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Written by Carrie O’Hara, for NEXTnc
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Friday, 01 December 2006 |
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 Look out northern Colorado, the nuns are coming to town.
No, not the nuns who protest the U.S. military industrial complex by breaking into missile silos. No, the ones who solve holiday mysteries.
Kick off this holiday season with “Sister’s Christmas Catechism: The Mystery of the Magi’s Gold” at Union Colony Civic Center.
Mary Pat Donovan created the adventures of “Sister” in Chicago nine years ago, with the original play “Late Nite Catechism.”
Fans of the “Sister” plays can see the third installment, the Catholic take on Christmas. The story is about Sister, a Catholic nun who is trying to solve the mystery of what happened to the Magi gold given to baby Jesus. Sister uses modern-day technology to find the answer to this age-old riddle, a la crime scene investigation shows like CSI. It is a one-woman show that is partially scripted and partially improvised. During the second act, some audience members are brought on to stage to participate in the living nativity.
Nonie Newton Breen brings Sister to life in the Greeley showing. Breen has been a professional actress for 35 years. As Sister, she has the gig of a lifetime with endless job security. The Catechism shows are sold out across the country.
Actresses who portray Sister like Breen are constantly on the road trying to keep up with the demand of the show.
“There aren’t many middle-aged actresses that work this steadily,” Breen said.
Breen was raised as one of nine children in an Irish Catholic family in Chicago.
“Whenever the nuns from school called the house they were always looking for me. My mom thinks it is great that at this part of my life I had to learn so much Catholic knowledge and dogma for this part, she thinks it is a great payback. Who says God doesn’t have a sense of humor?” Breen said.
One of the qualities that Breen likes so much about the Sister plays is that it is a fun take on the Catholic religion, rather than cynical.
“Part of the success of our shows as opposed to other dark takes on the Catholic church is that we don’t make fun of the church, we have fun. That is part of the reason we have been running for so long,” Breen said.
For Breen, who fell away from Catholicism during the 1960s and 1970s, this play has been a return to the religion she was raised in. She has come out of this with a positive view of the Catholic church.
“I have met so many wonderful nuns and priests and have seen the work they do. Nuns have been our teachers, our nurses, our missionaries. It has been a gift for me personally to meet so many of them,” Breen said. | Only registered users can write comments.
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