Mary Tarcai

Mary Tarcai began as an actress at the Neighborhood Playhouse in NYC and later taught there. Her back-round was in the Stanislavski method and in New York at the beginning of her career she worked with Boleslavsky and Ouspenskya. After leaving the Neighborhood Playhouse she went to Atlantic City, where she started her own theater and produced her own shows. She then went to Hollywood and worked with the Actors Lab for seven years and also as an assistant to many film directors. Returning to New York in 1955 she began teaching acting. She was one of the first to teach classes centering on cold readings. Her students over the years included Shirley McLaine, Florence Henderson, Charlotte Rae, Edmond O'Brien, Valerie Harper,Raymond Burr, Julie Newmar,Ralph Waite, Lilia Skala, Ann B. Davis and many others.