“The other night we had a cougher,” actress Lydia Burns said with a smile. “He tried to leave… “The other night we had a cougher,” actress Lydia Burns said with a smile. “He tried to leave the theater, but he couldn’t do it without walking on stage.”

That goes with the territory of performing in a small theatre space.

Burns, a Pitt student, is the lead actress in “The Moonlight Room,” playing in City Theatre’s intimate Lester Hamburg Studio through Dec. 12.

At 22 she’s no stranger to the stage. A graduate of the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) and originally from Squirrel Hill, she has been acting professionally since her senior year and has appeared locally with numerous theatre companies, including Pittsburgh Musical Theatre/Pitt Rep, performing in last season’s “Bat Boy.” And in the 2003 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, she developed and performed her own adaptation of Oskar Kokoschka’s “Murder, Hope of Womankind.”

“The Moonlight Room” is her first performance as a member of the Actors’ Equity Association, a labor union for American actors and stage managers. “I’m moving to New York in January,” said Burns, “and most auditions [there] are Equity only,” meaning they will only hire members of the union for their productions.

Her academic career started at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y. “[While there] I realized if I was going to study theatre in college, I would have to choose a conservatory,” Burns said. But having spent her high school years studying acting, she wanted to exorcise her “academic demons before moving on.” She spent a year at Pitt as a guest student, then studied abroad at the University of Amsterdam for a year.

Graduating from Pitt in December, she has been putting in long hours at City Theatre. Carrying 13 credits this semester, a typical day of classes ends at 2 p.m., then she’s off to rehearsals until 9 or 10 in the evening. Weekend rehearsals demand at least nine hours a day.

When asked how she managed to juggle the heavy rehearsal schedule and her classes she responded, “It’s really intense. It’s hard not to make the show your first priority.” The academic field you are in plays a part as well. “It’s different when you’re not a theatre major,” said Burns, who is double majoring in history and philosophy of science and art history, “because it’s not an excuse.”

Her experience stands in contrast to her co-star John Magaro’s, who is a senior acting major at Point Park University; his theatre instructors understand the demands of performing professionally.

Burns plays Sal, a 16-year-old from New York whose friends are involved with drugs. With a fresh, youthful face and petite frame, Burns is often cast in younger roles.

“I’m just used to being a baby,” she said with an impish grin, illustrating why it’s so easy to cast her as a younger character.

But playing a youthful role doesn’t mean it’s easy. She cites Sal as one of her most challenging roles, especially because of the dramatic nature of the play itself.

In preparation for the part, she said that it helped that she was familiar with the New York area, and the fact that she’s only six years older than her character made it easier to tap into her adolescent resources. While learning something from the other actors around her, she uses her own method to get in touch with her character, saying “[I prepare by] picking music that I think my character would listen to. Sometimes it brings you to different emotional places more quickly than conjuring up memories.”

With the show’s opening last Wednesday, Burns’ schedule will calm down a bit as she nears graduation. So what’s in store for her after her big move to New York?

“Ultimately, I want to act. [But] ideally, I would like to get a job in one of my academic fields that is flexible enough to allow me to pursue theatre,” she said.

With an already impressive list of accomplishments, a positive and energetic attitude, and a youthful face, there is no doubt she will do just that.