Sherry Glaser (born June 7, 1960) is an American actress, noted for her performance in the

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

solo show ''Family Secrets'' about a Jewish family in California. Glaser is also a political activist, who was arrested for her topless protest against the “immoral injustices of war” (Breasts Not Bombs), and for opening a Medical Marijuana Dispensary. In both cases, charges were dropped.

Early life

Sherry Glaser was born in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and raised on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

. Glaser moved to San Diego in 1978 and attended San Diego State University. She developed her improvisational comedy skills with the feminist comedy group Hot Flashes. She then moved on to solo performance work, aided by the direction and co-writing of her then-husband Greg Howells. Glaser's inspiration for solo performance came while practicing

improvisation Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

in the early 1980s in San Diego in the company of Whoopi Goldberg, Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy.

Career

Glaser is best known for her long-running

solo performance piece ''Family Secrets'' and her

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

, ''Family Secrets: One Woman's Look at a Relatively Painful Subject'', published by Simon & Schuster in 1997. In the play, Glaser portrays five different members of a Jewish family who migrated from New York to California in the 1980s. Glaser won numerous awards for her role in ''Family Secrets''. The show was presented off-Broadway twice, from 1993 to 1995 and again in 2006. Glaser then played Ma and Miguel in her one-woman play, ''Oh My Goddess!'' Ma was depicted as the Great Jewish Mother of us all, "reminding us of the simple and sacred nature of life on earth". In 2004, Glaser collaborated with Thais Mazur on a theater/dance project called ''Remember This (An Intimate Portrait of War through the Eyes of Women)'' which debuted in Mendocino and then went on to San Francisco. Glaser wrote another one-woman show called ''Taking the High Road (Comic Confessions from Behind the Cannabis Curtain)'' in 2015 after her Medical Marijuana

Dispensary A dispensary is an office in a school, hospital, industrial plant, or other organization that dispenses medications, medical supplies, and in some cases even medical and dental treatment. In a traditional dispensary set-up, a pharmacist dispen ...

and her home were raided by local and Federal agents. Glaser also co-authored a book with her mother, Rochelle (Shelly) Glaser about their experiences with mental illness, titled ''The First Practical Handbook for Crazy People''. Glaser also writes a weekly Tuesday evening editorial on Mendocino County, California, radio station KZYX. Glaser's writing has been featured in the anthologies, ''Exit Laughing'', ''The Other Woman'', ''He Said What?'' (Victoria Zackheim, editor), and ''Warrior Mothers'' (Thais Mazur, editor).

Family life

Sherry Glaser met her future husband, Greg Howells, through her comedy career. At the time Howells was a friend of a friend of Glaser's next-door neighbor. Glaser and Howells' shared passion for comedy brought them together. Glaser and Howells had two daughters, Dana and Lucy. Glaser commented that "I had always wanted two (so they could have someone to talk to about their crazy mother)". Greg Howells disappeared on June 18, 1997. He was last seen golfing at the Rancho Cañada Golf Course in

Carmel Valley, California Carmel Valley is an unincorporated community in Monterey County, California, United States. The term "Carmel Valley" generally refers to the Carmel River watershed east of California State Route 1, and not specifically to the smaller Carmel V ...

Political activism

Breasts Not Bombs

Breasts Not Bombs is a

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...

political movement based in Mendocino County, California. The group focuses on the intersection between top-free equality and social justice through non-violent public protests involving street theatre and toplessness in order to bring attention to what they term the "immoral injustices of war. On November 8, 2005, Sherry Glaser and Renee Love, members of Breasts Not Bombs, went topless on the steps of the California State Capital to protest the policies of California Governor

Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...

. They were arrested on suspicion of

indecent exposure Indecent exposure is the deliberate public exposure by a person of a portion of their body in a manner contrary to local standards of appropriate behavior. Laws and social attitudes regarding indecent exposure vary significantly in different ...

, disorderly conduct and violation of the terms of their protest permit. If convicted, the women would have been required to register as sex offenders. In the court battle that followed their arrest, they argued that women should have the same right to go topless as men. In November 2008, the courts awarded the women $150,000. The court also required that California Highway Patrol officers assigned to the Capitol Protection Section be provided training in First Amendment rights of protesters. She comments on her website, "Their bare breasts were called 'indecent', so I thought, let's use this incident and our equal protection under the 14th Amendment to show what real

freedom Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving on ...

and decency look like. She realizes, words alone can be easily disregarded, but bodies are harder to ignore." On her website, Glaser has written that "It's ironic that

can grope and molest women's bodies and become Governor yet we stand in power exercising our

first amendment rights The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion, or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the ...

and we get arrested. I Protest!" Glaser began a

political movement A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some t ...

claiming breasts are not indecent, wars are. Glaser and others have been protesting topless in order to give public awareness to the deaths which occurred in the Iraq War. Glaser has her own website where she discusses her political actions and upcoming productions as well as making her weekly radio commentaries publicly available.

Other activism

She was instrumental in a recent tsunami relief benefit which raised over $10,000 USD, she has done benefits for women's shelters, environmental agencies, and the

homeless Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are: * living on the streets, also kn ...

, and she has taught workshops in radical emotional transformation and Organic Improvisational Theater. Glaser opened the first Medical Marijuana Dispensary in the Village of Mendocino California in February 2011. It was called Love in It and dispensed organic, local cannabis to over 3000 patients. Her dispensary was raided on March 4, 2014. She went to jail along with all the employees and bailed out the next day. She filed forms to reclaim her property and medicine and fought the D.A. David Eyster all the way. Love in It reopened on April 1, 2014, and all charges against Glaser were finally dropped in 2017.

References

External links

* *
Sustainable World Coalition website

Breasts Not Bombs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glaser, Sherry Actresses from New York (state) American performance artists American stage actresses American lesbian actresses American lesbian artists People from Mendocino County, California People from Long Island Living people 1960 births Nudity and protest Activists from California 21st-century American actresses