“These are things that mean so
much to so many people.
To be entrusted to care for it —
I take it seriously.”

PHOTO VIA STARWARS.COM © 2018 & TM LUCASFILM LTD. KYLE KAO AND AMANDA JEAN CAMARILLO

— MADLYN BURKERT

Sesame Street and a few others that
did not (The Muppets).
While Burkert labored in a stuffed
puppet archive, a second job at the
Tamiment Library at NYU, where
she earned a companion master’s
degree in American studies, had her
overseeing a trove of personal papers,
manifestos, propaganda and effects
documenting the American labor
and radical political movements of
the 20th century. She loved helping
researchers with their projects by
plucking the right source materials
and developing a mastery of a
collection.
“I always kind of loved working
with historical collections, archives,
but I didn’t fully realize what it would
mean for me career-wise until I
started,” Burkert says.
A few years later, she applied for
and got a Jedi Academy internship at
Skywalker Ranch in Marin County,
Calif., working in the film archive.
That led to a full-time job working
with costumes, props and the like.
Part of the job was working with a
crew to prepare objects for exhibition,

some of which the DIA is showing
through Sept. 30.
In 2016, Burkert left Skywalker
Ranch to work at the company’s
headquarters in San Francisco,
her home for the past two years, to
manage the Disney-era films and
objects (Disney bought Lucasfilm
in 2012). She says she isn’t doing
a typical archivist’s work, but is a
guardian of physical assets, tracking
objects used in movies made now — a
“live collection” — and lending them
for promotional events and exhibits.
Among her favorite props? Porg, a
birdlike creature that is operated like
a mechanical puppet. It appeared in
Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Burkert enjoys a few other
perks of being a Disney employee,
including passes to Disney World
and Disneyland, travel to galaxies
far, far away (like Japan, Austria, New
Orleans and more) to set up exhibits,
and the power she holds in her white-
gloved hands. Burkert is the “go-to”
person for anything 3-D, she says.
Working with an entertainment-
related archives is something

THIS PHOTO
AND LEFT:
The staff and
costume worn
by the char-
acter Rey in
Star Wars:The
Force
Awakens.

Burkert knew she wanted to do
within the first 15 minutes on the job
at the Jim Henson Company.
“It’s really fun. These are things
that mean so much to so many
people. To be entrusted to care for it
— I take it seriously,” Burkert says.
Burkert, who met her software
engineer husband, Ben, in San
Francisco, appreciates that her
position as a guardian of the galaxy
(apologies to George Lucas) is
enviable. You can’t live on the planet,
really, without awareness of a world
that began in 1977 when Star Wars
exploded onscreen.
In Burkert’s home, her younger
brother, Jay, had a Star Wars
obsession as a child. Growing
up, the kids (including another
brother, Noah) plucked their cookies
from a jar shaped like R2-D2 (a
droid) that their parents, Jan and
Paul Moskowitz of Bloomfield
Hills, bought in the U.P. on their
honeymoon in 1977.
“It was quite amazing,” Burkert
says, “to be able to say to my family
that I take care of the real R2-D2.” •

STAR WARS

IN DETROIT

The Star Wars universe is
brought to life through its
characters in “Star Wars ®
and the Power of the Cos-
tume,” on display through
Sept. 30 at the Detroit
Institute of Arts. More than
60 original costumes —
from Queen Amidala’s lavish
gowns to Darth Vader’s
black armor, plus Chewbac-
ca, droids, X-wing pilots and
more — featured in the first
seven films of the Star Wars
saga are on display. DIA.org.

jn

September 6 • 2018

83