6 Questions: Nora Burns from David's Friend

David's Friend is a fast-paced multi-media solo show from Nora Burns that celebrates friendship, fun, freaks, fag hags, youthful passion, changing times, aging, emotions, memories, music and Manhattan! Nora took time out of her day to answer these 6 questions about this upcoming production in The Club at La MaMa!

1. Who is David?

David was my best friend who I met dancing on a speaker of a gay disco in Boston when we were 17 in 1979. He died of AIDS in 1993.

2. What did you learn from creating the show?

About 2 years ago I was suddenly hit with this terrible sadness at the loss of my friend and I wanted to do a show to celebrate our friendship and his life. I think a lot of people who lived through the age of AIDS are experiencing a sense of mourning as the PTSD wears off. I’ve been traveling around workshopping the show and I always have people come up afterward and tell me that they’re going through the same thing.

3. What should audiences expect from David's Friend?

Well, as I’ve said, it’s a celebration, it’s not a memorial, and I want it to be fun and funny and have as much life as David did. It’s also a love letter to New York City, my wonderful home, and disco, the music that beats my heart.

4. What is the biggest change you've seen in New York City in your time here?

It’s gotten a lot safer and cleaner and more expensive and homogenized and crowded, but it still feels like home.

5. What is the last good book you read?

The last 2 books I read were amazing! Christodora by Tim Murphy, a very fun and fascinating novel about New York City and AIDS and the lives and paths people take, and Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, incredible. I’m obsessed with slavery and the fact that this country acts like it was so far in the past and not part of our present.

6. What does working at La MaMa mean to you?

I love La Mama! I’ve seen so many amazing productions here over the years, it’s part of my New York. I remember my old roommate directing Jackie Curtis in Champagne here in the 80’s and my comedy group The Nellie Olesons performed here in the early 90’s so it’s nice to be back.

David’s Friend

January 27 - February 05, 2017

David’s Friend is a fast-paced multi-media show is a celebration of friendship, fun, freaks, fag hags, youthful passion, changing times, aging, emotions, memories, music and Manhattan. David’s Friend is a coming of age story, a love story, a loss story, and a New York story, a story we all know and experience in some way, and, as David would say, “a story that just gets better with the telling.” 

Tickets & More Info Online: http://lamama.org/davids_friend/