Marcia Haufrecht

Marcia Haufrecht is an American actress, playwright and director, as well as a noted acting teacher and coach. A life member of Actors Studio, and a longtime member of The Ensemble Studio Theatre, she is also the founder and artistic director of the Off-Off-Broadway company (and venue), The Common Basis Theatre (originally The Common Ground Theatre).

Early life Haufrecht was the first of three children born to Herbert and Judith Haufreucht, the former a noted pianist, composer, folklorist and editor.

Career

Dance Haufrecht said that Broadway was scarcely clamoring for "a barefoot, modern dancer", much less for one of Haufrecht's diminutive stature and limited experience. She made her Off-Broadway debut as an actress that September at the Cherry Lane Theatre, with a small part in the Studio 12 limited-run revival of Jean-Paul Sartre's The Flies. Her Broadway and her professional dancing debuts occurred two months later, when she was signed for the musical, Plain and Fancy. The show's choreographer, Helen Tamiris (a former colleague of Haufrecht's father) was instrumental in being included in the show.

In the summer of 1955, Haufrecht toured nationally with Can-Can, a part that she attributed to fortuitous timing: I think the only reason they hired me was because it was in the dead of summer, and the only people that showed up to the audition were strippers; they weren't really dancers. So they had to hire me; I was the only dancer that showed up. In 2012, Haufrecht said that her early career change, however rewarding in the long run, was born of necessity: After I was done with Can-Can, I auditioned for a lot of shows, and I couldn't get anything... One day, I auditioned - I don't know if it was Damn Yankees - [but] it was a Bob Fosse show. And I'm down to the last fifteen and he needed twelve, or something like that. He pulls me aside and says, "I'd love to use you, Marcia. You're a wonderful dancer, you really are. But you're too short." I said to myself, "That's it; I'm outta here. I'm not dancing anymore." she herself would go on to direct such actors as Richard Ward, Jack Gilford, Zero Mostel, Joseph Chaikin, Jack Betts, and Jean Shepherd. As a teacher, Chilton instructed Chaikin and several other future founding members of the experimental Open Theatre, created by them in early 1963, less than a year after Chilton's emigration to Israel, where she has worked and prospered for the nearly half century since, becoming a storied and seminal figure in Israeli arts and letters. |group=lower-alpha Haufrecht studied with Chilton for approximately four years, culminating in her participation in an Off-Broadway revival of Sidney Kingsley's Dead End, staged by Chilton.

Village Voice critic Michael Smith, praised both performance (including Haufrecht's "spectacularly destroyed whore") and production. However, she seriously contemplated giving up acting altogether because of dissatisfaction with her own contribution and with the quality of her work in general and her perceived lack of progress. Quickly dissuaded by her colleagues, Leibman in particular, Haufrecht followed the latter's advice and joined him at The Actors Studio to meet with studio director Lee Strasberg. Allowed to sit in on sessions on an interim basis, Haufrecht eventually earned her full membership via audition.

A member of the Studio since at least 1964, Haufrecht is a veteran of stage and screen, in roles ranging from White Cargo's exotic femme fatale, Tondeleyo to Richard III's eloquent nemesis, Queen Elizabeth, opposite Al Pacino (in the first of Pacino's three Richard's). She has performed at Lincoln Center, La MaMa, with The Ensemble Studio Theatre, Center Stage in Baltimore, The Open Stage in Sarasota, in Montreal at Place des Arts, and in Berlin at the Friends of the Opera Theatre. Haufrecht's film appearances have, in recent years, included The Producers, The Night Listener, Anamorph, and Win Win; on TV, she has been seen in The Sopranos, as well as Law & Order, Law and Order: SVU, and Law and Order: Criminal Intent.

In April 2001, more than 20 years after its first production, Tennessee Williams' Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis? premiered in New York at Haufrecht's Common Basis Theatre, with Haufrecht starring. Daily News critic Howard Kissel wrote, "The play's heady combination of black humor and poetry is best handled by Marcia Haufrecht, as the woman pining for her former boarder." Ken Jaworski of Off-Off-Broadway Review added: As Louise McBride, Marcia Haufrecht was exquisite: a frail woman struggling to appear strong, an aging southern belle masking loneliness behind false laughter. "Even in a dream one can suffer," Louise claims. Haufrecht embodied the premise, projecting a drowsy, fatigued lonesomeness with each action and word. The previous month, Haufrecht had garnered even stronger praise from Off-Off-Broadway Review's Doug DeVita as Common Basis staged another, less heralded premiere, Grace Cavalieri's Pinecrest Rest Haven: A frail-looking woman, her white hair tied up in a simple purple ribbon, enters a peach-and-white nursing-home waiting room and plaintively asks if anyone has seen her husband. The question, asked with a heartbreaking, bewildered innocence by the haunting Marcia Haufrecht, is a startlingly lucid depiction of the loss of clarity that can come with advanced age... the one thing this production had going for it was the presence of Haufrecht, who effortlessly rose above the obvious material and gave a luminous, moving performance of concise truth... As the late, great Madeline Kahn once said about her own work: "I have appeared in crap, but I have never treated it as such. Never." Haufrecht obviously goes by that same standard, and her performance displayed a level of professionalism that most actors would do well to emulate.

Writing From a playwright whose initial motivation had simply been to provide – at a director/colleague's request – an interesting acting vehicle for herself, Haufrecht's plays have been produced in New York City by Common Basis Theatre, The Ensemble Studio Theatre, and The Actors Studio, and, in upstate New York, by Performing Arts of Woodstock. Around the country, her work has been performed in Texas, Florida, and CSU Fullerton. Australia at La Mama in Melbourne, and at the Kultur im Gugg in Austria. The Actors Studio, The Common Basis Theatre, and in Australia, Portugal, and Austria . Alec Baldwin, Uma Thurman, Loren Dean, and Harvey Keitel. and in Austria; In New York, Haufrecht was on the faculty of The Actors Studio MFA program at The New School for Social Research (where Haufrecht would remain when the MFA program departed for Pace University in 2006,

Stage and screen credits

Theatre (partial listing) These are acting credits except where otherwise indicated. Opened Title Written by Theater Company (and/or venue) Directed by Role The Flies Euripides Cherry Lane Theatre Denis Vaughan Third Fury Plain and Fancy Music - Albert Hague / Lyrics - Arnold Horwitt / Book - Joseph Stein, Will Glickman The Mark Hellinger Theatre Morton DaCosta Dancer (as Marcia Howard) Can-Can Music & lyrics - Cole Porter / book - Abe Burrows National Tour Abe Burrows Dancer (as Marcia Howard) Dead End Sidney Kingsley Orphans Unlimited / 41st Street Theatre (on Broadway south of Times Square) Nola Chilton Francie (as Marcia Howard) White Cargo Leon Gordon Players Theatre (in Greenwich Village) Sam Rosen Tondeleyo (as Marcia Howard) The Three Sisters Anton Chekhov The Actors Studio Theatre / Morosco Theatre Lee Strasberg Carnival person Galileo Bertolt Brecht Theatre of the Living Arts (in Philadelphia) Andre Gregory Street singer Tom Paine Paul Foster La MaMa Tom O'Horgan Principal Having Fun In the Bathroom Leonard Melfi La MAMa Edward Setrakian Felicia Our Bed is Green Aviva Ravel Place des Arts Howard Ryshpan Rivka Once Again and Yet Again / Night / Eve Marcia Haufrecht Performing Arts of Woodstock NA Written by Richard III William Shakespeare Theater Company of Boston NA Queen Elizabeth (Standby for Linda Selman) The Independence of Striva Kowardsky Marcia Haufrecht Performing Arts of Woodstock NA Written by Mert and Phil Anne Burr New York Shakespeare Festival / Vivian Beaumont Theater Joseph Papp Mert, Lucille (standby for Estelle Parsons and Rhoda Gemignani) Eulogy for a Small Time Thief Miguel Piñero Ensemble Studio Theatre Jack Gelber Tina Curse of the Starving Class Sam Shepard New York Shakespeare Festival / Public Theater Robert Woodruff Ella (understudy for Olympia Dukakis) I Don't Know Where You're Coming From At All Shirley Lauro Ensemble Studio Theatre NA Miss Sarah Berlin Welfare Marcia Haufrecht Ensemble Studio Theatre Anthony McKay Written by The Hunchback of Notre Dame NA New York Shakespeare Festival / Public Theater NA Mme. Muniere On Bliss Street in Sunnyside Marcia Haufrecht The Actors Studio NA Alegra Katz (also Written by) Accumulated Baggage Marcia Haufrecht American Theatre of Actors (ATA in New York City) Sharon Chatten NA (also Written by) The House of Blue Leaves John Guare Adelphi Festival Theater (in Garden City) Bunny On Bliss Street in Sunnyside Marcia Haufrecht Siesta Keys Actors Theatre (in Sarasota) NA Written by Bliss Street Marcia Haufrecht The Open Stage (in Sarasota) William Shroder Alegra Katz (also Written by) Full Moon & High Tide in the Ladies Room Marcia Haufrecht Company of Angels / West End Stage (in Los Angeles) Carol Ries Written by Welfare Marcia Haufrecht Minority Actors Guild / South Dallas Cultural Center NA Written by An Exchange Marcia Haufrecht La Mama (Melbourne) / La Mama Theatre Marcia Haufrecht Written by & Directed by Full Moon & High Tide in the Ladies Room Marcia Haufrecht Creative Voices Theatre Company / Creative Place Theatre (in New York City) Diane Cossa Written by Promethea Bound and Sisyphus Too Marcia Haufrecht La Mama (Melbourne) / Napier Street Theatre (in New Zealand) Marcia Haufrecht Written by & Directed by The House of Nancy Dunn Music - Steve Weisberg / Andy Craft / Howard Pflanzer La MaMa John James Hickey Gloria Doria Full Moon & High Tide in the Ladies Room Marcia Haufrecht Common Basis Theatre Marcia Haufrecht Written by & Directed by Pinecrest Rest Haven Grace Cavalieri Common Basis Theatre Amy Coleman Mrs. P Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis? Tennessee Williams Common Basis Theatre Dan Isaac Louise McBride The Daughters of Eve Mark Borkowski Barrow Street Theatre Marcia Haufrecht Directed by The Daughters of Eve Mark Borkowski Cherry Lane Studio Theatre Marcia Haufrecht Directed by

Television Air Date Title Role No Place Like Home (TV movie) Hilda Law & Order - "DWB" Linda Coffey The Sopranos - "46 Long" Fanny Law & Order - "Amends" Brenda Jenks The Sopranos - "Proshai, Livushka" Fanny Law & Order: SVU - "Parasites" Mrs. Varella Law & Order: Criminal Intent - "Cherry Red" Erin Finoff Law & Order - "Doped" Eileen (as Marica Haufrecht)

Film Release date Title Role The Three Sisters Neighbor Dog Day Afternoon Neighbor Night-Flowers Woman at Wrestling Match Mortal Sins Elevator Passenger The Daytrippers Molly New York Socialite (short subject) Guru Three Long Years Jude's Mother Mind the Gap Sady Marcus' Story (short subject) Janet Silverman The Producers Mrs. Trevors The Night Listener Pant-Suited Woman (as Marcia Halfrecht) The Ungodly Klara Anamorph Diner Waitress Two Star State of Mind (video) Nancy Willoughby The Ride (short subject) Nancy Win Win Gina Flaherty Subterranean Love (short subject) Accordion Lady All Is Bright Bartender #1 Diane Carol Rymanowski