Ken Glickfeld discusses his career

“I was a delinquent, so my parents sent me to a private school, Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn.
“I joined The Varsity Players. My first role was playing a 70-year-old judge in “The Chalk Garden,” and I said to myself ‘I can be anybody’,” explained Ken Glickfeld, when asked about what got him into theater. “That was the beginning of my love affair with theater at age 15.”
Now he’s portraying businessman and boss John Kincaid in George S. Kaufman’s and Marc Connelly’s well- received comedy To the Ladies! This marks his sixth ELTC production.
“My parents were dead-set against me going into theater. When I attended Brooklyn College, they thought I was I focusing on pre-med, but really I was spending all of my time in the theater department.
In 1964, while still going to college, Ken started working summers at The Delacorte Theater in NYC’s Central Park, founded by Joe Papp.
But he worked with other groups in the 1960’s, too.
“After college, I was the technical director and stage manager at The Open Theater during the time of Jean Claude Van Italie’s production of America Hurrah, 60s was hailed as a watershed play of the sixties, being the first dramatic expression against the war in Vietnam.
Ken was also acting regularly with LaMama Plexus Company. It was there that he met Joel Zwick, who later became known for directing sitcoms, including Full House, and giving Tom Hanks his first big break when he cast him in Bosom Buddies.
After some time studying sculpture at Brooklyn Museum of Art, he came back to theater.
“I studied at The Atlantic Theater Company with W. H. Macy, Scott Ziegler, David Mamet, and Bobbie Lewis, and was a member of ATC’s First Apprentice Company.”
Among his other achievements, Glickfeld “was in the first ‘interactive movie’ ever made, The Earl King.., I play the victim of a magic trick in Woody Allen’s Don’t the Drink the Water.
What’s next for Ken?
“In a week, while still performing To the Ladies!, I start rehearsing Angel Eaters, a world premiere at Flux Theatre Ensemble.
About his personal life Ken said, “I’m married to Kris, an infinitely patient woman who is a painter and print maker. We’ve known each other for 35 years.”
To see Ken Glickfeld, John Morton, Morgan Nichols, Tiffany-Leigh Moskow, Suzanne Dawson, Robert LeMaire, Terry Harris, and Gayle Stahlhuth, in To the Ladies! call 609-884-5898 or visit eastlynnetheater.org
Tickets are $25 general admission; $20 for seniors and those with disabilities and their support companions; and $10 for full-time students.
Children ages 12 and under are always free. The production runs every Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. through Oct. 18, at The First Presbyterian Church, 500 Hughes St., in Cape May.
This production of “To the Ladies!” was honored by being selected by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts as part of the American Masterpieces Series in New Jersey. American Masterpieces is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts.