This year鈥檚 BorderLight Festival features more than 130 performances in and around Playhouse Square, from an to confessional one-person show. One of the latter is Kevin Gladish鈥檚 鈥淎 Secret in Plain Sight.鈥�
The Garfield Heights native grew up in what he calls a traditional family.
鈥淢y dad was a firefighter and a paramedic,鈥� he said. 鈥淢y mom was mostly a stay-at-home mom.鈥�
Yet there was a family secret which he learned only recently, at age 43.
鈥淚 had suspected it my entire life,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 kind of just buried it from my mind, which is what I discuss a lot of in the show.鈥�
After his father passed away, Gladish learned he was adopted.
鈥淎t first, you feel like this joke is on you; everybody knew but me,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t kind of threw my world into a spin for a while. I started asking all kinds of questions.鈥�
He channeled that into a blog, 鈥淎 Story with No Beginning,鈥� which led to his one-man show at BorderLight. It premiered during the pandemic as part of a virtual festival in Chicago. Gladish moved there in the 1990s to work as an editor and in theater. He eventually found his calling at storytelling events such as The Moth. His first time out, the topic was 鈥渘ear death experiences.鈥� He spoke about taking a wrong turn and finding himself biking on Lake Shore Drive 鈥� the expressway along Lake Michigan.
鈥淚 won that night and I was addicted,鈥� he said.
From there his pieces have ranged from humorous to the more serious, such as 鈥�,鈥� which is also his first full-length work. Gladish credits for providing support to people in his situation.
鈥淭here's no handbook on how to deal with this,鈥� he said. 鈥淧eople are finding out that their father is not their father, or this is showing me a different nationality than they thought. A lot of people have a similar reaction of just kind of being disoriented and bewildered and feeling betrayed.鈥�
Adoption Network Cleveland will hold a talkback session about the show after Gladish鈥檚 final BorderLight performance on Saturday night.
