Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
One thing to watch out for is "drunk Catholic girls," says Aubrey Manning. "They'll come to the show as a group, usually on Friday nights, maybe after a bachelorette party or a wedding or baby shower. They can be pretty raucous and rowdy, ready to rock 'n' roll.
"My stage manager will give me a warning before I come on. But, you know, they settle down when they see me in costume. There's something intimidating about that old-fashioned nun costume."
Manning is reminiscing (by phone) about her years as the centerpiece of "Late Nite Catechism," a one-nun show that has been running since June 1999 at ACT Theatre. Before that it played for a year and a half in the basement of First Covenant Church on Capitol Hill. It is Seattle's longest-running theatrical attraction.
"Catechism" has been produced in most big U.S. cities and in London, Dublin and Sydney. The Chicago staging, with 14 years playing in one theater or another, holds the longevity record.
Sister -- that's her full name as far as Chicago playwrights Maripat Donovan and Vicki Quade are concerned -- runs what purports to be a religious-education class for people who have missed out on your standard parochial-school curriculum. Sister is a veteran of traditional pedagogy. She has a chair made out of broken rulers to prove it. The rulers splintered during the many times Sister administered stern corporal correction to bad boys (with which the world is overrun, according to Sister's observation).
But the church has changed, methods have changed, and sister has been relegated to teaching doctrine to adults. Dressed in a traditional early 20th-century habit -- which she refers to as "25 pounds of black gabardine" -- Sister presents oddments of church history, tradition and dogma, interlarded with personal reminiscences and opinions.
"But this is interactive theater," Manning notes. "You throw out questions about scripture and saints and so on, and give rewards to good students." Rewards might include a glow-in-the-dark rosary or holy cards illustrated with images of saints and martyrs. "I always look at Catholic calendars before each show, so I know which saint's feast day it is," Manning says. "Since there are 4,800 saints, I have to look at several different calendars -- some will list one and others will list another."
Audience members will receive special recognition on their saint's day. Manning, however, cannot qualify for any such celebration. "My infant names included Barbara and Ursula," she says. "But both of them have now been knocked off the official feast day calendar."
Manning works year in, year out, 12 months a year playing Sister. Her husband, Rob, is also a performer. He is the pianist at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel's Terrace Lounge. "We don't get real vacations," she says. "But we grab a few days away now and then." Earlier this week, they were at Whistler in British Columbia to "vegetate." The couple has two teenage sons.
When a show runs for years, things wear out. How has that been for "Late Nite Catechism"?
"Well, the costume gets a lot of wear," Manning says, "especially the wimple, the white cloth that holds back your hair. I pin it to keep it in place. Finally it was just ragged. The ACT costume shop built a new one for me -- with Velcro. But I still pin it. It don't trust Velcro."
A peculiarity of an old-fashioned nun's habit is that it completely hides details of body shape. "During the first three years I was in the role," Manning recalls, "I gained 10 pounds a year. I just kind of forgot about my body. But I noticed that the habit wasn't coming down as far in front as it should, and I asked my producer (Ron Paskin of Cloud 9 Productions) if he thought I was shrinking. He just took a breath and didn't say anything.
"When I was up to 200 pounds, I got into a weight-loss program and lost 72 pounds."
Though "Catechism" just keeps going and going, it may be approaching the end of its run. "May was hard," Manning says. "For the first time we had to cancel some shows and return money to people who had bought tickets. Supposedly we don't play to less than 20 people (in a room designed for an audience of 140). But I've played for an audience of nine -- if they show up, OK, I'll do a show for them.
"Things have picked up during the summer. We have groups. And we get what you might call recidivist, even rapid recidivists. Someone will see the show and then come back next week with a group of friends and family. Since it's interactive, with an element of improvisation, no two shows are ever exactly the same.
"Actual nuns who come are restrained, but priests -- they're bouncing off the walls.
"I'd like to see us continue at least through the winter so we can celebrate the show's anniversary."
"Late Nite Catechism" plays at ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., Thursdays-Sundays. Tickets: $24.50-$29.50 at 206-292-7676.
To see more of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, for online features, or to subscribe, go to http://seattlep-I.com.
© 1998-2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. All Rights Reserved.
