When Marcia returned to New York City, following the "Shakespeare in the Park"
summer of '63 in D.C., she sent Joe Carvajal (who played the role of Friar Francis
in Much Ado About Nothing) some of her publicity stills, with a note, "If you know of
ANYTHING I might be able to do in Washington, please let me know." The photo
below was scanned from one of those publicity stills.
She was out of work and worried. Within a year, however, Marcia had been cast in the
role of the pot-smoking hippie in Last of the Red Hot Lovers, playing opposite James
Coco when that now-classic Neil Simon comedy was running on Broadway. Later, she
"created" (was the first to play it) a role in the Broadway production of another comedy,
Daughters. Her name appears (and will always appear) in the published scripts used by
theater groups doing that show.
It must be a nice feeling for Marcia to know that, even many decades from now, and
for as long as that show is being staged somewhere, her name will still be in those
scripts (a kind of "immortality.") She need not have been so concerned, back in that
late summer of '63, about her future prospects. She did very well.
Marcia can still be seen occasionally, as a featured player on TV sitcoms and on such
shows as Murder She Wrote, which will, apparently, last forever as re-runs. It's all
well-deserved by a very nice person -- Marcia Rodd.
