Associate Professor -Acting and Directing M.F.A. Directing, Northwestern University, 1976 B.A. Heidelberg College, 1973 Appointed to IU in 1990 bburgun@indiana.edu Whom do I contact about what?

As an actor and director, Bruce Burgun has worked on over one hundred professional productions throughout the mid-west including many of Chicago’s leading theatre companies such as the Goodman, Steppenwolf, Court, Second City, and Victory Gardens.

In the 1970’s, Burgun was a member of the St. Nicholas Theatre Company founded by David Mamet and William H. Macy.  In 1986, in recognition of his contribution to Chicago theatre, Bruce was elected to the Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee.

Prior to his appointment to Indiana University, Burgun served as Chair of the Theatre Department at the Chicago Academy for the Arts.

His teaching has received multiple awards and distinctions.  Bruce is a four time recipient of IU’s Teaching Excellence Award and in 2001 was honored with Student Choice Award for Outstanding Faculty by the IU Alumni Association.  In 2003, he was invited to become a member of IU’s Faculty Learning Community.  On the national scene, Bruce is listed in Who’s Who in American Teachers.

Many of his former students have achieved significant professional success, including several Academy Award Nominations, and a great number of Tony, Emmy, and Obie Awards.

For the Indiana University Unversity Theatre, Bruce has directed numerous productions including Much Ado About Nothing (which opened the Lee Norvelle Theatre and Drama Center), Our Country’s Good, Six Degrees of Separation, Medea, The Real Thing, A View From the Bridge, The Caretaker, Sight Unseen, Translations, Rough Crossing, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Real Inspector Hound, The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild, and his original adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.

A longtime contributor to the Brown County Playhouse, Burgun directed such productions as Lost in Yonkers, Black Comedy, Bus Stop, The Mousetrap, Luanne Hampton-Laverty-Oberlander, It Runs in the Family, Out of Order, One for the Pot, Lend Me a Tenor, Run for your Wife, and Not Now, Darling.  His Brown County Playhouse acting credits include The Woman in Black, Silvia, and Chapter Two.  

In 1999, Bruce founded Indiana University’s Midsummer Theatre Program, a two week intensive theatre practicum for high school students of exceptional ability. 

A produced playwright as well as a published critic, Bruce is a member of the Dramatist Guild and the American Theatre Critics Association.

After completing his MFA at Northwestern University, Burgun studied privately with legendary teacher Alvina Krause and was a founding member of the Bloomsburg Theatre Company in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania.