DNA Doesn't Lie But My Mother Did! at Tada Theater

Christine McBurney* is thrilled to reunite with her grad school acting professor, collaborator, and friend, Lenny Pinna. Her favorite production with him was an impromptu “Off-Broadway” performance of The Seagull, while queuing outside the Delacorte for Shakespeare in the Park’s 2001 production. Christine is a multihyphenate. Acting credits include the films THE ALTO KNIGHTS and TUTTO (writer/actor); TV: Lazarus, FBI: Most Wanted, Fleishman is in Trouble; Selected Stage: The Metropolitan Opera, Cleveland Play House, Cleveland Public Theatre. Christine was a co-founding, producing co-artistic director of Cleveland's critically-acclaimed classical theatre, Mamaí Theatre Company. Selected directing credits include: the short film, FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD (staring Catherine Curtin), the NYSCA/NYFA funded opera, Moon in the Mirror, Arcadia, Boston Marriage, lots of Shakespeare, and the world premiere of Fanny Burney’s The Woman Hater. Honors: 2024 finalist for the inaugural Tina Packer Women of Will Directing Fellowship at Shakespeare & Co., 2017 Cleveland Critics' Circle Superior Achievement Award for both Mamaí and her production of A Doll's House, National Endowment for the Humanities recipient and other grants to study Shakespeare at The Juilliard School, Shakespeare & Company, and The Globe Theatre in London. She has taught at Baldwin Wallace University’s Department of Theatre & Dance, Cleveland State University's School of Film and Media, and Shaker Heights High School’s Theatre Arts Department. Currently she is a teaching artist for Hudson Valley Shakespeare and a private acting coach. Member: Stage Directors & Choreographers Observership Class 2019-21, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, Directors Lab West, Directors Lab North, SDC, SAG-AFTRA, AEA. BA Columbia University, MFA Kent State University. www.christinemcburney.com. *Equity Member appearing with permission of Actors’ Equity Association without benefit of an Equity contract in this Off-Off Broadway production. Actors' Equity Association (AEA), founded in 1913, represents more than 50,000 actors and stage managers in the United States. Equity seeks to advance, promote and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions, providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO, and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. The Equity emblem is our mark of excellence. www.actorsequity.org.

Lenny Pinna is an eclectic creative artist. He has an extensive background in theatre, holding an MFA in Dramaturgy from Stony Brook University. He served 15 years as Resident Dramaturg for the National Puppetry Conference at the O’Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, CT. In the mid 90’s he taught acting and directing at Kent State University where he directed Christine McBurney in the 25th anniversary production of Van Italie’s The Serpent and his own adaptation of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata. He directed several productions in the Cleveland area, including Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Mart Crowley’s For Reasons That Remain Unclear and Doug Holsclaw’s The Baddest of Boys. He founded Ecclesia Theater at Lake Erie College where he directed Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and Tennessee Williams’ Something Cloudy, Something Clear. As an actor his favorite roles were John Merrick in The Elephant Man and Peter/Rebecca in the solo show, Making Faces, changing genders from male to female. As a filmmaker, his docu-drama, LETTERS TO URANUS: THE HIDDEN LIFE OF TEDD BURR was shown in the 2001 Cleveland Film Festival and the 2002 NY Independent Film and Video Festival. Subsequently, he edited and published the book, “A Face From Uranus; Correspondence Between Tedd Burr and Henry Bellamann 1943-1945” and based on the book, he wrote the proposed the Limited TV series, In the Name of Jamie Wakefield, “Too Pretty For a Boy” which can be viewed along with the 2001 docu-drama at www.inthenameofjamiewakefield.com.