# Marcia Haufrecht

Marcia Haufrecht is an American actress, playwright and director, as well as a noted acting teacher and coach. A life member of The 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. A Manahattan native, born and bred, Haufrecht attended Performing Arts High School, graduating in 1954 as a dancer.

## 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. The show's producers changed Haufrecht's professional name to Howard, and so she remained for at least six years.
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.
Before she was 20, Haufrecht turned her attention to acting, as she told The Montreal Gazette in 1969, "because I hated being part of the background. I felt so superfluous. And I felt I had something to say... It was my ego." 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."

### Acting

Within a year or so, Haufrecht was working with Nola Chilton, a New York-based acting teacher and director. 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 (her final appearance as Marcia Howard), 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, The Public Theater, with The Ensemble Studio Theatre, Center Stage in Baltimore, at the Adelphi Festival Theatre in Garden City, 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, in San Francisco, and, in Southern California, by Company of Angels and CSU Fullerton. Abroad, her plays have been staged in New Zealand, Australia at La Mama in Melbourne, and at the Kultur im Gugg in Austria.

### Directing

As a director, Haufrecht has staged both original works and revivals at The Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Actors Studio, The Barrow Street Theatre, The Common Basis Theatre, and in Australia, Portugal, and Austria .

### Teaching

A student of Lee Strasberg from the early 1960s until his death, Haufrecht taught at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute for five years; later, she worked for two years as an adjunct professor in Columbia University's graduate film program. Haufrecht has taught and coached privately for over thirty years; her students include Ellen Barkin, Alec Baldwin, Uma Thurman, Janine Turner, John Leguizamo, Debi Mazar, Loren Dean, David Duchovny, Ian Buchanan, and Harvey Keitel. She taught for several years in Australia, and in Austria; more recently, she has taught, and continues to teach, in Lisbon, Portugal, since the mid-1990s. 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, staying there until her retirement in 2011).

## 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 |
| 1954-09-08 | The Flies | Euripides | Cherry Lane Theatre | Denis Vaughan | Third Fury |
| 1955-01-27 | Plain and Fancy | Music - Albert Hague / Lyrics - Arnold Horwitt / Book - Joseph Stein, Will Glickman | The Mark Hellinger Theatre | Morton DaCosta | Dancer (as Marcia Howard) |
| 1955-06-25 | Can-Can | Music & lyrics - Cole Porter / book - Abe Burrows | National Tour | Abe Burrows | Dancer (as Marcia Howard) |
| 1960-10-25 | Dead End | Sidney Kingsley | Orphans Unlimited / 41st Street Theatre (on Broadway south of Times Square) | Nola Chilton | Francie (as Marcia Howard) |
| 1960-12-29 | White Cargo | Leon Gordon | Players Theatre (in Greenwich Village) | Sam Rosen | Tondeleyo (as Marcia Howard) |
| 1964-06-22 | The Three Sisters | Anton Chekhov | The Actors Studio Theatre / Morosco Theatre | Lee Strasberg | Carnival person |
| 1965-01-06 | Galileo | Bertolt Brecht | Theatre of the Living Arts (in Philadelphia) | Andre Gregory | Street singer |
| 1968-01-25 | Tom Paine | Paul Foster | La MaMa | Tom O'Horgan | Principal |
| 1968-04-11 | Having Fun In the Bathroom | Leonard Melfi | La MAMa | Edward Setrakian | Felicia |
| 1969-06-15 | Our Bed is Green | Aviva Ravel | Place des Arts | Howard Ryshpan | Rivka |
| 1972-10-__ | Once Again and Yet Again / Night / Eve | Marcia Haufrecht | Performing Arts of Woodstock | NA | Written by |
| 1973-02-__ | Richard III | William Shakespeare | Theater Company of Boston | NA | Queen Elizabeth (Standby for Linda Selman) |
| 1973-08-__ | The Independence of Striva Kowardsky | Marcia Haufrecht | Performing Arts of Woodstock | NA | Written by |
| 1974-10-30 | Mert and Phil | Anne Burr | New York Shakespeare Festival / Vivian Beaumont Theater | Joseph Papp | Mert, Lucille (standby for Estelle Parsons and Rhoda Gemignani) |
| 1977-11-17 | Eulogy for a Small Time Thief | Miguel Piñero | Ensemble Studio Theatre | Jack Gelber | Tina |
| 1978-02-14 | Curse of the Starving Class | Sam Shepard | New York Shakespeare Festival / Public Theater | Robert Woodruff | Ella (understudy for Olympia Dukakis) |
| 1979-04-03 | I Don't Know Where You're Coming From At All | Shirley Lauro | Ensemble Studio Theatre | NA | Miss Sarah Berlin |
| 1979-05-02 | Welfare | Marcia Haufrecht | Ensemble Studio Theatre | Anthony McKay | Written by |
| 1981 | The Hunchback of Notre Dame | NA | New York Shakespeare Festival / Public Theater | NA | Mme. Muniere |
| 1981-04-21 | On Bliss Street in Sunnyside | Marcia Haufrecht | The Actors Studio | NA | Alegra Katz (also Written by) |
| 1981-10-28 | Accumulated Baggage | Marcia Haufrecht | American Theatre of Actors (ATA in New York City) | Sharon Chatten | NA (also Written by) |
| 1982-07-08 | The House of Blue Leaves | John Guare | Adelphi Festival Theater (in Garden City) | | Bunny |
| 1982-1983 | On Bliss Street in Sunnyside | Marcia Haufrecht | Siesta Keys Actors Theatre (in Sarasota) | NA | Written by |
| 1984-03-09 | Bliss Street | Marcia Haufrecht | The Open Stage (in Sarasota) | William Shroder | Alegra Katz (also Written by) |
| 1988-09-27 | Full Moon & High Tide in the Ladies Room | Marcia Haufrecht | Company of Angels / West End Stage (in Los Angeles) | Carol Ries | Written by |
| 1989-05-__ | Welfare | Marcia Haufrecht | Minority Actors Guild / South Dallas Cultural Center | NA | Written by |
| 1989-11-__ | An Exchange | Marcia Haufrecht | La Mama (Melbourne) / La Mama Theatre | Marcia Haufrecht | Written by & Directed by |
| 1993-09-16 | 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 |
| 1994-03-__ | Promethea Bound and Sisyphus Too | Marcia Haufrecht | La Mama (Melbourne) / Napier Street Theatre (in New Zealand) | Marcia Haufrecht | Written by & Directed by |
| 1996-03-14 | The House of Nancy Dunn | Music - Steve Weisberg / Andy Craft / Howard Pflanzer | La MaMa | John James Hickey | Gloria Doria |
| 2000-10-26 | Full Moon & High Tide in the Ladies Room | Marcia Haufrecht | Common Basis Theatre | Marcia Haufrecht | Written by & Directed by |
| 2001-03-15 | Pinecrest Rest Haven | Grace Cavalieri | Common Basis Theatre | Amy Coleman | Mrs. P |
| 2001-04-12 | Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis? | Tennessee Williams | Common Basis Theatre | Dan Isaac | Louise McBride |
| 2009-01-20 | The Daughters of Eve | Mark Borkowski | Barrow Street Theatre | Marcia Haufrecht | Directed by |
| 2009-12-__ | The Daughters of Eve | Mark Borkowski | Cherry Lane Studio Theatre | Marcia Haufrecht | Directed by |

### Television

| Air Date | Title | Role |
| 1989-12-03 | No Place Like Home (TV movie) | Hilda |
| 1998-10-07 | Law & Order - "DWB" | Linda Coffey |
| 1999-01-17 | The Sopranos - "46 Long" | Fanny |
| 2000-11-29 | Law & Order - "Amends" | Brenda Jenks |
| 2001-03-04 | The Sopranos - "Proshai, Livushka" | Fanny |
| 2001-04-27 | Law & Order: SVU - "Parasites" | Mrs. Varella |
| 2003-04-27 | Law & Order: Criminal Intent - "Cherry Red" | Erin Finoff |
| 2009-11-06 | Law & Order - "Doped" | Eileen (as Marica Haufrecht) |

### Film

| Release Date | Title | Role |
| 1966 | The Three Sisters | Neighbor |
| 1975-09-21 | Dog Day Afternoon | Neighbor |
| 1979 | Night-Flowers | Woman at Wrestling Match |
| 1989-10-23 | Mortal Sins | Elevator Passenger |
| 1996-01 | The Daytrippers | Molly |
| 2000 | New York Socialite (short subject) | Guru |
| 2003 | Three Long Years | Jude's Mother |
| 2004-03-14 | Mind the Gap | Sady |
| 2004-06-03 | Marcus' Story (short subject) | Janet Silverman |
| 2005-12-16 | The Producers | Mrs. Trevors |
| 2006-01-21 | The Night Listener | Pant-Suited Woman (as Marcia Halfrecht) |
| 2007-04-20 | The Ungodly | Klara |
| 2007-09-21 | Anamorph | Diner Waitress |
| 2009 | Two Star State of Mind (video) | Nancy Willoughby |
| 2009 | The Ride (short subject) | Nancy |
| 2011-01-21 | Win Win | Gina Flaherty |
| 2012 | Subterranean Love (short subject) | Accordion Lady |
| 2013-09-10 | All Is Bright | Bartender #1 |
| 2018 | Diane | Carol Rymanowski |