No Sweaty Uniforms Here! Lombardi’s Judith Light Shows Off Her Tranquil Dressing Room

As wife to the always busy and heavily stressed Packers coach Vince Lombardi, Marie Lombardi (played by Judith Light) works to keep the Lombardis’ off-field home a welcoming environment for Vince and their extended football family. Marie’s homey warmth has found its way into Light’s own backstage space at the Circle in the Square Theatre. The Lombardi star invited Broadway.com backstage to her serene dressing room where the actress keeps inspirational motivators and reminders of close friends. Take a look!


"This letter is a quote from Ethel Barrymore. A friend of mine who has since passed on gave it to me as a Christmas present, and I promised her I would keep it in any dressing room I ever have. The quote is, 'For an actress to be a success she must have the face of Venus, the brains of Minerva, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of Macaulay, the figure of Juno and the hide of a rhinoceros.'"


"These are the original Reiki ideas framed. Reiki is a hands-on healing system. You can only be given these symbols by another Reiki practitioner, and it says something I remind myself every day. 'Just for today do not anger, just for today do not worry and be filled with gratitude, devote yourself to your work, be kind to people.'"


"This Eleanor Duse quote comes from the book The Mystic in the Theatre. It talks about the way she processed working on her characters. She talks about sitting in front of an open window listening for the voice of the character, not just the vocal voice, but also who this character is. She felt very strongly that she was a channel for the character she was playing and that’s been a real template for me."


"This picture is of my husband Robert, our managers Herb Hamsher and Jonathan Stoller and me with my bald head. It was taken in Los Angeles right after my head had been shaved to come do the play Wit in New York. I hadn’t been onstage in 22 years and I was terrified to come back. One of the things that propelled me to do so was I’d been doing a lot of work for civil rights and saying how courageous the LGBT community had been, and I realized I wasn’t being courageous or taking a stand for myself or my work or anything. [When I auditioned] I still thought they’re never going to give me [the part]…Cut to me with my shaved head and being naked [onstage]!"


"David Maraniss’ book When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi was really my bible for this show. He’s a great writer and great man. David and [playwright] Eric Simonson, who took the book and broke it all down, have been with us for the entire time we rehearsed the show from our [out-of-town tryout at The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington Massachusetts] and before we came back to New York."

Photo by Jenny Anderson for Broadway.com