Christine McBurney is an actor, director, and educator who has been teaching acting, theatre, film, playwriting, and radio for more than 20 years. For 16 years she taught and chaired the Shaker Heights High School Theatre Arts Department, where she produced 100+ original one-act plays in a student festival and coached two regional Shakespeare Competition Winners. When she served as interim assistant professor in BW’s Theatre & Dance department, she directed and taught Script Analysis, Theatre History, Acting, and Shakespeare. She has also taught at Cleveland State University’s School of Film & Media Arts.
Her television credits include CBS’ FBI: Most Wanted, Hulu’s Fleishman is in Trouble, and Netflix’s The Chair. In 2022, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the acting company of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Film work includes a supporting role in Barry Levinson’s The Wise Guys.
McBurney is a sought-after actor and director in northeast Ohio, working in film, voice-over, podcasts, on stage and now, Zoom. She is the artistic director of Bluestocking Productions and was co-founding co-artistic director of Cleveland’s critically-acclaimed classical theatre company Mamaí (2010-2017).
She has authored essays and theatre criticism for national and local publications including: OnStage Blog, InTheatre Magazine, BELT, FreshWater, cleveland.com and more.
McBurney has received several honors including: 2017 Cleveland Critics’ Circle Superior Achievement Award for A Doll’s House at Playhouse Square; 2017 Cleveland Critics’ Circle Special Mention Award; 2016 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program’s Distinguished Teachers; and 2006 Who’s Who Among American Teachers.
She has also received grants and fellowships to study Shakespeare at The Globe Theatre in London, the National Institute on Teaching Shakespeare, The Juilliard School and Shakespeare & Company. She is a member of Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, Directors Lab West (LA) Directors Lab North (Toronto), and Cleveland Play House Directors’ Gym and the 2019-21 Society of Directors and Choreographers Foundation Observership Class.
She is represented by Eris Talent, Docherty Talent, Heyman Talent, and Dream Maker Talent and is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA and The Society of Stage Directors & Choreographers.