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In her newest role, Sarah Gliko enters the stage by descending from the ceiling. And she’s playing a spider.
“The more I did it the more comfortable I became. It’s my favorite part of the show,” Gliko of 10th and Dickinson streets said. “I don’t think I will ever top this entrance in my career — in my life.”
Gliko is Charlotte of the classic children’s tale “Charlotte’s Web,” running at the Arden Theatre until Jan. 29. Opposite her is Lower Moyamensing’s Aubie Merrylees, of 10th and Winton streets, who takes on the task of bringing Charlotte’s unlikely friend Wilbur, a pig, to life.
“I never worked with him. I was a big fan. I saw him — he was in a production called ‘The Aliens’ at Theater Exile earlier this season and I was like, ‘that’s my Wilbur.’ I couldn’t be happier,” she said. “He’s so lovely, so easy to work with. He’s one of the best stage partners I’ve ever had.”
The production brings the farm world of these animals to the forefront, including Charlotte’s “spidey” ways. The main setting of the barn features untreated wood and the show uses real vegetables, milk and soil to enrich the stage life.
“It’s all real simple. It’s like a piece, a little slice, of farm life we are giving to [the audience],” Gliko said. “It’s stuff a city or suburb kid might not experience otherwise.”
Part of the Arden programming includes talkbacks after the production where attendees get to meet the artists and ask questions.
“I was worried about the response to Charlotte because she is portrayed darker and more removed, but they love her,” Gliko, 32, said. “Like everybody says, that it really is the most rewarding part — getting to go back and shake their hands and hug them.”
Gliko, who has done a lot of children’s theater throughout her career, thinks that her youngest fans bring a different intensity to the shows than she’s felt in a traditional drama.
“The audience that is there, it’s a huge living presence that is hard to ignore. In a regular show it’s hard, but in this respect they are exuding so much energy and sometimes it’s quiet, sometimes very vocal, and they are feeding you and you’re feeding them,” Gliko said. “The dialogue is ongoing the whole time.
“It’s very freeing and really rewarding, too. They are so uninhibited. They repeat what you say and laugh louder or gasp. They’re so honest it becomes a dialogue with the actor’s on stage.”
These young theatergoers always manage to inspire and reward Gliko. In this production, they managed to surprise her, too.
“[The reception] has been incredible. We — originally, we were all joking around backstage that when Charlotte came down, the kids were going to freak out and lose their minds,” Gliko said of rehearsals. “As soon as I came down, they went completely quiet. You could hear a pin drop, feel the energy, that they were sitting up in their seats. It was a quiet theater and the exact opposite of what we were anticipating.”
Gliko was born in Montana, but moved to the Philly suburbs before she hit her first birthday.
“I grew up in a very musical family. My parents and my brothers were all musicians. My uncles are musical, as well, so that was sort of where it started. I started playing an instrument before I was acting,” Gliko said.
In “Charlotte’s Web,” Gliko plays her instrument of choice, which is the flute, but she also learned the piano, guitar, saxophone and a few other “derivations,” such as the accordion. It didn’t take long for Gliko to transition from music to theater.
“I started acting when I was in seventh-grade and my friends were going out to audition for the school play. I wasn’t interested, but they were like, ‘I want you to go with me, it’ll be fine,’” she said. “I auditioned and I didn’t get the part and I got really upset. And I was like, ‘why am I so upset? I didn’t want this anyway.’
“That summer I enrolled in a children’s theater camp because I realized I really do care and I do want to do this.”
After high school, Gliko continued theater and vocal studies and moved to Brooklyn, N.Y. to pursue the craft full-time. While she was making headway in the New York scene, she began to get multiple parts in Philadelphia and after five years, decided all the signs were pointing to coming home.
“In Philly, I think we are so lucky. There are so many professional houses here, some big established theaters, then you also have smaller companies that do all these world premieres or Philly premieres,” she said. “There is a lot of support here in Philly that you don’t necessarily have in New York.”
Coming back in 2006, she eventually found her way to Passyunk Square nearly two years ago.
“South Philly is pretty much everyone I meet in the theater community. I find out I live two blocks from them,” she said. “It’s an amazing feeling down there. I feel very at home — the price is right, the vibe is right.”
Settled into what Gliko called an emerging “artist enclave” in South Philly, the actress’ slate is filling up quickly. When “Charlotte’s Web” finishes its run Jan. 29, Gliko will be switching gears to perform in New City Stage Co. production “Terrorism” at the Adrienne Theater and by March, she’ll be performing in “Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story” at the Walnut Street Theatre. Before she moves on, she has more than a month to continue descending down the walls of the Arden for wide-eyed children as Charlotte.
“I think it is such a refreshing production and one where you are using your imagination and you are completely engaged without knowing that you are,” Gliko said of “Charlotte’s Web.” “We don’t have crazy costumes, the set is very simple and real. I just think this production, the story and the characters shine through in a really special way.” SPR
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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