THEATRE + COMEDY

KVPAC's Encore Players wrap up final rehearsals this week in time to mount Dan Goggin’s musical comedy sensation, Nunsense. Directed by Gregory Magyar, this 1986 Outer Critics’ Circle Award Winner for Best Off-Broadway Musical will run two weekends, May 13-15 and 20-22, 2011. All shows begin at 8:00pm, except for Sunday's performances which are matinees and will begin at 2:00pm.

Nunsense originated as a line of greeting cards featuring a nun offering tart quips with a clerical slant. The cards caught on so quickly that Goggin decided to expand the concept into a cabaret show called The Nunsense Story, which ran for 38 weeks, and then into a full-length theater production off-Broadway. “I spent a great deal of my life around nuns and most of my experiences left wonderful memories,” says Mr. Goggin. “I wrote Nunsense because I wanted to share what I knew to be the ‘humor of the nun’. Though it may be hard to believe, each of the Little Sisters of Hoboken is based on a real-life nun.”

Synopsis: Five of the 19 surviving Little Sisters of Hoboken, a one-time missionary order that ran a leper colony on an island south of France, discover that their cook, Sister Julia, Child of God, accidentally killed the other fifty-two residents of the convent with her tainted vichyssoise while they were off playing bingo with a group of Maryknolls. Upon discovering the disaster, Mother Superior had a vision in which she was told to start a greeting card company to raise funds for the burials. The greeting cards were an enormous success and, thinking there was plenty of money, the Reverend Mother bought a blue ray DVD player for the convent, leaving her with no money in the kitty to pay for the last four burials.

With the deceased nuns on ice in the deep freeze, they decide to stage a variety show in the Mount Saint Helen's School auditorium to raise the necessary amount. Participating in the project are Mother Superior Mary Regina (Elizabeth Mace), a former circus performer who cannot resist the spotlight; her competitive but dignified rival, second-in-command Sister Mary Hubert (Donna Wheaton); Sister Robert Anne (Carolyn Lacy), a streetwise nun from Brooklyn; Sister Mary Leo (Lauren Bowler), a novice who is determined to be the world's first ballerina nun; and wacky, childlike Sister Mary Amnesia (Amanda Barker), who lost her memory when a crucifix fell on her head. The entertainment that they present includes solo star turns, madcap dance routines, and an audience quiz.

“The thing that makes this show really connect with audiences is that it isn’t making fun of nuns,” says Gregory Magyar. “Instead, it is a celebration of their humanness and love for their faith and what they do.”

The original production of Nunsense opened December 12, 1985, running for 3,672 performances and becoming the second-longest-running Off-Broadway show in history (after The Fantasticks). By the time it closed, it had become an international phenomenon translated into 26 languages with more than 8,000 productions. More than 25,000 women (and even a few good men!) have played in Nunsense productions worldwide. The show has since been adapted for television and has spawned six sequels and three spin-offs. It is a popular choice of community theatre and summer stock troupes. Encore Players proudly presents it to Katy.