Emily Bergl was just in from a crisp autumnal bicycle ride along Hudson River Drive.

The song stylist and movie, TV and stage actress likes the word autumnal. A recent phone interview begins with the Phi Beta Kappa grad listing other favorite words.

Bergl returns to ArtsQuest Center, SteelStacks, Bethlehem, to perform "Kidding on The Square," 7 p.m. Nov. 4, Fowler Blast Furnace Room, where she wowed Lehigh Valley audiences last April with her "NY I Love You" cabaret show.

"The reason I'm coming back is the audience is so smart and so fabulous," Bergl says. Her agent is Wayne J. Gmitter, Principal, Think Iconic Artists Agency, LLC, Bethlehem.

Bergl also likes the night-lit former Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces visible through ArtsQuest Center's glass-window facade.

"It's almost become a sculpture backdrop," Bergl observes.

"Monday, after I perform on a Sunday night, I'm going to be in a rehearsal for a Broadway show," she adds, noting she's unable to reveal which show.

While Bergl might be best-known as the ditzy Beth, Paul Young's new wife, in the seventh season of TV's "Desperate Housewives," she is anything but that.

Bergl was born in Buckinghamshire, England; moved with her family to Chicago; was a national champion in Poetry Reading, National Forensic League; and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in English and Theater from Grinnell College, Iowa, which was Gary Cooper's alma mater. She studied at the Eugene O'Neill Center's National Theater Institute.

Bergl eschewed typecasting following her break-through role as Rachel Lang in the movie, "The Rage: Carrie 2." Bergl has had roles on TV's "Men in Trees" and "Southland."

A YouTube clip from "Desperate Housewives" depicts Bergl as Beth, juggling luggage, a goldfish in a water-filled bowl and a broken high heel. The scene was shot her first day on set.

"Not only did I have to carry suitcases with a broken heel while doing a monologue, but I was also responsible for that goldfish's life. And he lived," Bergl proudly reports.

"I turned down a lot of horror movies after 'Carrie.' After 'Carrie,' I did Broadway, rather than being a Scream Queen for the rest of my life."

In New York, Bergl was in the Pulitzer Prize-nominated play, "Becky Shaw," Second Stage Theatre; "Love, Loss and What I Wore," off-Broadway; "A Touch of the Poet," Roundabout Theatre, and "The Rivals," Lincoln Center.

"When I first came on 'Desperate Housewives,' people would come up to me and say how evil my character was. That was very surprising because I knew my character was not evil. I knew what a good heart she had. I later realized that was a strength because I like not knowing who exactly a character is.

"I take great pride in playing a good ditz. But I think that one's intelligence and imagination only helps one to understand those people better. I'm not coming from the perspective that they're stupid even if they actually are.

"That has really been one of my priorities in my career. Sometimes, I think I might have a more high-profile if I'd let myself be pigeon-holed as a television actress, or someone who always plays the same thing, the ditz, or the quirky girl.

"That's why I love cabaret. In one show, I can play all these different things," Bergl says.

"This show has gone through a lot more different versions on the road. 'NY I Love You' featured songs from a lot of different eras. 'Kidding on The Square' focuses more on old-fashioned entertainment and nostalgia for times past."

Like a true wordsmith, Bergl explains the derivation of her cabaret show's title:

"'Kidding on The Square' is an expression from the 1920's, and it means when you're joking about something but you really mean it.

"That's what the show is about. Even though there are comedic numbers, I believe that the basis for most comedy is pain."

Bergl is accompanied by Jonathan Mastro, music director-pianist. "He's my work husband," she quips, then says, "Honestly, though, doing a cabaret act is like a marriage, in all its glory and struggle."

Of "Kidding on The Square," which she has performed in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and New York, Bergl continues, "I want people to know that even though I am doing some wonderful old standards, there's also going to be [songs by] Madonna, Scissor Sisters and Lily Allen."

Upcoming, she appears in the film, "I Know What I'm Doing," and is working on a new CD. She'll sign copies of her CD, "Live at the Algonquin: Kidding on The Square," after her ArtsQuest performance.

But the big news is that Bergl plays an Upper East Side Lady in "The Woody Allen Spring Project."

"You know, I don't even care if my part gets cut down to one line or no lines. I got to say I was in a Woody Allen film," Bergl says.

You might say, or Emily Bergl might say, being in a Woody Allen movie is sine qua non among actors.

It's even better than autumnal.