In the late 1920s, after graduating from high school at the age of 16, Burroughs secured a minor role in the production Harlem, at the Apollo Theatre, starring Isabelle Washington, which ran for six months.

Instead, he quit after two weeks and enrolled in the Kammerspiele School of the Theatre, Hamburg, run by theatrical producer and director Erwin Piscator, regarded as the foremost exponent of "Epic Theater," a form that emphasized the socio-political content of drama.

[3] As a part of this effort Burroughs was named as a lead actor in the 20-year-old Orson Welles's 1936 Federal Theatre Project production of Macbeth, featuring an all-black cast.

In this production Burroughs played the role of Hecate, which Welles changed from the witch queen of the original into a male Voodoo priest, complete with cloak and a 12-foot long bull whip.

[4] This staging of Voodoo Macbeth won both popular and critical acclaim, with The New York Times noting that Burroughs's concluding line, "The charm’s wound up!"