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Whatever happened to...the actor who left the stage after 14 years

By John Fleming
Published July 15, 2007

Original story: "Brave encore" Sept. 22, 2005

THE STORY: Tampa actor Kerry Glamsch had not been onstage in 14 years since he nearly died from a horrific knife attack by a crack addict. Now he was returning to acting in the two-character play, A Number, by Caryl Churchill, produced by Stageworks at the Gorilla Theatre. He portrayed a man named Salter who had cloned his son. For anyone familiar with Glamsch's history, there was a chilling moment in Churchill's gritty little play when Salter was attacked by his son, thrown down and pinned to the floor.

FROM THE STORY: At least one description Glamsch offered of what it felt like to be in A Number seemed uncomfortably close to his own experience.

"This play for me always feels a little bit like somebody is calling me out in an alley to fight, and I'm going there with trepidation and a bit of fear, and also a bit of excitement," he said.

THE REST OF THE STORY: Glamsch, a theater professor at the University of South Florida, has been onstage since A Number. Last September he performed in a wheelchair with a mixed-ability dance group called Revolutions Dance Company at a convention of Florida dance teachers. In February, he played Petey in Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party at USF.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT: Glamsch has no immediate acting plans. At USF he teaches a wide range of courses on acting and writing, including one about great performances on film that is held in the University Mall Cinema. He will direct a production of Sam Shepard's Fool for Love at the school in the fall. He is now in northeast Tanzania for the summer to teach in the International Theatre & Literacy Project. He's part of a team of 10 theater artists conducting performance and writing workshops for teenagers in villages near the city of Arusha.

"This is a chance to do what I feel I do best in order to make the world a better place," Glamsch said of the project's work.

John Fleming, Times performing arts critic

[Last modified July 13, 2007, 16:15:37]