Nekkid Ambition
“The safest thing for me to do was to take a risk,” says Tricia Rose Burt about her decision to go from being a high-paid public relations expert to an art student. “I always thought that being creative was for other people. I was supposed to do what I was raised to do, which was to be a good girl and go into business.”
After nearly 15 years in the public relations and training industry, though, Burt says, “I was just miserable. I actually thought it was my work that I was unhappy doing when, in fact, I was unhappy with my life.”
So she quit her full-time job, enrolled in art school, divorced her husband, and eventually moved to Ireland. During the process, she found her voice.
Today, Burt is a well-known solo performer and playwright. Her one-woman show, How to Draw a Nekkid Man, was selected for the 2011 New York International Fringe Festival and was further honored by inclusion in the FringeNYC Encore Series. Burt continues to perform her show at venues around the country and is a frequent guest with the acclaimed storytelling organization The Moth. Excerpts from How to Draw a Nekkid Man have been downloaded from The Moth’s website more than a quarter-million times.
With a self-described formula of “90 percent humor and 10 percent heartbreak,” Tricia is now working on turning her one-woman show into a book. But she keeps a level head about her success. “I didn’t write anything. I just take really good notes.”
—BECCA JENSEN
Read more about Burt’s work.