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Marcia Haufrecht

Marcia Haufrecht
Born Marcia Haufreucht
(1937-01-03) January 3, 1937 (age 80)
New York, New York, U.S.
Other names Marcia Howard (stage name from 1955 through 1963)
Occupation Actor, acting teacher, playwright, director
Years active 1954–present

Marcia Haufrecht (born January 3, 1937 as Marcia Haufreucht) 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).

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, Ms. Haufrecht attended Performing Arts High School, graduating in 1954 as a dancer.

High school diploma notwithstanding, Broadway was scarcely clamoring for "a barefoot, modern dancer" (Haufrecht's own words), much less for one of Ms. Haufrecht's diminutive stature and limited experience. That being said, 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. Moreover, undersized or not, Haufrecht nonetheless secured both her Broadway and her professional dancing debuts just two months later, becoming one of the final group of dancers engaged for the new musical, Plain and Fancy. For this, she had the show's choreographer, Helen Tamiris, to thank; a former colleague of Haufrecht's father, Tamiris fought hard for her inclusion in the show.

While deferring to their choreographer on this particular casting decision, the show's producers stood firm on the matter of billing. If they could not lengthen the dancer, nor her résumé, then they could and would shorten and Americanize her name; by the time of the show's opening in January 1955, Haufrecht had, for public consumption, become Howard, and so she would remain for at least six years.

In the summer of 1955, Haufrecht's Broadway debut was followed by a national tour with Can-Can, owing in large part – as she would confide in a 2012 interview – to the casting call's fortuitous timing:


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