THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 12, 1996 TAG: 9601100174
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
STARTING TONIGHT, Chesapeake residents will be able to beat the post holiday blues with a good shot of ``Nunsense.''
The Virginia Beach-based Actors' Theatre will bring its production of Dan Goggin's popular and critically acclaimed family musical comedy ``Nunsense,'' chronicling the adventures of the Order of the Little Sisters of Hoboken, to the stage of the Oscar Smith High School Little Theater this weekend and the next.
And when it comes to comedy, the Actors' Theatre knows its stuff.
``This is our third season,'' said Actors' Theatre artistic director Joe Sasso. ``All we've done is comedy. Around this time, people need to laugh. We found out through surveys that most communities really want comedies. And we do it well, we think.''
But don't take Sasso's word for it.
In a review that appeared in the Dec. 11 edition of The Virginian-Pilot, theater critic Mal Vincent said the Actors' Theatre production has laughs aplenty.
``In this sassy and charmingly irreverent outing, the laughs are there,'' he wrote. ``There are shameless puns on everything regarding nuns and habits. There are vaudeville turns for each of the five hard-working talented actresses: Mary Christine Danner, Laurel Held, June Montgomery, Anne Morton and Alyson Shedd. They work as a team and they get a good deal out of this one-joke parade. . . . These nuns are lovable beings out for a worldly, but naive outing. They are warm and usually funny.
``There's singing, ballet and ventriloquism. The cast has the spirit and seems to know that they're borrowing more from `Saturday Night Live' than from `The Sound of Music.' ''
One doesn't have to know about nuns and convents to enjoy the production, said Alyson Shedd, who plays Sister Mary Leo and is a music teacher at Georgetown Primary School. She was chosen 1995 Chesapeake Elementary School Teacher of the Year.
``It's a fun production, that's for sure,'' Shedd said. ``It was written in 1985, but we've modernized it a bit for the '90s. And you don't have to be Catholic to enjoy it. It's a comedy that will appeal to all ages and all types of people. It's not sacrilegious at all and it doesn't poke fun at Catholicism or religion. I wouldn't be a part of the production if it did. It just pokes fun at people, the way `Sister Act' does.''
Shedd said the production not only has lots of jokes, schtick and slapstick, but it's loaded with songs and dance production numbers thanks to the expertise of director/choreographer Susan Browney-Moyer, a 30-year dance veteran who has choreographed numerous musicals.
Browney-Moyer is a former L.A. Rockette and a professional model who currently owns and operates Golden Slippers Dance Academy.
``There are at least 25 songs and production numbers,'' Shedd said. ``So far, our audiences have loved it. I had one person tell me that it's so funny that it's over before you know it. I know of many, many people who have come back to see it again. They liked it so much and they always bring more people back with them to enjoy it.''
``We want to put a smile on everybody's face and give people a few chuckles,'' Sasso said. ILLUSTRATION: Photos, including cover, courtesy of ACTORS THEATRE
Alyson Shedd, Laurel Held, M.C. Danner, June Montgomery and Anne
Morton finish off one of the many song-and-dance numbers
choreographed by director/choreographer Susan Browney-Moyer.
``MC'' Danner, a California native who has sung with the Virginia
Opera and appeared on the Family Network's ``Big Brother Jake,''
plays Mother Superior, Sister Mary Regina.
Photo by ERIN COLLINS
Laurel Held, Alyson Shedd, June Montgomery and Anne Morton, as the
naive nuns in the Order of the Little Sisters of Hoboken, take a
spin out into the world in a scene from ``Nunsense.''
Box
The Story, The Nuns, The Cast
For complete text, see microfilm
by CNB