Nancy Travis Finds That Film, Stage Roles Come in Threes

Nancy Travis can’t seem to get away from projects with “Three” in the title.

She appeared in the hit films “Three Men and a Baby” and “Three Men and a Little Lady” as the mother of the “Little Lady.”

And she’s now starring as Masha in Anton Chekhov’s classic “The Three Sisters” at La Jolla Playhouse.

“You’d be amazed how many people don’t know who Chekhov is,” Travis, 28, confesses. “You mention you are doing ‘Three Sisters’ and people say, ‘Who wrote it?’ When I tell them, they say, ‘Who is he?’ I would like to say he is the predecessor to Woody Allen. He’s the guy who came first and then Woody jumped on the bandwagon.”

Born in Massachusetts, Travis began acting on the New York stage, appearing on Broadway in “I’m Not Rappaport.” She also is founder of the N.Y.-based Naked Angels Theatre Company.

“I came out to L.A. two years ago and have been pretty much concentrating on filmmaking,” Travis says.

The move has been good for Travis. In 1990, she co-starred in the features “Internal Affairs,” “Loose Cannons,” “Air America” and “Three Men and a Little Lady.”

Travis returned to the stage last summer in Athol Fugard’s acclaimed “My Children, My Africa.”

“I re-found the love I have for being onstage,” Travis says. “It’s kind of a good way to keep in touch with the skills for which you are trained.”

No amount of training prepared Travis for her first major role: the lead in ABC’s 1986 miniseries “Harem.”

“It was the sort of thing where they flew me off to Spain to meet the director,” Travis recalls. “I was in every scene and I didn’t even know what was going on. Boy, the impact of being involved in something so big when you are so young.”