The Buran Theatre Company, a Lawrence-based acting troupe, is showcasing its final performance in Kansas this Saturday before branching out to new cities.

The group of a dozen KU students and recent graduates has been working together for the past two and a half years to write, perform and produce theatrical productions in Lawrence.

Adam Burnett and Alicia Gian created company, run entirely by students, to share art with the community.

The performance this Saturday, “Enormous Weight,” by Carlo Matos, will be performed as a staged reading, where the playwright is continually working on this script as the actors read it. Burnett said this final Lawrence production would help the company head into the real world full of building relationships with playwrights.

“When I met [Matos] he had the spirit of who I wanted to work with in this company,” Burnett said. “Having that positive energy is what I wanted to end on. Why not end on something that feels good?”

The company, which has performed three full productions and five staged readings since it started, will separate after this show in order to start satellites in New York City, Chicago, Minneapolis and Los Angeles. The company discovered that members were going in different directions following graduation. It decided creating satellites would keep the company together, and form a communion of people who like to work in the arts.

“It’s better to have satellites because we can bring the company’s spirit, bring the art, to more places,” Burnett, 2008 graduate, said. “We can do workshops all over. The idea is that there will always be something going on with the company. There will be continuous work.”

Knudsen said he hoped the satellites bring the company’s work to a broader audience.

“If others find the company something they would like to be involved in, we can all combine forces and bring it together,” Knudsen said. “By using our theatre backgrounds in all these different areas we hope to bolster other types of art into a nice communion.”

Burnett said the company did not charge for tickets while in Lawrence so it could give theater to the community. The company is not concerned with fiscal success in their satellite endeavor. Members said they wanted to take the initiative to work hard and do what they loved to do.

“I don’t think success is what we’re looking for in terms of where we’re going to make the most money or where we will have the most people,” Burnett said. “It’s finding a community and an audience that both embraces us and sustains the company.”

Knudsen said the shows aimed to give its audiences a different perspective.

“A lot of people don’t think of themselves as liking theater,” said Justin Knudsen, 2008 graduate and company member. “We’re giving them the opportunity to look outside of the box. It’s opened a lot of doors to give people

the reminder that this is something they can enjoy.”

The company feeds off this idea of community and each performance is a collaborative effort between company members. Knudsen said because members are peers, the performances consisted more of conversations than of directions. He said the company was built on a level of trust that was professional but not authoritative.

“Being one of the collaborators has allowed me to find places I can go that are so much further out there,” said Brady Blevins, 2008 graduate and company member. “I have [Burnett as director] supporting me as I push through my safety net. By being peers you’re not just a puppet, you’re an artist.”

Burnett said most of the work done by the company in its satellites would be staged readings because he thought it wouldn’t be possible to get the money or the space to produce plays after leaving Lawrence.

Lara Thomas, 2008 graduate, said she credited Lawrence to starting her acting career.

“This community gave us the ability to do what we do now,” Thomas said. “We’ll always remember what the spirit was and why we started. We’ll want to capture and build upon that.”

—Edited by Mike Nolan