Funded by the Jarka & Grayce Susan Burian Endowment

 

This yearly event brings leading scholars and practitioners of the art of the theatre to the Albany campus.

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Funded by Jarka and Grayce Susan Burian, the lecture honors Dr. Burian's long and influential service at the University.

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Jarka Burian (pronounced "Yarka") Professor Emeritus of Theatre at the University at Albany, was the leading American scholar of Czech theatre and is the author of the award-winning book The Scenography of Josef Svoboda, a seminal critical study of the work of one of the twentieth century's most influential theatrical designers. He received his B.A. from Rutgers, an M.A. from Columbia, and a Ph.D. from Cornell.  Burian served on the faculty of the University at Albany from 1955 to 1993, and also taught at Cornell, Berkeley, the Banff School of Fine Arts, and the University of Central Florida. He died August 25, 2005.

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Grayce Susan Burian received her B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University at Albany, where she taught for many years. She is best known for her long tenure as the director of the theatre program at Schenectady Community College, which she founded and nurtured into one of the most successful two-year theatre programs in New York state. Grayce died November 16, 2023, after a short illness.  We remembered "The Amazing Grayce" at a celebration of her life on May 18, 2024, at UAlbany.

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Read a Q&A with Grayce Burian at The Conversation, July 2020.