PHOTO BY DANIEL L

Susan
Merlon

Tells

Family
Secrets

JULIE YOLLES ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

"I'm an actress, Iandlotdette, mother and writer," says Susan Merson. The former Detroiter returns home to star in JET's Family

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Secrets, a comedy about a modern Jewish-American family of five, all played by Merson.-

"It's a major deal to come back to your
hometown after all these years," says
the actress, who grew up in Southfield
and returns, after 16 years, to star in
JET's latest comedy.

S porting a Beverly Hills — that's California, not Michi-
"I went to Shaarey Zedek all my life, starting at 6 years
gan — Real Estate sweatshirt, blue and red plaid old," remembers the actress and playwright, who's re-
• silk scarf, faded aqua workout pants, crisp white turned home after 16 years to star in the Jewish Ensem-
Nikes, an ABC-TV "Life Goes On" forest green var-
ble Theatre's (JET) current production, Family Secrets. "I
sity jacket and deep plum suede gloves, Susan Merson used to fast on yontif and
look and think that God was be-
was a little schvitzik, but invigorated just the same.
hind those screens where the choir was. I was sure that
She's drinking cranberry juice at the Gateway Deli in God was up there.
Harvard Row — her second time there in two days — fol-
`The first play that I wrote, Reflections of the China Doll:
lowing a brisk three-mile walk down memory lane.
Growing up Jewish in America (1978), took place in the
"I came home and I was in total shock with the weath-
er. So I put on silk underwear and shmatas for my walk," old Shaarey Zedek, that gorgeous place downtown on
Chicago. It's all about Saturday morning services — sit-
says the "Jewish girl who grew up here in Detroit and now ting next to the mink coats and the Arpege perfume —
leads a middle-class artist's life in Los Angeles." She's lived Detroit and growing up in Southfield.
talk about my hor-
there since 1985 with her husband and their almost 6- rible crush on a boy and performing I in
The Tenth Man
year-old daughter, Sofi Angelique.
at the Jewish Center," adds Merson, who performed her
Though she's clocking many miles these days, prepar- solo play all over the world for five years, including twice
ing to walk the L.A. Marathon in March, this mornings here at Temple Israel.
constitutional had particular significance. Her route took
It was JET's Artistic Director, Evelyn Orbach, who first
her from her mother's apartment in Knob in the Woods, directed Merson, then 14, and Merson's father in
The Tenth
where Merson's staying, up Lois Lane to 11 Mile, Bell Road Man. The play was presented by the Center Players
in
and Congregation Shaarey Zedek. -
1964 at the JCC on Meyers and Curtis.

Orbach brought Merson back to star in the moving com-
edy Family Secrets, in which she plays all five members
of a modern Jewish-American family who's trying to cope
with the vicissitudes of life. Written by husband-wife team
Sherry Glaser and Greg Howells, and produced for New
York's Westside Theatre by Amy Nederlander, Family Se-
crets was the longest-running one-person show in off-Broad-
way history. It ran for 462 performances in the '94-'95
season.
"One of my favorite things to do as a kid was walk up
and down Bell Road," says Merson, who also talks about
this fond memory in China Doll.
Her morning walk continues, past the old boyfriend's
house. Then on to the house on Bellwood Drive, at 12 Mile
and Lahser, where she grew up since age 14.
"We had a beautiful wedding in my mom's back yard,
under the corkscrew willow tree with the Russian olive
trees on the side," says Merson, who married L.A. native
Tony Shultz, an actor, musician and now real estate bro-
ker, on June 28, 1987. "It's a Jewish tradition to go to the
cemetery and invite your deceased parents to the wM-