FAMILY
ding. So we both went to the ceme-
teries ... and invited our fathers.
"We're having our beautiful
wedding, the sun is shining — it's
muggy, but it's Detroit weather,
so it's fine — and all of a sudden
there was this heaven's cloud, and
out of nowhere it starts storming
— rain, rain, rain," she projects in
a torrential downpour-like voice.
"Stop. The sky clears. OK, fine,
we're having the wedding, we're
going along. Then again," more
guttural storm sounds from Mer-
son.
"The rain propels down. And
the sky clears. The sun comes out
and there's a double rainbow. And
that was our sign that our fathers
were visiting us at out wedding."
Back at Gateway Deli, she or-
ders a corned beef and egg-white
sandwich on a kaiser roll.
"Protein," says the in-training
marathoner at 9:20 a.m.
"I've come here over the years,"
reminisces Merson, "and I sit
here, listen and watch these guys
who were like my dad's age or old-
er, and I've just had these fan-
tasies about their relationships."
All those years of eavesdropping
at the Gateway Deli eventually
became kosher material for three
of Merson's plays.
"Wait a minute. You went to
Beth Hayeled. Do you remember
me?" asks a bubbly, red-headed
woman who's just run up to the
booth from the front of the restau-
rant.
"I remember you," says Mer-
son, excited to see a face from the
past.
"I remember you, too."
Hugs and kiSses all around.
"My name was Wasserman
then," says Janet Pont, now the
director of Shaarey Zedek Beth
Hayeled. "I could have had you at
day camp.
"The youth group, maybe,"
Merson struggles to remember.
More hugs. Pont leaves.
Breakfast's arrived. Tomato
slices on the side. Plain toasted
bagel.
"Oh my God. I think I know
that person, too," laughs the most
popular actress at the deli, covert-
ly pointing to the next row of
booths. "I did Brigadoon [at
Southfield High School] — I think
with that guy over there. I'm go-
ing to ask him — he looks just the
same as when he was 16."
It's not him.
By high school, Merson was al-
ready a seasoned actress, having
started taking acting classes at
the Vanguard Theatre downtown
when she was 7.
"As a kid, I used to kind of hun-
ker and hover and wander and
run around backstage at the Ma-
sonic Temple. I still remember go-
ing up into the rafters and
watching my father and mother
do this soft shoe on stage," Mer-
son says about her parents' (Lou
and Shirley Merson) performance
in the Infants Service Group (ISG)
Variety Show. 'Wonderful mem-
ories. Wonderful. That's why I be-
came an actress. Absolutely."
With showbiz talent in her
blood — Merson's dad was a car-
nival barker who produced grand
opera, circus acts and jazz shows
as part of the Air Force Special
Services in World War II — Mer-
son was determined to be a star.
"I did it all myself. My parents
were not interested in me being
in the theater.
"I used to spend my time at the
library reading every play. That's
how I got my sense of history. I
read every play that was ever
written because I thought that
was how you would be an actress.
"My mother was desperate for
me to be anything but an actress.
But she realized, after a while,
that there was no hope. It was a
disease."
And so she acted. Grade school.
High school. College.
In 1974, Merson performed in
her first Broadway show, Satur-
day, Sunday, Monday, with Eli
Wallach and Sada Thompson.
Unbeknownst to her, Merson's
eventual husband, Tony Shultz,
tried out for the same show. She
made it; he did not.
As she honed her playwright-
ing skills and solo-piece projects
while living in New York, Merson
starred off-Broadway as Mary in
Vanities. From 1976-1978, for
more than 800 performances, she
performed the role that was writ-
ten especially for her by Jack
Heifner. Kathy Bates starred in
the show with her.
In 1980, Merson connected
with Shultz, when he auditioned
for her play Exile of Sarah K A
two-character piece that featured
the future husband and wife duo,
Exile of Sarah K is about Jewish
prostitution at the turn of the cen-
tury.
And they married seven years
later, under the corkscrew willow
tree on Bellwood Drive, just a
brisk mile walk away from the
Gateway Deli. ❑
The ,I1V Entertainn-$.ent cover
features Susan Merson perform-
ing three of the five characters she
plays in the one-woman show:
(top) Kahari ("Jungle Blossom"),
the punk-rocker daughter; (left)
Granchna. Rose, the 86-year-old
matriarch; and (right) Bev Fish-
er, Kahari's mother. Fathily Se-
crets runs Dec. 11-Jan. 12 at the
Jewish Ensemble Theatre at the
le-Drake JCQ. Performances
are at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday,
Thursday and Sunday evenings,
8 p.m. Saturday and at 2 p.m.
Sunday. There will be an addi-
tion212 p.m. show on Wednesday,
Dec. 18, and two New Year's Eve
galas at 7 p.m. ($35, hors d'oeu-
vres and champagne) and 10 p.m.
($50, hors d'oeuvres, champagne
and breakfast). Tickets are $10-
$23. Call JET at (810) 788-2900.
SECRETS
by SHERRY GLAZER & GREG HOWELLS
directed by GREG HOWELLS
starring SUSAN MERSON
Originally produced in New York by DAVID STONE, AMY NEDERLANDER-CASE and IRENE PINN
"FAMILY SECRETS IS HYSTERICALLY FUNNY & DEEPLY MOVING"
—Howard Kissel, Daily News
"HYSTERICALLY FUNNY! THIS IS WHAT THEATRE IS ALL ABOUT"
—Joel Siegel, ABC-TV
"WILDLY FUNNY. . ." - Dennis Cunningham, CBS-TV
"I LAUGHED SO HARD I CRIED."Joan Hamburg, WOR Radio NY
EW YEAR'S EVE
•
4
4
2 Champagne Gala Performances
10:00 p.m. • $50 (Includes Breakfast)
7:00 p.m. • $35
•
TICKETS:
(810) 788-2900
4 4 44..sra-,1„
Off Broadway Theater in West Bloomfield
"'"'''"'""b- "P
SKILLMAN FOUNDATION
(810) 645-6666
Aaron DeRoy Theatre
0A CHRYSLER
FUND
6600 West Maple Road
Senior, Student & Group Rates Available • Hearing Devices Available & Wheel Chair Access.
TREATSEATS` discount coupons available at participating Target and Hudson's stores.
Kenny Ellis
One man variety show
Comedy • Mime • Impressions
With Special Guest Kol Hakavod
Saturday, December 14th • 8 p.m.
The Jewish Community Center
West Bloomfield, Michigan
Kenny has appeared at such comedy "hot-spots" as the Improv, the Comedy Store,
the Laugh Factory, and Catch A Rising Star.
Call (810) 661-7649 for more information or to purchase tickets.
This program is funded by the Manny and Natalie Charoch Endowment Fund for Cultural Arts, the Irwin and Sadie Cohn Fund, the DeRoy Testamentary Foundation and the Boaz Siegel Cultural Fund.