{"id":3809,"date":"2025-09-05T14:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T14:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/3809\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T14:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T14:13:09","slug":"shortland-streets-peter-burman-on-playing-sage-his-self-autopsy-and-finding-his-feet-on-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/3809\/","title":{"rendered":"Shortland Street\u2019s Peter Burman on playing Sage, his self \u2018autopsy\u2019 and finding his feet on screen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019ve received lots of noes. I auditioned for drama school three times,\u201d he says, adding his attempt to get the role of Sage was \u201cthe worst audition of his life\u201d..<\/p>\n

\"PeterPeter Burman says he felt like “drowning” during his first few weeks on the set of Shortland Street – his first screen role. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I learned quite early that rejection was a big part of this industry, but I was just so delusional that I was like, I have to do this, and I just went for it. And look where I am today. I feel very lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting the role<\/a> was emotional for the actor and his family. Burman, who grew up in Tauranga, remembers his dad bursting into tears when he told him. \u201cProbably because I was finally earning decent money and had a stable job,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

Sage is one of the many LGBTQ+ characters<\/a> in Shortland Street\u2019s history. Burman, who is gay, says the role was the first time he\u2019d actually received a casting brief where the character was explicitly gay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Shortland Street has always been very diverse,\u201d he says, of show\u2019s history of portraying the queer community. \u201cI think it\u2019s always held the torch in terms of what they display in terms of diversity on screen, so I feel just very lucky to be among all those kinds of iconic characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PeterPeter Burman’s new show is what he calls an “autopsy” of discovery in his youth. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n

Burman is also thankful his character helps provide comic relief. It\u2019s given the self-described \u201cintrovert\u201d a chance to explore his extroverted side.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just so fun and joyful, you know. I\u2019m not coming in and dealing with things like divorce or murder or a drug addiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now more than a year and a half into the role, he is ready to take on a new challenge back where it all started – the stage. <\/p>\n

Burman\u2019s new show Scorned, premiering at Auckland\u2019s Basement theatre<\/a>, is \u201ckind of an autopsy\u201d of his own late teens and early 20s.<\/p>\n

\"PeterPeter Burman as Sage on Shortland Street. Photo \/ South Pacific Pictures<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like, post-high school, having relationships for the first time, experiencing explicitly queer environments,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think with whatever I do, it\u2019ll always be explicitly queer because that\u2019s kind of my identity and how I see the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burman says coming out to his family and friends was \u201ca hard one\u201c. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was pretty stubborn about it, and I didn\u2019t want to do it. It wasn\u2019t until I was 21 that I actually came out properly to my family. But I said it, and they were like, Yeah, we know! I\u2019m very lucky to have such a supportive family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scorned is full of tableaus and moments of his life that have made Burman who he is today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not traumatic or sad or anything. It\u2019s more light and entertaining.\u201d <\/p>\n

But rest assured, the nuances of Sage will be left on the set of Shortland Street, as the cast is on a break from filming. Instead, Burman is looking to push boundaries on stage. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, who can I become that I haven\u2019t become yet? I\u2019m trying to flex my muscles a little bit in terms of characters and acting.\u201d <\/p>\n

Scorned runs at the Basement Theatre in Auckland from September 9-13.<\/p>\n

Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald\u2019s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke\u2019s Bay Today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019ve received lots of noes. I auditioned for drama school three times,\u201d he says, adding his attempt to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1443,95,5417,5432,5414,5426,634,5136,1667,156,5422,5418,2949,5431,5420,293,5421,2203,5430,111,139,69,90,5428,5429,5413,5423,5415,5425,5416,5419,5100,5411,1305,5433,5424,5412,301,5427,1845,102],"class_list":["post-3809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-about","tag-and","tag-autopsy","tag-between","tag-burman","tag-created","tag-death","tag-drama","tag-energy","tag-entertainment","tag-enthusiasm","tag-feet","tag-finding","tag-hageman","tag-hes","tag-his","tag-jolt","tag-journey","tag-mitchell","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-onstage","tag-own","tag-peter","tag-plagued","tag-playing","tag-regular","tag-sage","tag-screen","tag-self","tag-shortland","tag-show","tag-stage","tag-street","tag-streets","tag-talks","tag-unique","tag-welcome","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}