An ‘A’ for Her Acting : Seldes Won’t Part From Work, Even for Hall of Fame

Many thespians call themselves working actors, but few have earned the title as Marian Seldes has. A veteran of five decades of Broadway and off-Broadway plays, she’s a legendary trouper: Seldes once even made the Guinness Book of World Records for playing more than 1,000 consecutive performances of “Deathtrap,” between 1978 and 1982.

But given how consistently this inveterate pro has trod the boards, she has only rarely had a leading role and the spotlight that goes with it.

Currently, however, the 67-year-old actress can be seen at the Mark Taper Forum, portraying the central figure of a 92-year-old woman in Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Three Tall Women.”

It is, says Seldes, the role of a lifetime. “My life changes because of this part,” she admits during an mid-afternoon conversation in a mezzanine nook of the downtown hotel where she and her husband of five years, writer-director Garson Kanin, are staying. “I have the greatest responsibility that I’ve ever had, and that I’ve craved always.

“I haven’t been unhappy, but I’ve been, in a sense, slightly dissatisfied,” the actress continues, her dulcet voice, dancerly grace and regal bearing giving the lie to the harsh and brittle persona she wields onstage in the Albee play. “I’m more than satisfied now. I’m terrified with my happiness and terrified that I will not meet the challenge the way I want to.”

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And as if such terror weren’t enough, the actress is also set to be inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in ceremonies to be held in New York today. She won’t be there, of course, because she’s (what else?) working.

Born and raised in New York, Seldes studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse. She made her debut at 17 in a Robinson Jeffers production of “Medea” starring Judith Anderson.

The man who gave her that first job, producer-director Robert Whitehead, is set to make the presentation at today’s ceremony.

The honor will acknowledge a career that has included many Broadway outings, including Albee’s “Tiny Alice” and “A Delicate Balance,” for which Seldes won a Tony award.

She says, however, that she has had few experiences as rewarding as “Three Tall Women.”

Seldes created another of the three women--the 52-year-old B--in both off-Broadway productions of “Three Tall Women,” at the Vineyard and Promenade theaters. Then, last summer, she moved into the role of A.

“It’s as great a woman’s part as I know of--in its scope, its range [and] in the fact that it isn’t necessarily empathetic,” says Seldes. “[A] represents many things we don’t want to face, either in ourselves or in people we know.”

Switching roles within the same work--which Seldes has done with several plays throughout her career--enabled the actress to find out more about her character’s place within the play.

“I’m always considering the other parts in a play,” she says. “I look at a play partly as an audience, partly as a director and of course as an actress. You have to see the whole thing.”

So, too, does Seldes’ current vantage point allow her to reflect upon a life in the footlights. “When you decide to be an actress, what you imagine is playing the great parts,” she says. “And the theater that I imagined was a theater full of endless productions of great plays.”

That, of course, was a youthful fantasy. “We’re talking about a 6-year-old, but I thought that’s what it’ll be and that’s what I’m going to do,” says Seldes. “Well, you live a life, and things change.

“Television comes into the world,” she continues. “Movies are more and more accessible. Plays become more and more expensive to mount. You have to see that your dream of the theater as a 6-year-old did not include the word ‘business.’

“But I still don’t really allow that to influence me,” says the actress. “Otherwise, I don’t think I could have stayed so consistently with the theater--without regret, because I’ve adored it.”

* “Three Tall Women,” Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., Tue.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7:30 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., 2:30 p.m. Ends Feb. 24. $28-$35.50. (213) 365-3500, (714) 740-2000.