Photo submitted by Tony Perez New leash on life: Susan Faucon's "Sweet Surrender" is about understanding what's really important. Peace, service, serenity -- and the love of a really adorable dog, like Rossi.

Oh, she used to, all right. She had the things, the bling, the self-imposed sense of diva-hood befitting a talented singer-actress.

"I just got tired of being desperately miserable," says the native Washingtonian, whose deep brown eyes and cliffhanger cheekbones make her look a bit like Susan Sarandon's little sister. "I was in Vail, Colo., and I had everything I could possibly imagine. I thought it was all about the material world."

Hard to believe, looking at the slim, serene, ponytailed woman in jeans and a sleeveless white T-shirt, her yellow lab curled at her feet. Faucon is sipping coffee on a pink secondhand sofa in her Silver Spring bungalow, a home painted in the soothing hues of nature and almost monastic in its uncluttered simplicity.

OK, so Faucon didn't always embrace the sort of "live simply" philosophy she nowadays espouses. That doesn't mean she isn't sincere. On the contrary, she is frank about the bridges she burned and the misery she caused -- to herself and to others -- with her "more, more, more" and "me, me, me."

"I think self-centeredness is sort of an instinct," she observes. "It's a survival mechanism."

Seven years ago, though, the event that Faucon describes as "a spiritual awakening" switched that mechanism abruptly to the off position.

"My perception changed," she says. "The world looked different to me. I just started being nice to other people, and once I had this understanding of something better than me, my perception turned positive."

Band aid

An autobiographical one-woman show about embracing simplicity -- embellished with an orchestra and backup singers? That's just part of the dichotomy of "Sweet Surrender."

Sure, less is more, but Faucon has been growing this baby anyway, transplanting it tenderly from its debut venue, Sangha in Takoma Park, to the Silver Spring Stage, where an old bowling alley in the Woodmoor Shopping Center has become a center for community theater. There's a soon-to-be-available CD version -- and a dream as big as the spiritual transformation that inspired it.

"It's pretty risky, this kind of thing," Faucon admits. "I'm totally out there, exposed."

And yet at Sangha, she says, "Every person -- 104 people in that tiny room -- said 'Where's the CD?'

"They wanted to buy it."

That could be because "Sweet Surrender" adds expertly played jazz and rhythm and blues to Faucon's inspiring story of despair and redemption.

She calls it a "musical dramedy." Ro Cube is at the helm engineering the project, rapping and adding keyboards. Then there's Damon Foreman on guitar and vocals, Chuck Ferrell on drums, Steve Sachse on bass, Bruce Swain on tenor sax, and Mycah and Kim Lewis providing backing vocals.

Faucon's story is compelling, sure, but placing her in front of a band with such power and authenticity puts an even finer point on it. Her life may be simple now, but "Sweet Surrender," with its observations on what it means to be a woman in the modern age, is anything but.

Suddenly, Susan

It's not about religion, Faucon says, although she has extracted elements from just about every faith as part of her personal philosophy.

"Mostly it's about being present to the moment," she says. "Love, and service, and making a positive connection."

Raised by her dad from age 2, Faucon says she was always musical.

"I have this musical ability I didn't train for; it was just there."

She wanted to be an actress, and started out as a theater major at Towson University, although she ended up with a bachelor's degree in human development.

"That helped me tremendously in writing this show," she explains. "It helped me to know myself."

After graduation, she took off to Los Angeles, which she found "competitive." The pressure to look perfect was daunting, but otherwise it was business as usual for a young actress: auditions, small acting jobs, commercials, stints as an au pair and in the food service industry. Then she started singing in bars, clubs and concert halls. "It was unfulfilling for me," she admits, "but it was very necessary to get me to where I am now.

"This show," she adds, "brings together everything."

By everything, she means the work, the boredom, the attempt to feel better by applying material goods. Even Rossi, her beloved labrador retriever (she admits sheepishly) was named after a brand of luxury skis.

Back then, everything wasn't enough. Now, though, she sees the universe as an abundant source of inspiration.

"Before, it was just a job," Faucon says. "But with this show, I feel I was inspired by truth.

"This is my truth," she adds. "And people respond to truth."

Susan Faucon's "Sweet Surrender" is onstage at 8 p.m. Friday at Silver Spring Stage, Woodmoor Shopping Center, 10145 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. Tickets are $15, $13 for students and seniors. Call 301-593-6036.