Sheri Glaser

Sheri Glaser, with her tinny voice and spindly frame, will never get by on appearance. But what an actress! Her art is the character monologue, and she reminds you of a young Lily Tomlin 20 years ago. Her "Sheri Glaser: Secrets of Life" is at the Rose Theater in Venice. Glaser, who is 29, co-wrote and co-directed the show's five monologues with husband Greg Howells.

Gregory Howells, are you out there? Sherry Glaser wants to know. Howells, a 42-year-old playwright and director who co-wrote the acclaimed "Family Secrets" with and for his actress wife, disappeared from a Carmel golf course on June 17. His iron and putter were found near the tee of the 13th hole. He was within walking distance of a national forest, a busy highway and the Pacific Ocean. Inside his car, authorities found his wallet and a manuscript of his latest play, "Lazarus."

When Sheri Glaser got out of high school, she knew how to type. That, in her opinion, meant she could become a poet or--as a fallback--a secretary. "Which ought to tell you what I was like," said Glaser, recalling a mixed-up adolescence recently in her sparsely furnished Topanga Canyon shack. More than typing, however, a hidden talent for comic acting, which didn't surface until after Glaser was out of high school, has turned out to be her greatest asset.

Poor Mort Fisher. This weary Jewish accountant is sur rounded by exasperating women. His octogenarian mother, Rose, tried to kill herself by sticking her head in the oven. His manic-depressive wife, Bev, who had a nervous breakdown over a failed lasagna, now holds on to reality with the help of lithium. His teen-age daughter, Sandra, is bulimic and a whiner. Her older sister, Fern, has renounced Judaism as oppressively patriarchal and changed her name to Kahari.

Gregory Howells, are you out there? Sherry Glaser wants to know. Howells, a 42-year-old playwright and director who co-wrote the acclaimed "Family Secrets" with and for his actress wife, disappeared from a Carmel golf course on June 17. His iron and putter were found near the tee of the 13th hole. He was within walking distance of a national forest, a busy highway and the Pacific Ocean. Inside his car, authorities found his wallet and a manuscript of his latest play, "Lazarus."

Poor Mort Fisher. This weary Jewish accountant is sur rounded by exasperating women. His octogenarian mother, Rose, tried to kill herself by sticking her head in the oven. His manic-depressive wife, Bev, who had a nervous breakdown over a failed lasagna, now holds on to reality with the help of lithium. His teen-age daughter, Sandra, is bulimic and a whiner. Her older sister, Fern, has renounced Judaism as oppressively patriarchal and changed her name to Kahari.

Five members of a middle-class Jewish family each get a chance to tell "Family Secrets" in Sheri Glaser's remarkable show of that name at the Heliotrope Theatre. The secrets are funny, sad and thoroughly detailed, if not always astonishing. But what lifts the show above the sometimes familiar material is that Glaser plays all five characters, in successive monologues.

If you missed Sheri Glaser's "Family Secrets" when it blew into town late last year, you're in for a treat. If you saw it, see it again--while you can. There are some differences from last time: It's been trimmed and gussied up by director Art Wolff. But more important, Glaser's San Diego-nurtured career is more clearly than ever in the launch mode; this rocket may blast off at any moment.

In a five-person family, there are always six points of view. One for each of the family members. The sixth for the sly writer who nails all those views down. Sheri Glaser, in her remarkable one-woman show, "Family Secrets," is the writer and performer who gets it all just right. The show, an independent production at the Hahn Cosmopolitan, has everything. It's funny, it's fast, it's smart and it has heart.

Ever had your aura fluffed or your tofu scrambled? Do you whip out your wallet at the mention of a seminar on self-esteem, self-development, self-perception, self-deception or the search for Self? If so, you could be in real trouble. You may be inadvertently following "The Nickel-Weiner Roadmap to Enlightenment," the kind of spiritual trek that never gets past sweet smiles and pretense or locks you into a pattern of guilty meditations, afraid to admit you never achieved "it."

When Sheri Glaser got out of high school, she knew how to type. That, in her opinion, meant she could become a poet or--as a fallback--a secretary. "Which ought to tell you what I was like," said Glaser, recalling a mixed-up adolescence recently in her sparsely furnished Topanga Canyon shack. More than typing, however, a hidden talent for comic acting, which didn't surface until after Glaser was out of high school, has turned out to be her greatest asset.

Five members of a middle-class Jewish family each get a chance to tell "Family Secrets" in Sheri Glaser's remarkable show of that name at the Heliotrope Theatre. The secrets are funny, sad and thoroughly detailed, if not always astonishing. But what lifts the show above the sometimes familiar material is that Glaser plays all five characters, in successive monologues.

Sheri Glaser, with her tinny voice and spindly frame, will never get by on appearance. But what an actress! Her art is the character monologue, and she reminds you of a young Lily Tomlin 20 years ago. Her "Sheri Glaser: Secrets of Life" is at the Rose Theater in Venice. Glaser, who is 29, co-wrote and co-directed the show's five monologues with husband Greg Howells.

"Memory Tricks," the San Diego premiere of Marga Gomez's monologue about her mother, an exotic Puerto Rican dancer, is a "Mommy Dearest" done with love. Although Gomez jokes about the vain, guilt-inducing and wildly eccentric mother who raised her, it is clear that she loves the woman, treasures the memories and clings to those rare fragments in time when her mother did, miraculously, say just the right thing.

Los Angeles Theatre Center won the most honors and small theaters also did well in the 1990 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards announced Tuesday. LATC captured eight awards-- its most ever. The downtown theater, which is being purchased by the city of Los Angeles, had won three awards during each of the last four years. Six of LATC's awards this year were for "The Illusion," the most for any one production.