About Bruce

Bruce Burns (formerly Bruce Fairbairn) was born to dance. As a child his parents would put on "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg knowing that upon hearing the modulation in the middle of the piece Bruce would have no choice but to dance like a mad man.

Although Bruce begged for tap classes at the local dance school his family  just didn't have the money.

Fast forward to Bruce's teenage years. 

After graduating from the Santa Cruz Community Free School Bruce entered college with the idea of becoming a graphic artist.

To fill out his schedule he took an acting class which led to a role on stage as a 40 year old milkman. 

That is all it took to turn a normal person into a theatre junky.

Having done a few projects he didn't get an opportunity to fulfill his forgotten dream of becoming a dancer.

Then he heard of an audition for a musical "Fiddler on the Roof" at the beautiful Staircase theatre.

When he called the Theatre to inquire about the audition. Auditions were over but he was asked if he could dance. Having learned a few things about acting he lied and said yes.

Apparently he was more truthful than he thought because he ended up as the dance lead in the show.

This led to Bruce's first career as a song and dance man. Highlights include playing Riff in "West Side Story" Tulsa in "Gypsy", Jaquot in Carnival And Littlechap in "Stop the World I Want to Get Off"

After doing "Stop the World..." Bruce decided to make a run at the big time and moved to New York City.

Having had some success in the city with "Just a Bunch of Us Kids 'Dancing" off Broadway and "A Search for Love" off off Broadway, Bruce decided to take a vacation back home in Santa Cruz.

Big mistake.

During his stay in Santa Cruz he lost his apartment and day job in New York so he wasn't able to return to The City for many years.

Making the best of it Bruce continued to work as a now triple threat (actor, singer and dancer)

doing such projects as "Working", "Chicago" and "Pippin" in Santa Cruz and  the "Moundbuilders" at the San Jose Stage Co. as well as "The Mystery of Edwin Drood","Peter Pan" and "The Rink" among others at Theatreworks in Palo Alto

During their time Bruce did a show called "On The Air" at the West Abbey Theatre where he took a career ending fall catastrophically injuring his right ankle.

Although still able to dance his disability was such that he could no longer do the fun stuff.

To add insult to injury Bruce got to pay for his drunken ways.

In 1988 Bruce crashed and burned suffering a complete meltdown. He entered Rancho Laguna Seca a residential alcohol recovery center.

Didn't work but Bruce continued with his theatrical career  with several shows including a fourteen month run of "Angry Housewives" At San Jose Stage Co. among others.

In 1992 Bruce now living in his van checked into the Redwood Center, a sort of bootcamp for alcoholics.

It worked!

Bruce has been alcohol free since then.

Upon his return Bruce did such shows as "Working"and "Staged for Screams" With Company for Dinner, "T-Bone and Weasel"with Theatreworks, American Buffalo for Netless Theatre Co. and a career high playing Cyrano de Bergerac for Mountain Community Theatre.

Once again headed for the big time, this time in L.A. Bruce put his acting career on hold to support his fiancé Melissa Berry through college.

Being jumped into the art department by friend (and now Emmy nominee) Melanie Paizis Jones he worked his way up to become a prop master on a wide release feature "Caught Up".

Then it happened again.

Meltdown.

Losing Melissa and his home in L.A. Bruce moved into his sisters house in northern Washington state.

After about six difficult months of healing there I was called by Dustin Leonard to come do the play "Art" in Santa Cruz.

Deciding to explore the world of film acting Bruce was disappointed to find no cohesive film community in Santa Cruz. So he decided to  create one.

Founding Cinemar a cinematic arts co-operative with one mission, to establish a filmmakers community in Santa Cruz.

It worked. Building a website and holding a monthly "Schmoozfest"party Cinemar went from five to five hundred members in about a year and a half.

Buoyed by this success and having done a few film projects in the bay area including "The Blue Aspic and "Afterlife" Bruce headed once again to Los Angeles to hopefully play movie as an actor this time.

During this time Bruce did such projects as "Qualia", "Blue Like the Morning and "Drags to Riches"

Then as you might of guessed by now Bruce had another meltdown and losing everything again he was barely able to keep from sleeping on the sidewalk.

Seeking help he was able to finally get a proper diagnosis of Bi-Polar depression and was able to get medication to relieve this lifelong problem.

With the help of some angels on earth (thank you Denise wherever you are) Bruce was able to secure housing and disability so things were better.

But Bruce was tired and feeling old and used up so he retired from acting and only did the occasional fabrication job with his sister Liz.

This all changed after a 13 year retirement Bruce found a treatment for film he had written in the 80's based on the one man play" My Friend Morty" by the acclaimed author Jeannie Barroga.

It was awful but Bruce set out to fix it. And wrote the short film "My Old Friends" 

As part of promoting the screenplay Bruce did a table reading in Hollywood and played the leading role. This was the first acting Bruce had done in about 13 years and was a revelation.

This is what he was supposed to do!

Since then , July 2023, Bruce has gotten many auditions and been lucky enough to have worked on quite a few different projects.

Now stable and healthy Bruce is finally able to cash in all those dues he paid and he is having the time of his life!

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