Followed a calling to schools, stage

In 1982, Jane Marie Glodek played a homeless German immigrant named Vera in

Bein' Here Tonight

, a musical drama staged by Theater Center Philadelphia. An Inquirer critic called Glodek's character a "blend of brazen street hussy and incipient bag lady."

"It was the best performance of her life," said Ms. Glodek's former husband, Bill Speers.

As an actress and a director, Ms. Glodek was involved with numerous productions in Philadelphia-area theaters; as an educator, she introduced the joy of reading to hundreds of young children; and as someone with multiple sclerosis, she courageously battled her crippling disease for 12 years.

She died of cancer Monday at Abington Memorial Hospital at the age of 68.

A longtime resident of East Falls, Ms. Glodek grew up in Chester. After graduating from Notre Dame High School in Moylan in 1958, she entered the convent of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Ilchester, Md. Her sister, Bernadette, had previously joined the religious order.

While a nun, Ms. Glodek earned a bachelor's degree from Trinity College in Washington and taught in Catholic elementary and high schools in Washington, Baltimore, and the Philadelphia area - including her alma mater, Notre Dame. She always loved acting, her sister said, and produced student plays at Notre Dame.

After leaving the order in 1969, she became a reading specialist and pursued her career in the theater.

In a 1983 review for the Independent City Theater Company's production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the Inquirer critic wrote: "Neat and prim in her starched white uniform, Jane Marie Glodek's Nurse Ratched is always professional and unemotional, the embodiment of regimented medical and civil authority."

That year, Ms. Glodek also appeared in the Theater Center of Philadelphia's Wedding Band, about a black woman, Julia, and her white partner, Herman. A Philadelphia Daily News critic wrote that as Herman's mother, "Glodek is a firestorm of emotion full of curses, screams, and threats. She does an exceptionally good job with her character, and manages to steal the scene with her strong will and bigoted comments."

"The plays Jane Marie connected most strongly with were those that offered strong roles for women and people of color," said Mary Pat Walsh, a friend who is on the board of the Allens Lane Art Center. "She also worked hard to promote plays for young audiences in the hopes of fostering another generation of theater fans as avid as she."

Ms. Glodek served on the Allens Lane Art Center's theater committee with Walsh and performed and directed plays there for more than 20 years. She also directed plays for the Drama Group and performed in plays at Villanova University, where she earned a master's degree in drama.

"As a theater artist, Jane Marie was meticulous in her preparation. When directing she could cajole a ragtag group of actors into a finely tuned ensemble," Walsh said. "She had a profound understanding and an appreciation for the texture that sound, lighting, choreography, and costumes bring to a production."

Walsh also said Ms. Glodek had "brought a wealth of knowledge of contemporary drama to the table," adding that the Allens Lane Theater will close its 2009-10 season "with a play she brought to ALT for consideration several years ago, the outrageous Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage," a satire about rodeo queens and cowboys.

To support her acting and directing, Ms. Glodek was a reading specialist at public schools in Delaware County, at the Huntington Learning Center, and at Southern Home Services in South Philadelphia.

"Janie believed strongly that primary education was a successful process if a kid came away knowing only how to read, for that would be the foundation of all that would follow," said Speers, a retired Inquirer columnist.

Ms. Glodek left her last teaching position at Silver Springs-Martin Luther School in Plymouth Meeting in 2002 when her multiple sclerosis worsened. The disease had been diagnosed in 1997.

As her mobility decreased, she found innovative ways to stay connected with theater. In 2006, she directed a one-woman comedy, Blown Sideways, and John Henry in My Face, a play written by a close friend, Walter Sobolowski, for young audiences. For both productions, she rehearsed actors in her home.

Ms. Glodek wrote about her multiple sclerosis in an essay in The Inquirer in 2007. "I'm as charming, articulate, and funny as ever," she wrote. "I can still solve problems. But I can't walk without help."

When the Allens Lane Art Center received more than $1 million from the state for renovations, Ms. Glodek said, she was disappointed the center did not install a chair lift so that disabled people like her could reach the theater on the second floor.

She wrote: "My greatest fear is falling. Who will help me get up? Will I break a bone?"

Last fall, Ms. Glodek broke a leg and had to move to the Dresher Hill Health and Rehabilitation Center. Though her cancer was diagnosed in August, she was hoping to return home to East Falls this month.

In addition to her sister, she is survived by a brother, John; three nieces; and a nephew.

A Funeral Mass will be said at 11 a.m. tomorrow at St. Bridget Church, 3667 Midvale Ave.