THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 23, 1996 TAG: 9603220073
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
DAD DOESN'T like your lifestyle, so he gives you the silent treatment. Sis is freaked about making it with the paperboy; it was her first time and she was dead drunk. Mom? She's on Lithium. Incontinence hasn't stopped Grandma from having the fling of her life.
Every family harbors its little secrets.
Only Sherry Glaser talks about her's - some 2,000 times since staging ``Family Secrets'' to critical acclaim eight years ago.
``I think it is part of the problem we're dealing with in this world - not talking,'' she said from her home north of San Francisco. ``We keep all these things that eat away at us inside. We're not free to say, `This is what I am. This is what I feel.' Every night, I show how, once we reveal these secrets, they're harmless.''
``The other connotation is (the secrets) are like recipes: This is how to get a good family, by sharing the hard times and accepting each other.''
If that sounds like a heavy evening, it's liberally seasoned with humor. ``Family Secrets'' had a long off-Broadway run; Glaser, who wrote the one-woman play with her husband/director Greg Howells, received the Theatre World award for outstanding debut and was nominated for a Drama Desk award.
The show consists of five monologues delivered by a Jewish family from the Bronx now living in Southern California: Mort and Bev, the parents; daughters Fern and Sandra, and Rose, the matriarch.
Glaser, 35 and pregnant with her second child (due Mother's Day), drew from her own experience.
``I wrote like half to make it more comical and more dramatic,'' she said. ``But the issues are real. My mother was manic-depressive. I was bulemic. I was with another woman. I had a home birth. My father never stopped talking to me, but a lot of fathers do.
``The essence is true. That's why it rings with the audience. We made it palpable, but kept it on the edge enough to get people laughing, thinking and crying, but not storming out.''
Palm Beach, Fla., was the exception. Opening night, the audience was so offended they left en masse.
``I thought someone had a heart attack or there was a fire,'' said Glaser, a founding member of the feminist improv group, Hot Flashes. ``They're so far behind. They don't want to know. They don't want to hear. They just want to drive their Jaguars and Mercedeses to the theater and be seen, not watch.''
Their loss. ``Family Secrets'' is very funny, not only for its one-liners but the familiar subjects it addresses. It also takes some dramatic turns. The combination has a built-in appeal for all audiences, regardless of cultural backgrounds.
Fern makes ``Homebirth'' an exercise in physical comedy. The humor in ``Happy?'' (Mort) and ``House Arrest'' (Sandra) is more pointed, while ``True Love,'' Rose's account of her courtship and remarriage, is warm and reassuring.
No one will be unmoved by ``The Perfect Mother.'' When she saw her mother institutionalized, Bev, who opens the monologue singing Patsy Cline's ``Crazy,'' swore it would never happen to her. But she does break down, over a lasagna dinner, and, with the help of a therapist, finally confronts her long-deceased mother and neglected childhood.
``I'm not perfect,'' Bev annouces proudly, ``but I'm here.'' It's a wonderful moment.
Even with all the performances she's logged, Glaser never has gotten quite used to the experience.
``Sometimes, it is wracking,'' she said. ``When my mother got sick last year, I had to be her. When my grandmother died, I had to go on that night. It was very eerie. Some nights, it's just a pain in the butt. Other nights, it's very healing.
``When my mother comes to the show, which she does all the time, it's really intense because they're laughing at my mother. I feel very protective.''
The most recent challenge has been cutting the apron strings. Glaser has turned ``Family Secrets'' over to California actress Alice Manning, who will appear in tonight's production at Chrysler Hall.
``I went through a lot, starting with the fact that my husband is the director and had to be with Alice for a month,'' Glaser said. ``Then, when I got to know her, I had the feeling that she'd be better than me. That was pretty overwhelming - that someone else can do my family better than me.
``But I realized helping her do a good job was to my benefit. I had to help her (find the characters). Greg told her to give birth to the show, to feel the labor. They're her characters now.'' ILLUSTRATION: ON STAGE
ROBERT MILAZZO
J. MAZUR
Alice Manning will star in ``Family Secrets'' tonight.
by CNB