About Burry Fredrik

Burry Fredrik (1925-2012) was a trailblazing Broadway producer, director, and stage manager at the forefront of American Theater History and in the vanguard for the changing role of women in the theater. At a time when women rarely held such positions, she made her Broadway debut stage managing The Relapse in 1950. Burry went on to production stage manage such notable shows as the world premieres of Inherit the Wind, Jerry Herman’s first book musical Milk and Honey, and two collaborations between playwright William Inge and director Elia Kazan, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, and Loss of Roses. Burry received her first Tony nomination for co-producing the revival of G.B. Shaw’s Too True to be Good, starring Lillian Gish, Eileen Heckart, Cyril Ritchard, and Glynis Johns. Other landmark productions include the 1975 revival of The Royal Family with Rosemary Harris, An Almost Perfect Person, and To Grandmother’s House We Go, which starred Kim Hunter and Eva Le Gallienne. Off-Broadway her productions included Exiles, Catholic School Girls (which she also directed), and Sam Shepard’s Buried Child, which won the Pulitzer Prize. She won a Tony Award for co-producing Tom Stoppard’s Travesties.

As a director, Burry made her Broadway debut with the short-lived musical Wild and Wonderful. She would go on to garner praise as a director in prominent regional theaters with productions of Talley’s Folly, To Grandmother’s House We Go, Morning's at Seven, 'night Mother, and Speed-the-Plow, all of which were performed at the Westport Country Playhouse, among other theatres, and she directed noted productions of new plays at the Lucille Lortel White Barn Theatre. Burry was a founding Board member and later Artistic Director of the Boston Post Road Stage Company, and an active member of the Theatre Artists Workshop (Westport). She served on the board of both the Westport Country Playhouse and Long Wharf Theatre.

Through the work of the Burry Fredrik Foundation, Burry lives on in the hearts and minds of those who knew her, as well to help to imprint the importance of live theater onto a new generation of theater goers. In Burry's own words, "To the extent of my capabilities, I should like to give back to the theatre in return for a lifetime of taking".

The Burry Fredrik Foundation was funded and established by the Estate of Erna Helene Gerber (better known as Burry Fredrik). The Burry Fredrik Foundation received additional support from the Estate of Jerome Kilty, with the underlying rights to his dramatic works (including Dear Liar, Dear Love, and The Ides of March) bequeathed to the Foundation; and the Estate of Shirley Herz Boley. If you are interested in supporting the Burry Fredrik Foundation, please contact Barbara Pearce (bpearce@burryfredrikfoundation.org) and Michael Ross (mross@burryfredrikfoundation.org).