Her Story
About Marcia
Marcia Seligson is a Los Angeles-based book author and theater producer. She is finishing her tenth book, a memoir called Life Upon the Wicked Page, and seeking an agent or publisher for it. In theater, she is producing two shows. One is the new musical Greenwich Village in the 60s, which had a one-night performance at an LGBT theater in Los Angeles. The other is a revival of a comedy-drama play she originally produced in Los Angeles 21 years ago with David Hyde Pierce at the Geffen Theater, later in New York with Polly Bergot and Mark Hamill, and in London with Claire Bloom. The play has since been performed worldwide in many languages. Seligson is one of the founders of the nonprofit Foundation for New American Musicals, which supports young people creating new musicals through showcases and coaching. She attributes her drive to the influence of her aunt, Fritzie, a pioneering career woman who was the first female commissioner on the FCC and the first Jewish woman to graduate law school in New York City. Seligson states she will never retire and is always seeking new projects.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Marcia
01What do you attribute your success to?
My Aunt Fritzie was the most important person in my growing life. She was my mother's sister and a major career woman, the first female commissioner on the FCC and the first Jewish woman to graduate law school in New York City. She was phenomenally successful and an enormous influence because she was a successful, glamorous, famous career woman in the newspapers all the time. That is what I wanted to be. She used to say you have to have a career and she was the first feminist I ever knew. What pushes me now is that I will never retire. I don't even understand retirement. My husband feels the same way. If I don't work for a week I feel it, like am I useless now. So I'm always looking for new projects.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would really explore. There's so many millions of things to do out there, and so many great jobs, and great paths, and great professions, and I wouldn't leap into something because you want a job. I would really take the time to just explore what's possible, what fields are possible, what areas are possible, and then within those fields or areas, who might you want to work with? What company might you want to be with, or what agency, or what group of other people?
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