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.