Sean Haberle allows himself one annual break from film and TV work. He's taken theater projects at Cincinnati Playhouse; Actors Theatre of Louisville, Ky.; American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., and Baltimore's Center Stage. Twice, Haberle has acted at the Guthrie Theater, the place he calls "the church of acting."

This fall, the New York actor chose Torch Theater in Minneapolis to do "Macbeth," which opens Saturday at the Minneapolis Theatre Garage.

"The size of the theater doesn't matter," Haberle said. "I like the way Stacia runs her theater, and I believe in what she's doing with it."

Stacia is Stacia Rice, Torch's artistic director and Haberle's co-star in the Guthrie's production last season of "Jane Eyre." In fact, it was almost exactly a year ago that the possibility of Haberle doing "Macbeth" popped up. Soaking in the bonhomie of the 2007 Ivey Awards and party, Haberle remarked how fond he had become of the Twin Cities theater community. Rice mentioned that she had a little theater company and that if Haberle really liked this place that much, he was always welcome. She filed the conversation into memory and the two went back to "Jane Eyre."

Rice, who plays Lady Macbeth, extended the offer for the title role after "Jane Eyre" closed at the end of March. Her selling points were the chance to work together again and the chance to play one of theater's singular roles.

"You know you're not gonna get paid, but do you want to come?" is how she recalled her sales pitch.

"I'm getting paid," Haberle insisted as Rice recited the story. "I ran it by my agents and they were very happy I was doing it."

Loves the Guthrie

Haberle lives in Montclair, N.J. He and his wife, also an actor, moved out of New York to raise their three children -- 10, 5 and almost 2. Unless Broadway calls, he doesn't bother with much New York theater. With off-Broadway salaries averaging $500 a week for actors, he can't feed the family. So he does independent film work and TV -- including that staple of New York actors, "Law & Order," in its many iterations.

"If there's a specific project I'm interested in, I run it past my wife," he said.

An MFA from Yale, he studied Tyrone Guthrie and feels it is "the most important place for me to work." He appeared in "Hedda Gabler" in 2000 and then returned last year to play Rochester in "Jane Eyre."

"It was my favorite production I've ever done," he said, insisting he wasn't just saying that because he was in Minneapolis. "I'm not sure it was my best work, but it was my favorite experience. It was magical."

When he was asked for "five things you like about working with Stacia Rice," Haberle got up to speed slowly.

"She's a really good actor," he said, starting with the obvious choice.

"She's not nuts. Most actors are pretty nuts and difficult to work with." OK, now we're getting somewhere.

"She's not driven by ego to do ridiculous, stupid things." Sort of repeat of point 2, but we'll count it.

"And she's a good team player. During 'Jane Eyre,' she'd be roaming the halls, talking with people. She got me out of my hole."

Whatever, it was enough to get him back to Minneapolis for "Macbeth."

He played the role of Macduff years ago in Baltimore, but it's his first shot at the ambitious Thane.

"Macbeth is a freight train going down a hill," he said. "He's warped and changed by events around him and particularly by his wife. I like that his major speech says that life is meaningless."

Beyond that, he said, he's trying not to overthink the part. He wants to make the story clear and let the audience come to its own conclusions.

Haberle didn't attend this year's Iveys, he said, but it wasn't that his love for the theater community has faded. He was working on lines and it was apparently time well spent.

"I locked it down last night, right at this table," he said outside a coffee shop near where he's staying.

Once he returns to New Jersey, Haberle will have to find some paying work again. His wife is doing two off-Broadway shows this season.

"So we'll be ferociously broke by March," he said.

But doing what he loves.

Graydon Royce • 612-673-7299