Theatre Projects Manitoba.

As a lifelong practitioner of physical theatre and its role in dance, B. Pat was a frequent coach and teacher at The School of Contemporary Dancers (Winnipeg, Manitoba) helping young dancers to make theatrical breakthroughs in their work. His work as a member of the Exploratory Theatre Company in Toronto led to the development of theatrical techniques adapted to dance, music, and circus used to help create a wide range of critically acclaimed, award winning national and international productions. For B. Pat teaching was "an inseparable part of being a professional artist" and working with students ranked as a top priority. He taught acting, directing, stage craft, and Shakespeare to thousands of students, mainly in Manitoba, but across Canada as well. He taught at the Manitoba Theatre For Young People (MTYP) in Winnipeg for 14 years and was the Founding Director of MTYP’s Young Company in 1990 along with director/actor Anne Barager. He was an instructor at the Academy of Broadcasting, the Summer Theatre School Manitoba, within the Manitoba public school system, and an adjudicator for the Association of Community Theatres Festival. He delivered Masterclass workshops in various cities nationally. As a staunch advocate for Manitoba artists and stories, B. Pat served as Chair of the Training Committee of ACTRA Manitoba (Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists) helping to develop a multi-year training & professional development program and was instrumental in the development and implementation of ACTRA Manitoba’s Apprenticeship Program. He was awarded a Lifetime Membership in the Association Of Canadian Radio and Television Artists for his contributions. B. Pat Burns pedagogical work has been used at Humber College, l'ecole national du cirque (National Circus School), The School of The Toronto Dance Theatre, The School Of Contemporary Dance (Winnipeg).

Margot Kidder
B. Pat Burns operated a long-running private teaching and coaching practice with many students including several "stars" such as the late American-Canadian actress Margot Kidder (of Superman fame) whom he met when hired as her acting coach on the movie Love At First Kill (2008). As a coach, Margot Kidder wrote of B. Pat Burns: "B. Pat Burns is the best acting coach I have ever had, and is definitely one of the best in the film industry. Not just one of the best in Winnipeg, or in Canada, but in the entire movie business. He worked with each actor on our set differently, immediately figuring out each individual's process and adjusting his invaluable lessons accordingly. In a perfect actors' world, B. Pat Burns would be on all sets, at all times, and available to all actors."

B. Pat was known as Artist’s Artist, and a teacher/mentor who could transform even for the most unlikely of

artists to blossom and flourish. While B. Pat loved his work, it truly was his family and the people he worked with that he loved the most. He had an enduring fascination with the “process of making theatre” in all of its endless permutations, and in how art, spirituality, and life intersect. In his own words, the purpose of making and teaching theatre is:  “Above all else the art of teaching compassion for both ourselves and others.”

Exploratory Theatre Company
In the late 1990's B. Pat Burns, choreographer Sharon B. Moore, and composer/actor Derek Aasland formed the ETC Co with funding from the Canada Council to research and develop production and academic methods of creating new stage works.

B. Pat Burns contribution to the practical framework of training and his work develpoping a theoretical framework