Hamburger worked at a number of theaters and directed plays in a wide range of venues between 1974 and 1986, including The Acting Company, The American Place Theatre, Circle in the Square Theatre School, Great Lakes Theater Festival, the Yale Repertory Theatre, and the Juilliard Theatre Center (where he also taught drama). The New York Times praised his direction of Thomas Strelich's Neon Psalms at The American Place Theater in 1986, saying its "staging subtly veers away from overstatement."
