5 is Enough for the Star of ‘Family Secrets’

Welcome to Sheri Glaser’s family. There’s Mort--he’s the well-meaning dad. Bev’s the Jewish mother; law school and lithium keep her steady since a nervous breakdown long ago. Rose is Bev’s mother, falling in love at a seniors’ residence. Granddaughter Fern--champion of the alternate lifestyle--is preparing for a home birth. Her younger sister, Sandra, lost her virginity last night and is waiting for him to call.

Glaser plays all five, with quick clothes changes and expert physical and vocal adjustments, in “Family Secrets” at the Heliotrope Theatre in Hollywood, a quintet of poignant monologues written by the actress and her husband, Gregory Howells.

Last fall, Glaser premiered a version of the work--then called “Secrets of Life”--at the Rose Theatre. Though it was well-received, friends suggested she create a structure for the disparate voices.

“It was obvious that three of the characters were already my family,” said the Bronx-born actress, 29. “And I can do my father--or a father--so I decided that family was the best way to go.”

In came Mort; out went Miguel and his New Age philosophies. Southerner Fern became New Yorker Fern. And the distance between the real-life Glasers and the make-believe Fishers got smaller and smaller.

“Of course it’s vulnerable,” Glaser conceded. “What I’m doing is very personal. But I like feeling vulnerable out there. Like when Bev is talking about her confrontation with her own mother and expresses her abandonment. . . . Well, when my mother was 4, her mother had a nervous breakdown. And when I was 4, my mother had a nervous breakdown. So I was abandoned the same way she was. But my mother came back. So those feelings are mine.”

Most of what we hear from the humiliated teen-ager, Sandra, comes from real life, too. “My first sexual experience was even more graphic and painful,” Glaser said dryly. In her initial monologue show, “Coping,” which played in San Diego in 1987, the actress’s own pregnancy was one of the focal segments. This time, she relates the birth.

“The birthing piece is so powerful and universal, I feel kind of committed to it,” Glaser said. “But I’d love to move on to the part I’m in now, ‘cause this part is very funny and exciting and painful--all those great elements. All the little diseases. I use cloth diapers; I’m fanatical about everything with her. She’s never been immunized, never had antibiotics. She still nurses on and off. My daughter is 2 years old and--this is embarrassing to say--she runs my life.”

When she’s done with motherhood? “Marriage and sex,” Glaser said brightly. “I think it’d be hilarious to explore a marriage at this stage--one that’s working but isn’t perfect: a lot of love and a lot of garbage. Power issues. Sex. Learning to be able to say, ‘That doesn’t feel good’ or ‘I’m not in the mood.’ You know, learning to speak up .”

Glaser’s current performance style evolved during years of theater work in San Diego, where after discovering improvisation and dropping out of college (“I’d found what I wanted”) she appeared in the groups Hot Flashes and Egomaniacs. Now, happy in the solo format, she’s looking forward to continuing plumbing the depths of Glaser family business, convinced that she’ll never run out of material.

Just as she weathers the psychic demands of her characters, Glaser has no fear of playing an old woman or a middle-aged man.

“I imagine them both, looking out, and it’s such a strong image,” she said earnestly. “When I move into Rose, I feel that age in my body. Her age, his gender. I feel it as strongly as I can. With her, I imagine this old, old body sitting down. And my dad--I know his body. There’s a cyst there, hair on his chest, a scar. I know a lot about him. I know his smell. I know his strength when he hugs me. I have so much information inside me.”

“Family Secrets” plays at the Heliotrope Theatre, 660 N. Heliotrope Ave., Hollywood , at 8 p.m. Frid a ys and Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday s , through May 6. (213) 466-1767. Tickets are $15.