Cara Duff-MacCormick
Encyclopedia
Cara Duff-MacCormick is a Canadian actress best known for her work within the American theatre.
, Duff-MacCormick studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts
in New York City
before making her professional debut Off-Broadway
in December 1969 at the Cherry Lane Theatre
as Faith Detweiler in Harold J. Chapler's Love Your Crooked Neighbor. She made her Broadway
debut as Shelly in Michael Weller
's Moonchildren
in 1972, a role she had performed the year before at the Arena Stage
in 1971. For her performance she won a Theatre World Award
and garnered a Tony Award
nomination. The following year she returned to Broadway to portray Clare in Tennessee Williams
's play Out Cry
at the Lyceum Theatre and she portrayed the role of Nina in Anton Chekhov
's The Seagull
at the McCarter Theatre
in Princeton, New Jersey
. In 1975 she won an Obie Award
for her performance in Craig's Wife.
In 1976 Duff-MacCormick was nominated for a Drama Desk Award
for her portrayal of Julia Craven in George Bernard Shaw
's The Philanderer
with the Roundabout Theatre Company
. That same year she portrayed the role of Helen in Kevin O'Morrison
's Ladyhouse Blues at the Marymount Manhattan Theatre and portrayed the role of Tammy Ulrich in the film All the President's Men
. In 1977 she starred in Albert Innaurato
's Earthworms at the Playwrights Horizons
theatre alongside Jonathan Frakes
and David Keith
. In 1978 she portrayed the role of Hakon's wife in Henrik Ibsen
's The Pretenders
alongside Randall Duk Kim
and Stephen Lang
at the Guthrie Theater
in Minneapolis. That same year she portrayed the role of Agafya Tikhonovna in Nikolai Gogol
's Marriage with Peter Michael Goetz
as Ivan Kuzmich Podkolyossin and Barbara Bryne
as Fyokla Ivanovna, also at the Guthrie Theatre. Duff-MacCormick also appeared frequently at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis
during the 1970s, including portraying the roles of Mrs. Sullen in George Farquhar
's The Beaux' Stratagem
(1976), Bananas in John Guare
's The House of Blue Leaves
(1977), Judith Anderson in George Bernard Shaw
's The Devil's Disciple
(1977) and Sister Rita in The Runner Stumbles
(1978).
In 1980 Duff-MacCormick portrayed the role of Monique in Michel Tremblay
's Bonjour, La, Bonjour at the Marymount Manhattan Theatre alongside Veronica Castang
and Dianne Wiest
. The following year she returned to Broadway to appear in Eddie Lawrence
's Animals at the Princess Theatre
. In 1982 she portrayed the role of Peggy Grant in The Front Page
and in 1983 she portrayed the role of Carrie in Paul Kember's Not Quite Jerusalem, both at the Long Wharf Theater. In 1985 she appeared Off-Broadway at the American Theater Exchange as Claire in Heather McDonald
's Faulkner's Bicycle and she appeared at the Actors Theatre of Louisville
in the role of Carolyn Rose in Lee Blessing
's War of the Roses opposite Paul Collins
. This was followed by a portrayal of Barbara Mears in Tom Strelich's Neon Psalms at the American Place Theatre in 1986. In 1987 she appeared at the Hartford Stage
as Barbara in A. R. Gurney
's Children
. She returned to the Playwrights Horizons in 1989 to perform the role of Natalie Bauer Lechner in Albert Innaurato's Gus and Al.
In 1992 she portrayed the role of Queen Isabella in Christopher Marlowe
's Edward II
at the Yale Repertory Theatre
. That same year she appeared in a guest-starring role on Law & Order
in the episode "Point of View".
Career
Born in Woodstock, OntarioWoodstock, Ontario
Woodstock is a city and the county seat of Oxford County in Southern Ontario, Canada. Woodstock is located 128 km southwest of Toronto, north of Highway 401 along the historic Thames River...
, Duff-MacCormick studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts
American Academy of Dramatic Arts
The American Academy of Dramatic Arts is a fully accredited two-year conservatory with facilities located in Manhattan, New York City – at 120 Madison Avenue, in a landmark building designed by noted architect Stanford White as the original Colony Club – and in Hollywood, California...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
before making her professional debut Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
in December 1969 at the Cherry Lane Theatre
Cherry Lane Theatre
The Cherry Lane Theatre , located at 38 Commerce Street in the borough of Manhattan, was New York City's oldest, continuously running off-Broadway theater...
as Faith Detweiler in Harold J. Chapler's Love Your Crooked Neighbor. She made her Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
debut as Shelly in Michael Weller
Michael Weller
Michael Weller is a Brooklyn-based playwright who is best known for his plays Moonchildren and Loose Ends. Weller is one of the founders of the Cherry Lane Theatre's acclaimed Mentor Project, which pairs pre-eminent playwrights with emerging playwrights for a season-long mentorship...
's Moonchildren
Moonchildren
Moonchildren is a play by Brooklyn-based playwright Michael Weller. The play chronicles a year in the life of the "moonchildren" referred to in the title: eight college students living communally together in an off-campus attic in the mid 1960s.-Performances:The work was first performed in 1971...
in 1972, a role she had performed the year before at the Arena Stage
Arena Stage
Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest Washington, D.C. Its declared mission"is to produce huge plays of all that is passionate, exuberant, profound, deep and dangerous in the American spirit. Arena has broad shoulders and a capacity to produce anything from vast epics...
in 1971. For her performance she won a Theatre World Award
Theatre World Award
The Theatre World Award, first awarded for the 1945-46 season, is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or off-Broadway.-History:...
and garnered a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
nomination. The following year she returned to Broadway to portray Clare in Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
's play Out Cry
Out Cry
Out Cry is a play by Tennessee Williams which was one version of The Two-Character Play by Williams. Out Cry premiered at the Ivanhoe Theatre in Chicago on July 8, 1971. It debuted on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre with a preview on February 28, 1973 and then ran from March 1-10...
at the Lyceum Theatre and she portrayed the role of Nina in Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
's The Seagull
The Seagull
The Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be the four major plays by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896...
at the McCarter Theatre
McCarter Theatre
McCarter Theatre is a not-for-profit, professional company on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. It is one of the most active cultural centers in the nation, offering over 200 performances of theater, dance, music and special events each year...
in Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
. In 1975 she won an Obie Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
for her performance in Craig's Wife.
In 1976 Duff-MacCormick was nominated for a Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
for her portrayal of Julia Craven in George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
's The Philanderer
The Philanderer
The Philanderer is a play by George Bernard Shaw.It was written in 1893 but the strict British Censorship laws at the time meant that it was not produced on stage until 1902....
with the Roundabout Theatre Company
Roundabout Theatre Company
The Roundabout Theatre Company is a leading non-profit theatre company based in New York City.-History:The company was founded in 1965 by Gene Feist and Elizabeth Owens and now operates five theatres, all in Manhattan: the American Airlines Theatre ; Studio 54 ; the Stephen Sondheim Theatre The...
. That same year she portrayed the role of Helen in Kevin O'Morrison
Kevin O'Morrison
Kevin O'Morrison is an American playwright and actor. He started his career working as an actor in theatre, radio, television, and film in the 1940s. He began writing plays in the 1960s, most of which have been performed Off-Broadway and in theatres throughout the United States, and two of which...
's Ladyhouse Blues at the Marymount Manhattan Theatre and portrayed the role of Tammy Ulrich in the film All the President's Men
All the President's Men (film)
All the President's Men is a 1976 Academy Award-winning political thriller film based on the 1974 non-fiction book of the same name by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two journalists investigating the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post...
. In 1977 she starred in Albert Innaurato
Albert Innaurato
Albert Innaurato is an American playwright, theatre director, and writer.Innaurato was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1947. After graduating from California Institute of the Arts, Innaurato attended the Yale School of Drama...
's Earthworms at the Playwrights Horizons
Playwrights Horizons
Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work....
theatre alongside Jonathan Frakes
Jonathan Frakes
Jonathan Scott Frakes is an American actor, author and director best known for his role as Commander William T. Riker in the Star Trek franchise, as well as for his tenure as host of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction ....
and David Keith
David Keith
David Lemuel Keith is an American actor and director. He received Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor and New Star of the Year – Actor for his performance in An Officer and a Gentleman.-Career:...
. In 1978 she portrayed the role of Hakon's wife in Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
's The Pretenders
The Pretenders (play)
The Pretenders is a dramatic play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.-Play overview:The Pretenders was written in bursts during 1863, but Ibsen claims to have had sources and the idea back in 1858. A five-act play in prose set in the thirteenth-century. The play opened at the old Christiania...
alongside Randall Duk Kim
Randall Duk Kim
Randall Duk Kim is a Korean-American stage, television and film actor. Kim was also the artistic director and mainstay lead actor at the American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin, which he founded with Anne Occhiogrosso and Charles Bright...
and Stephen Lang
Stephen Lang (actor)
Stephen Lang is an American actor and playwright. He started in theatre on Broadway but is well known for his film portrayals of Stonewall Jackson in Gods and Generals and George Pickett in Gettysburg , as well as for his 2009 roles as Colonel Miles Quaritch in Avatar and as Texan lawman Charles...
at the Guthrie Theater
Guthrie Theater
The Guthrie Theater is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the result of the desire of Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Oliver Rea, and Peter Zeisler to create a resident acting company that would produce and perform the classics in...
in Minneapolis. That same year she portrayed the role of Agafya Tikhonovna in Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
's Marriage with Peter Michael Goetz
Peter Michael Goetz
Peter Michael Goetz is an American actor.Goetz was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Esther L. and Irving A. Goetz, a construction engineer. Goetz studied at the State University of New York at Fredonia, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and the University of Minnesota, from which he...
as Ivan Kuzmich Podkolyossin and Barbara Bryne
Barbara Bryne
Barbara Bryne is a British-born American-based stage, film and television actress. Onstage she has appeared in comedy, dramatic and musical productions...
as Fyokla Ivanovna, also at the Guthrie Theatre. Duff-MacCormick also appeared frequently at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis
The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis
The St. Louis Repertory Theater is a repertory theater, based in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. It is often referred to locally simply as "The Rep".The Rep is an award-winning venue, and is well regarded in the St...
during the 1970s, including portraying the roles of Mrs. Sullen in George Farquhar
George Farquhar
George Farquhar was an Irish dramatist. He is noted for his contributions to late Restoration comedy, particularly for his plays The Recruiting Officer and The Beaux' Stratagem .-Early life:...
's The Beaux' Stratagem
The Beaux' Stratagem
The Beaux' Stratagem is a comedy by George Farquhar, first produced at the Haymarket Theatre, London, in March 1707. In the play, Archer and Aimwell, two young gentlemen who have fallen on hard times, plan to travel through small towns, entrap young heiresses, steal their money and move on. In the...
(1976), Bananas in John Guare
John Guare
John Guare is an American playwright. He is best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, and Landscape of the Body...
's The House of Blue Leaves
The House of Blue Leaves
The House of Blue Leaves is a play by American playwright John Guare, first staged in 1966 by Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut....
(1977), Judith Anderson in George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
's The Devil's Disciple
The Devil's Disciple
The Devil's Disciple is an 1897 play written by Irish dramatist, George Bernard Shaw. The play is Shaw's eighth, and after Richard Mansfield's original 1897 American production it was his first financial success, which helped to affirm his career as a playwright...
(1977) and Sister Rita in The Runner Stumbles
The Runner Stumbles
The Runner Stumbles is a 1979 film directed and produced by Stanley Kramer, based on the Broadway play by Milan Stitt. The film stars Dick Van Dyke, Kathleen Quinlan, Maureen Stapleton, Tammy Grimes, Beau Bridges and Ray Bolger.-Plot:...
(1978).
In 1980 Duff-MacCormick portrayed the role of Monique in Michel Tremblay
Michel Tremblay
Michel Tremblay, CQ is a Canadian novelist and playwright.Tremblay grew up in the Plateau Mont-Royal, a French-speaking neighbourhood of Montreal, at the time of his birth a neighbourhood with a working-class character and joual dialect, something that would heavily influence his work...
's Bonjour, La, Bonjour at the Marymount Manhattan Theatre alongside Veronica Castang
Veronica Castang
Veronica Castang was a British film, stage and television actress.A native of London, she studied at the Sorbonne and at the Questors Theatre in London. In the United States, she appeared onstage on Broadway and Off Broadway...
and Dianne Wiest
Dianne Wiest
Dianne Wiest is an American actress. She has had a successful career on stage, television, and film, and has won two Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. Wiest has also been nominated for a BAFTA Award.-Early life:...
. The following year she returned to Broadway to appear in Eddie Lawrence
Eddie Lawrence
Eddie Lawrence is an American monologist, actor, singer, lyricist, playwright, director and television personality, whose unique comic creation, the eternally and bizarrely optimistic Old Philosopher, has gained him a devoted, although specialized, cult following for over five decades.-Early...
's Animals at the Princess Theatre
Princess Theatre
The Princess Theatre was a joint venture between the Shubert Brothers , producer Ray Comstock, theatrical agent Elisabeth Marbury and actor-director Holbrook Blinn...
. In 1982 she portrayed the role of Peggy Grant in The Front Page
The Front Page
The Front Page is a hit Broadway comedy about tabloid newspaper reporters on the police beat, written by one-time Chicago reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur which was first produced in 1928.-Synopsis:...
and in 1983 she portrayed the role of Carrie in Paul Kember's Not Quite Jerusalem, both at the Long Wharf Theater. In 1985 she appeared Off-Broadway at the American Theater Exchange as Claire in Heather McDonald
Heather McDonald
Heather McDonald is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She is best known for her appearances on the E! series Chelsea Lately. She is one of the eight writers on the show and often participates in sketches and segments...
's Faulkner's Bicycle and she appeared at the Actors Theatre of Louisville
Actors Theatre of Louisville
Actors Theatre of Louisville is a performing arts theater located in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. It was founded in 1964 by Louisville native Ewel Cornett, local producer Richard Block and actor Ken Jenkins of Scrubs fame, and was designated the "State Theater of Kentucky" in 1974. It is run as a...
in the role of Carolyn Rose in Lee Blessing
Lee Blessing
-Biography:Blessing's best-known play is A Walk in the Woods, which depicts the developing relationship between two arms limitation negotiators, one Russian and one American, over years of negotiation...
's War of the Roses opposite Paul Collins
Paul Collins (actor)
-Filmography:Film*Evan Almighty as Congressman Stamp*Peter Pan as John Darling*Midnight Lace as Kevin*Without A Trace as Reporter*Funny About Love as Bill Hatcher*Guilty by Suspicion as Bernard*For Richer, For Poorer as Stuart...
. This was followed by a portrayal of Barbara Mears in Tom Strelich's Neon Psalms at the American Place Theatre in 1986. In 1987 she appeared at the Hartford Stage
Hartford Stage
Hartford Stage, located in Hartford, Connecticut, is one of the leading resident theatres in the United States, known internationally for entertaining and enlightening audiences with a wide range of the best of world drama, from classics to provocative new plays and musicals and neglected works...
as Barbara in A. R. Gurney
A. R. Gurney
A. R. Gurney is an American playwright and novelist. He is known for works including Love Letters, The Cocktail Hour, and The Dining Room. Gurney currently lives in both New York and Connecticut....
's Children
Children (play)
Children is an early play by American playwright A. R. Gurney. It was first produced in London in 1974 and was inspired by John Cheever's short story "Goodbye My Brother" A 2009 production starring Judith Light gave the play a new ending, and received positive reviews.-Plot:Randy and Barbara,...
. She returned to the Playwrights Horizons in 1989 to perform the role of Natalie Bauer Lechner in Albert Innaurato's Gus and Al.
In 1992 she portrayed the role of Queen Isabella in Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...
's Edward II
Edward II (play)
Edward II is a Renaissance or Early Modern period play written by Christopher Marlowe. It is one of the earliest English history plays. The full title of the first publication is The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England, with the Tragical Fall of Proud...
at the Yale Repertory Theatre
Yale Repertory Theatre
The Yale Repertory Theatre at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut was founded by Robert Brustein, dean of the Yale School of Drama in 1966, with the goal of facilitating a meaningful collaboration between theatre professionals and talented students. In the process it has become one of the...
. That same year she appeared in a guest-starring role on Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
in the episode "Point of View".