Glenn Bugala has two theater degrees, spent six years in the 1990s as a working actor in Chicago and once shared a stage with actor-director Jon Favreau. But when he pivoted to a marketing career around Y2K, then became a father, Bugala’s theater career went on an extended hiatus.

“I wanted to be a good and present father, so I limited how much acting and directing I did when my kids were growing up,” said Bugala, marketing manager at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business.

Today, though, with all three of his children out of the house, Bugala is rediscovering his love of the stage. He recently directed the Sam Shepherd play, “Curse of the Starving Class,” for Ann Arbor Civic Theatre, and this month, he is appearing as John Rugby in Shakespeare in the Arb’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor.”

“I have a small role in the show. It’s my first year doing it, so I’m sure they’re testing the waters with me,” Bugala said. “But I’ve been wanting to do Shakespeare in the Arb for years now.”

Finding his voice — and community — on stage

Bugala’s interest in theater began in high school as a way to break out of his shell.

“I was a bit shy and found theater to be a good and safe place for me to express my emotions,” Bugala said.

In his first performance as a freshman, Bugala forgot his one line — but quickly recovered and, by his sophomore year, was playing Prince Dauntless in his school’s production of “Once Upon a Mattress” and in his junior year was cast as Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof.” 

“I got that role in part because of my vocal range; I could reach Tevye’s lower notes,” he said.

Bugala enjoyed theater so much, he elected to continue studying it in college, earning a full scholarship to UM-Flint.

While he initially had some trepidation about the practicality of a degree in theater, Bugala’s mother assured him it would still open doors.

“She said it didn’t really matter what my major was, I’d still have a degree when I came out of college, and that would be what was most important to employers,” he said.

“That ended up being true. I eventually moved into marketing in part because of my acting education. Storytelling in marketing is a type of performance.”

Bugala found UM-Flint “a great place to study because there were no graduate students, which meant the undergrads got the major roles in every production,” he said.

After earning his bachelor’s, Bugala earned another scholarship — this time to Purdue University — to earn his Masters of Fine Arts.

The Purdue theater program, Bugala said, was like boot camp.

“They prided themselves in taking actors apart and putting them back together again, so that was challenging,” he said.

While there, Bugala also learned the Chicago style of acting, which emphasizes realism and is often associated with the Steppenwolf Theater. That training, Bugala said, helped prepare him for his post-college acting career.

Becoming a working actor

After graduating from Purdue, Bugala moved to Chicago in the early 1990s and gave himself six years to “make it” as an actor.

“Chicago’s a jumping off point to either New York City or Los Angeles. After six years, I figured I should be ready to move on to one of those cities — or move on to a different career,” Bugala said.

During his first year in Chicago, Bugala decided to take every part offered to him.

“I think that’s good advice to any actor starting out. I read somewhere that [actress] Idina Menzel said the same thing — take everything the first year, don’t be choosy.”

So Bugala found himself playing Long John Silver in children’s theater — a role that ultimately connected him to lots of other opportunities, including a role in “Coriolanus,” directed by Eric Simonson. Simonson would go on to earn a Tony nomination and win an Academy Award.

Some of Bugala’s Purdue friends also started a theater company, and one summer put on a production of “Twelve Angry Men,” set in a 1950s jury room. During that play, Bugala met and bonded with a young actor named Jon Favreau.

“Jon and I were both playing jurors and had this thing about not wanting to pander to the audience. So, before each show, we’d be backstage giving the finger to the audience,” said Bugala, laughing.

Shortly thereafter, Favreau got a role in the movie “Rudy,” then broke through in “Swingers.”

Bugala also crossed paths with actor-playwright Tracy Letts.

“I was in the show ‘Bouncers’ for several months, and then it went on to play at the Royal George Theatre, while I moved on to a different production. But we helped the incoming actors learn their parts by practicing with them. And Tracy was part of that incoming crew,” Bugala said.

Although Bugala got steady work as an actor, he’d also begun taking temp jobs to ensure he could pay his bills, and those temp roles were gradually increasing in responsibility. At his pre-ordained six-year mark, Bugala was faced with a dilemma: move to LA or New York to pursue acting in a bigger market — or turn acting into a hobby and pursue a career in an office.

“At that point, I was losing my hair and had bad teeth, with no prospects for fixing the teeth, so I decided LA was not for me,” Bugala said, laughing. “And New York is the city of musical theater, and, while I can sing and act, I really cannot dance.

“I remember standing on the roof of my apartment building in Chicago, looking toward the city and thinking, I think, ‘I will be okay acting as a hobby.’”

And that’s what he did. Bugala leveraged his day job as a temp to get into nonprofit work, moved briefly to Knoxville, then settled in Ann Arbor.

Rediscovering the stage

When he first moved to Ann Arbor, Bugala acted in several productions at the Ann Arbor Civic Theater and directed “A Little Night Music” by Stephen Sondheim. But he primarily focused on his burgeoning career in marketing.

He had marketing roles at Microsoft Healthcare Users Group, the Ann Arbor Symphony, then landed at U-M in 2008 and says he’s happiest here.

“A few years back, I asked myself what really gets my juices flowing, and the three words I came up with were: create, enlighten and analyze. And I find those words apply to acting and directing — and graphic design and marketing,” he said. “So, in some ways, marketing was just as much of a dream job as acting for me.”

Today, Bugala is faced with the rare opportunity to pursue both dream roles — and so far, so good.

“Memorizing is a bit more challenging than I remembered,” he said, laughing. “But everything else is coming back to me.”

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