This is Morgan Wood’s first season at the Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts, but her role in “Sister Act” is her last for the 2016 summer at the Warsaw theater. She’s going out in a big way though, playing the main role of Deloris Van Cartier in “Sister Act,” made famous by Whoopi Goldberg in the 1992 movie version. “It’s pretty awesome,” Wood said in an interview Monday afternoon. “I’m quite honored actually because Whoopi Goldberg is insane. She’s started out so young herself and has had quite the career, but I think ‘Sister Act’ is one of her huge breakthrough roles. And her comedic timing, as well as her interaction with the nuns and her partner work with them, is something that I aspire to so it’s been really cool to kind of try and follow in her footsteps, as well as Tina Miller’s who starred in the original Broadway production on the West End. They’re both great, great to look up.” “Sister Act” is at the Wagon Wheel through July 23. Tickets are on sale at the box office, over the phone at 574-267-8041 and online at wagonwheelcenter.org. Prices range from $14 for children to $34 for adults. According to a synopsis of “Sister Act the Musical” on allmusicals.com, Van Cartier is a female singer who wants to make changes in her life but isn’t sure about the way to go about that. She witnesses her boyfriend and his accomplices kill a man, and she flees. Her boyfriend, a gangster, orders his boys to get her back, and Van Cartier goes to the police. The police chief of the shift is her former classmate, Eddie, who puts her in the witness protection program. Eddie puts her where he says no one will find her — a monastery. Van Cartier learns from the Mother Superior that the nuns have limited contact with the outside world along with a whole set of rules that Van Cartier doesn’t like. She also learns each nun’s story. After several incidents, Van Cartier ends up leading the monastery’s choir. The choir does well, and Van Cartier’s boyfriend learns of Van Cartier’s whereabouts, leading to a confrontation, the website states. Wood said the book for the musical of “Sister Act” is very similar to the storyline of the movie. Some characters are more drawn out in the musical than in the movie. “I think the major difference between the musical and the movie is that the music the nuns sing in the movie is not the music we use in the musical. It’s actually an original score by Alan Menken. So we have all new music in this show and it’s really fun and bright,” she said. The music in the musical compares really well to the movie’s music, she said. “It’s still that high energy, fun, lots of nun dancing type of music. It’s really fun. I love the music in the show,” she said. The music has an eclectic feel to it because that’s what the decade of the 1970s was like. “There was a ton of different kinds of music – like you have Donna Summer, Diahann Carroll and just like budding musicians. Budding genres of music. And there’s a lot of ‘Play That Funky Music’ kind of feel to the show, as well as some really beautiful ballads that are very reminiscent of Alan Menken’s Disney work. It’s just an eclectic feel and a lot of different kinds of music that all people can enjoy,” she said. In the musical, Wood said Van Cartier embraces her inner disco queen a lot more. Wood also gets to bring a little of herself to the role. “It’s a lot of Morgan having too much fun on stage,” she said with a laugh. “So I think I definitely get to incorporate a lot of my own mannerisms and energy, but also try to stay true to the story and contributing what I can to it.” Wood, an Indianapolis native, will be a junior this fall at Otterbein University, studying musical theater. She fell in love with the stage at a very young age. “My parents told me about the times where I would be 3 years old and watching a Shirley Temple sing-along in my basement, and I would dance to it like it was my job,” she recalled. “And I also grew up on a lot of Andrew Lloyd Webber, so like the original filming of ‘Cats’ and ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.’ And I grew up with all of those films and just completely fell in love with singing, dancing and acting. Three years old – that’s kind of where it started.” She found out about the Wagon Wheel by word of mouth. “Two of our alums, Allyson and Monica, now graduated from Otterbein University, worked here for a couple of summers in a row and they had nothing but good things to say about this amazing program and summer stock. So I auditioned and was fortunate and blessed enough to be cast in the company,” Wood explained. In “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” Wood had the role of Miss Loren and scrubwoman. Then in “Ragtime” she was part of the Harlem ensemble. To see the full 10-minute interview with Wood, visit the free video section of the Times-Union website at www.timesuniononline.com
