Actors Say ‘Nunsense’ Is ‘Ridiculous,’ ‘Crazy,’ ‘Absurd’ Fun
August 11, 2021 at 3:44 p.m.
Actors Say ‘Nunsense’ Is ‘Ridiculous,’ ‘Crazy,’ ‘Absurd’ Fun
By David [email protected]
“I feel like the biggest thing for me is that I want people to be able to come and see the show and just laugh. And enjoy it and feel like they have the freedom to participate,” said Laura Guley, who plays Sister Mary Leo, in an interview Monday. “It’s really not a show where it’s actors and audience. It’s like we’re all together in the same thing, and I want them to really feel like they’re in this world with us and they have the freedom to laugh and shout out things and just be in the story as well, because that’s what will make it the most fun for us, selfishly, and also for the audience as well.”
Micaela Lamas, who is playing Sister Mary Hubert, said, “And also just accept that it’s like completely ridiculous and that we really can say anything in a nun habit and it’s crazy.”
“The whole situation of the plot is just so absurd, having five people in full habits, you know, flipping their little nun skirts around. Tap dancing in their habits. All of it is just in good humor, just a fun, absurd, wild time,” said Haley Holcomb, who plays Sister Robert Anne.
“Nunsense” is a musical farce about a convent of nuns staging a fundraiser to enable them to bury the last four nuns of their order who died of botulism in an unfortunate convent cooking accident. The last four nuns are temporarily being stored in the freezer, according to a short synopsis of the musical on the Wagon Wheel website at www.wagonwheelcenter.org.
“We put on this musical comedy show in hopes to raise money, but we’re on this junior high school set of ‘Grease’ because we can’t do it anywhere else,” Lamas said. “So, yeah, we’re putting on this show to raise money to bury the rest of the sisters.”
Guley said Mother Superior picked the five best surviving nuns to put on the show to raise money for the burials, “and that’s us!”
Lamas, in describing Sister Mary Hubert, said, “She’s kind of like the second-in-command in the convent. She’s the mistress of novices, and she kind of takes care of things when Reverend Mother goes awry. She’s basically holding the convent together.”
She said Hubert is grounded and keeps herself confined so she doesn’t say anything wrong, especially to Reverend Mother because she wants to be Mother Superior one day. “So she can’t really speak her mind much, but she shows it on her face,” Lamas said.
Guley said Sister Mary Leo is the “novice, youngest, newest edition” to the convent and wears a white veil. “She wants to be a ballerina. Her dream is to become the world’s first nun ballerina. So she loves to incorporate ballet into whatever she does. She does, like many of the other nuns, have a dream to be in the spotlight, but her dream is to be in a tutu and do her little ballet dance and dedicate her life to God through that way,” Guley said.
She said she does point shoe ballet for a couple of numbers in “Nunsense.” She used to do a lot of point work in high school. In college, she got out of point practice a little but tried to keep up with it, not only because she loved it but also because it’s a skill that could come in handy, like for “Nunsense.”
“(Artistic Director) Scott (Michaels emailed me and, before we started the contract, he’s like, ‘Laura, how is your point work?’ And I was like, ‘You know what, for you, Scott, it’s great. I’ll do it,’” Guley recalled.
Sister Robert Anne, Holcomb said, grew up in Brooklyn and is really tough, but also is good-humored and loves to pull a practical joke.
“She became a nun because she went to Catholic school with some other really amazing nuns who led that school there. But she also – like the other nuns – wants to be a star, so she’s really excited when this little show-within-a-show moment comes around, but she unfortunately gets cast as the understudy, at first, so she kind of spends some time at the beginning of the show sort of plotting and trying to figure out how she can get her big moment and get her song into the show. She’s a fun one,” Holcomb said.
Rounding out the five-member cast of “Nunsense” is Kira Lace Hawkins as Sister Mary Amnesia and Kathy Hawkins as Mother Superior.
“It’s so fun!” Lamas said of working with the Hawkins women.
“I mean, Kira is one of the most generous and talented actors that I have ever worked with,” Guley said.
Holcomb said “Nunsense” is Kira’s fourth show this season and she’s been incredible in each production. “She’s just a joy to watch her work,” she said. “And Kathy is a hoot and a half!”
“She’s amazing,” Guley said. “She has really taken this, and like grabbing the material and running with it. She is really making it her own”
Guley, Lamas and Holcomb all agreed they’re having a lot of fun with “Nunsense,” the last show of the Wagon Wheel’s 65th season.
“It’s a nice way to close out an exhausting and long summer with just a fun show, a small group of people, who you love, and just to have fun,” Guley said.
It’s the first time Guley, Lamas or Holcomb have ever appeared in “Nunsense,” but Holcomb grew up Catholic so she’s been around nuns before. She said the nuns she grew up around were nothing like the nuns in this farce.
“I think that it’s all in good fun and good spirit, and it’s still very respectful of the fact that we are nuns and religious, but they’re definitely funny and very show bizzy. And they just all want to be a star and they just want the audience to get hear them sing and make them laugh and whatnot,” Holcomb said.
Guley said “Nunsense” would be like the Whoopi Goldberg movie “Sister Act” if Goldberg’s character, Delores, were all five of the nuns in “Nunsense.”
Lamas said with only five women in “Nunsense,” “We have group numbers, and then each of us gets maybe a duet or two, and then a solo. There’s a lot of songs.”
Guley said there’s not a lot of “book” scenes, they just basically go from “song to song to song” with a little bit of set-up in between. That makes the show go fast.
The songs are a mix of genres, from doo-wop to pop, gospel to country and even a couple of “just big Broadway kind of classic show-stopping numbers,” Guley said.
As for favorite songs, she said, “I think my favorite, once I finally lock down the lyrics, because it is a mouthful, is ‘Clean out the Freezer.’ I just think the situational comedy of that song is just so good and I find myself laughing as I’m singing it because it is so absurd and it is so much to play situational comedy. I love it.”
Lamas said her favorite number is “Holier Than Thou” because it’s a big finishing number and reminds her of a number Delores would sing in “Sister Act.” “It’s so fun,” she said.
Along with a variety of numbers, audiences can expect crowd interaction from the cast.
Holcomb explained, “There is a lot of audience interaction, just kind of us coming up and through. But there is a big quiz, so we give the history of our convent in a couple of songs, and then there’s a quiz on it, so be paying attention because there are prizes and it’s a very fun time. Just some fun call-outs back and forth with the audience. We teach you all a little cheer that we get to do a few times throughout the show. It’s just a fun time for everybody.”
Lamas said the show calls for improvisation so the different answers from the audience each night will be “fun to riff off of.”
“We will never be able to prepare to how the audience is going to react each night,” Guley said. “... We all have to be on our toes all the time.”
“I feel like the biggest thing for me is that I want people to be able to come and see the show and just laugh. And enjoy it and feel like they have the freedom to participate,” said Laura Guley, who plays Sister Mary Leo, in an interview Monday. “It’s really not a show where it’s actors and audience. It’s like we’re all together in the same thing, and I want them to really feel like they’re in this world with us and they have the freedom to laugh and shout out things and just be in the story as well, because that’s what will make it the most fun for us, selfishly, and also for the audience as well.”
Micaela Lamas, who is playing Sister Mary Hubert, said, “And also just accept that it’s like completely ridiculous and that we really can say anything in a nun habit and it’s crazy.”
“The whole situation of the plot is just so absurd, having five people in full habits, you know, flipping their little nun skirts around. Tap dancing in their habits. All of it is just in good humor, just a fun, absurd, wild time,” said Haley Holcomb, who plays Sister Robert Anne.
“Nunsense” is a musical farce about a convent of nuns staging a fundraiser to enable them to bury the last four nuns of their order who died of botulism in an unfortunate convent cooking accident. The last four nuns are temporarily being stored in the freezer, according to a short synopsis of the musical on the Wagon Wheel website at www.wagonwheelcenter.org.
“We put on this musical comedy show in hopes to raise money, but we’re on this junior high school set of ‘Grease’ because we can’t do it anywhere else,” Lamas said. “So, yeah, we’re putting on this show to raise money to bury the rest of the sisters.”
Guley said Mother Superior picked the five best surviving nuns to put on the show to raise money for the burials, “and that’s us!”
Lamas, in describing Sister Mary Hubert, said, “She’s kind of like the second-in-command in the convent. She’s the mistress of novices, and she kind of takes care of things when Reverend Mother goes awry. She’s basically holding the convent together.”
She said Hubert is grounded and keeps herself confined so she doesn’t say anything wrong, especially to Reverend Mother because she wants to be Mother Superior one day. “So she can’t really speak her mind much, but she shows it on her face,” Lamas said.
Guley said Sister Mary Leo is the “novice, youngest, newest edition” to the convent and wears a white veil. “She wants to be a ballerina. Her dream is to become the world’s first nun ballerina. So she loves to incorporate ballet into whatever she does. She does, like many of the other nuns, have a dream to be in the spotlight, but her dream is to be in a tutu and do her little ballet dance and dedicate her life to God through that way,” Guley said.
She said she does point shoe ballet for a couple of numbers in “Nunsense.” She used to do a lot of point work in high school. In college, she got out of point practice a little but tried to keep up with it, not only because she loved it but also because it’s a skill that could come in handy, like for “Nunsense.”
“(Artistic Director) Scott (Michaels emailed me and, before we started the contract, he’s like, ‘Laura, how is your point work?’ And I was like, ‘You know what, for you, Scott, it’s great. I’ll do it,’” Guley recalled.
Sister Robert Anne, Holcomb said, grew up in Brooklyn and is really tough, but also is good-humored and loves to pull a practical joke.
“She became a nun because she went to Catholic school with some other really amazing nuns who led that school there. But she also – like the other nuns – wants to be a star, so she’s really excited when this little show-within-a-show moment comes around, but she unfortunately gets cast as the understudy, at first, so she kind of spends some time at the beginning of the show sort of plotting and trying to figure out how she can get her big moment and get her song into the show. She’s a fun one,” Holcomb said.
Rounding out the five-member cast of “Nunsense” is Kira Lace Hawkins as Sister Mary Amnesia and Kathy Hawkins as Mother Superior.
“It’s so fun!” Lamas said of working with the Hawkins women.
“I mean, Kira is one of the most generous and talented actors that I have ever worked with,” Guley said.
Holcomb said “Nunsense” is Kira’s fourth show this season and she’s been incredible in each production. “She’s just a joy to watch her work,” she said. “And Kathy is a hoot and a half!”
“She’s amazing,” Guley said. “She has really taken this, and like grabbing the material and running with it. She is really making it her own”
Guley, Lamas and Holcomb all agreed they’re having a lot of fun with “Nunsense,” the last show of the Wagon Wheel’s 65th season.
“It’s a nice way to close out an exhausting and long summer with just a fun show, a small group of people, who you love, and just to have fun,” Guley said.
It’s the first time Guley, Lamas or Holcomb have ever appeared in “Nunsense,” but Holcomb grew up Catholic so she’s been around nuns before. She said the nuns she grew up around were nothing like the nuns in this farce.
“I think that it’s all in good fun and good spirit, and it’s still very respectful of the fact that we are nuns and religious, but they’re definitely funny and very show bizzy. And they just all want to be a star and they just want the audience to get hear them sing and make them laugh and whatnot,” Holcomb said.
Guley said “Nunsense” would be like the Whoopi Goldberg movie “Sister Act” if Goldberg’s character, Delores, were all five of the nuns in “Nunsense.”
Lamas said with only five women in “Nunsense,” “We have group numbers, and then each of us gets maybe a duet or two, and then a solo. There’s a lot of songs.”
Guley said there’s not a lot of “book” scenes, they just basically go from “song to song to song” with a little bit of set-up in between. That makes the show go fast.
The songs are a mix of genres, from doo-wop to pop, gospel to country and even a couple of “just big Broadway kind of classic show-stopping numbers,” Guley said.
As for favorite songs, she said, “I think my favorite, once I finally lock down the lyrics, because it is a mouthful, is ‘Clean out the Freezer.’ I just think the situational comedy of that song is just so good and I find myself laughing as I’m singing it because it is so absurd and it is so much to play situational comedy. I love it.”
Lamas said her favorite number is “Holier Than Thou” because it’s a big finishing number and reminds her of a number Delores would sing in “Sister Act.” “It’s so fun,” she said.
Along with a variety of numbers, audiences can expect crowd interaction from the cast.
Holcomb explained, “There is a lot of audience interaction, just kind of us coming up and through. But there is a big quiz, so we give the history of our convent in a couple of songs, and then there’s a quiz on it, so be paying attention because there are prizes and it’s a very fun time. Just some fun call-outs back and forth with the audience. We teach you all a little cheer that we get to do a few times throughout the show. It’s just a fun time for everybody.”
Lamas said the show calls for improvisation so the different answers from the audience each night will be “fun to riff off of.”
“We will never be able to prepare to how the audience is going to react each night,” Guley said. “... We all have to be on our toes all the time.”
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