Today we’d like to introduce you to Petrea Burchard.
Hi Petrea, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I knew from a young age that I wanted to be an actor. I saw Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo & Juliet over and over again when it came out. I wanted to speak those words, wear those costumes, act those emotions, and walk those cobbled streets.
My parents encouraged me to get a degree in something “marketable.” I graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric/creative writing (ha! lots of jobs in rhetoric), with a double minor in theater and French.
My first paid acting job was The Second City National Touring Company, a hell of an education in acting, improvisation and collaboration. I worked in Chicago theater until I got the nerve to move to Los Angeles. I did theater, commercials, some film, my share of small TV parts, always working a full-time day job and hoping my bosses were nice enough to let me off for auditions (they usually were). In 1995, one of my jobs was voicing several episodes of an anime series called Tenchi Muyo! I got to play a badass space pirate named Ryoko.
After I’d been in LA about 10 years, I was burned out. I didn’t feel like an artist anymore. Then I heard about the British/American Drama Academy, and I remembered Zeffirelli and my dreams. I busted my butt to get into the BADA summer program. Those weeks at Oxford were an idyll of learning and art. I fell in love with England and stayed for a couple of weeks after the program, exploring until my money ran out. It was there that I got the inspiration for a story about an actress who falls through a gap in time and meets King Arthur.
Back home, voice acting was sustaining me. I was hearing more from anime fans, and it dawned on me that Tenchi Muyo! had become something of a classic. I was doing traffic reports on the radio when I was offered the job of voicing weekly TV and radio spots for a large grocery chain. I quit the traffic job and was able to focus exclusively on acting and voice-over. I wrote a humor column for NowCasting called Act As If, about being a journeyman actor in LA. And at last, I began to write that novel, which became Camelot & Vine. After I published it (a big moment for me!) I compiled my favorite columns from Act As If, and that became my second book, Act As If: Stumbling Through Hollywood with Headshot in Hand.
This was a wonderful, creative period. I even got to visit England again when I was invited to be a guest at an anime con in Coventry. During that trip, I explored Cadbury Hill, the setting of my novel. I can’t wait to go back. The story and the setting are still so compelling to me.
It was also during that trip that my largest voice-over client decided to “go another way.” When I got home, I had to figure out what to do—get more clients? Get a typing job? A wise friend said, “You should be doing audiobooks.” It clicked. She was right. I should.
Audiobook narration is not simply reading, or voice-over, or acting, yet it is all of these things and more, including engineering and self-directing. It’s also entrepreneurial, which I was never good at as an actor, but which I’m enjoying now. My writing, speaking and acting culminate in this work and I’m so grateful to have found it. And I still get to write! Just a few days ago I finished narrating my dream project, the audiobook Camelot & Vine. It comes out in early 2023.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The road has been super bumpy! I don’t know if my struggles have been unusual. Every life has them, although when we’re in them it’s hard to remember we’re not the only ones.
You lose a job, you face something you don’t know how to do, you come up against other people’s opinions of you. You might even be a victim of someone else’s demons. You might feel powerless.
What can you do? As my husband and I say, “Stay the course.” It’s rare that an artistic career is a direct route to fame and fortune. Get another job. Learn the thing you need to know. Ignore other people’s ignorance—or if they’re right about you, become a better person. I’m not saying it’s easy, and there are times when you think you’ll break. You won’t. If this sounds like advice, it’s advice I give to myself.
I suppose it’s cliché to say adversity makes you stronger, but it does. The older I get, the stronger I am. I want to get really, really old because that means more time for learning and empowerment.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I make my living narrating audiobooks for publishers and producers. I specialize in fiction—literary fiction, mysteries, thrillers, and really just all of it. I love good fiction! I love good nonfiction too, and have been fortunate to narrate my share.
I’m known as the English voice of Ryoko in the Tenchi Muyo! Anime. When I started, I had no idea the fans would love it so much. Yet more than 25 years later I still hear from fans almost every day. Some of them have become friends. Tenchi Muyo! was and still is a blessing I didn’t see coming.
I’m most proud of Camelot & Vine. Ten years after its publication I’m still proud of the writing and the story, and I’m so excited for the audiobook to come out! It feels like it’s been a long time coming.
What sets me apart? I’d have to say it’s my voice, both in the studio and on the page. I’m a narrator who writes my own books. I’m a writer who narrates my own books. I’m not the only one who does this, but it’s not the norm. Other things that set me apart: my sense of humor. Bring on the funny! It’s as necessary as food.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
Networking is giving.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.petreaburchard.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petreabs/
- Other: https://adbl.co/3W517iU
Image Credits
Jerry Camarillo Kate Wong Paula L. Johnson John Sandel
