about

The seed for Burton Yuen’s festive scenic design adventures was planted when he was a small boy growing up in his family’s jewelry store in Hawaii. There he learned to use small tools to manipulate tiny items and he entertained himself for hours by building a variety of contrivances. Later projects became detailed models that ultimately helped prepare him for his career in scenic design.

Burton studied theater and landscape architecture at Utah State University which he attended on a theater scholarship. While there he developed a keen awareness of spatial environments and found he excelled in scenic design. He learned to create unique and truthful settings for characters to live in as they interact with each other and their surroundings while telling their story. Burton has continued to design scenery for dozens of shows for various organizations over the years including Village Theater, ArtsWest, Seattle Children’s Theatre, and more. Burton’s deep understanding of spatial relationships, period style, color, and scenic construction render him a skilled and sought after collaborative artist.

And the Festive Weasel? He’s the part of Burton’s brain that sneaks in with those creative solutions bound to make producers, directors, and TD’s cheerfully fling confetti and smile while doing a happy dance!