What do you have when you mix singing and dancing and joking around with an improbable plot? Musical comedy, right you are, and New York theater has turned out some of the best of them. Among them we have to put Nunsense, words and music by Dan Groggin, coming to Kelseyville for two weekends in May, and to Lower Lake for two weekends in June.
Fortunately for us, the Lakeport Community Players and the Lake County Repertory Theater, two of Lake County”s most capable theater companies, have combined their talents to bring this treat to us. From among them, director Carol Dobusch has recruited 20 actors to play nuns and priests, ready to be rollicking.
In many ways, this is a landmark production for Lake County. Aside from being more expensive to stage than anything that went before, what with all those costumes and high royalties and months of rehearsals, it is going to be Lake”s first production “in the round,” the first by a coalition of production companies, and the first with tap-dancing nuns.
The plot, what there is of it, revolves around a great tragedy and a great need, and the way a convent faces and, with a stroke of luck thrown in, overcomes all difficulties. In other hands, this could make for some hard sledding, but in the hands of the Little Sisters of Hoboken it is funny from the opening note to the terminal gasp. I hesitate to give away much of the story. It has its own way of unfolding. I can say that even given the overwhelming economic need that the sisters are presented with, a bake sale is perhaps not appropriate.
The roles are taken by local actors and actresses, some of whom, like Suna Flores for instance, are known for strong dramatic acting. Suna was the star of “Wit,” a really moving drama about death by cancer, that the Repertory produced with great sophistication in the Lower Lake Schoolhouse Museum a few years ago. Kathleen Escudee, Merry Lloyd, Claudia Listman and Becky Martin are well-known voices around the county, but all of the cast is really good. Rod Rehe is the able choreo-grapher.
This drama could not have been put on the boards without the generous help of the Kelseyville Presbyterian Church, which made its Friendship Hall available for months of rehearsals at an affordable rate. To produce a musical with a large cast, live music, choreography, and tap-dancing nuns, requires a lot of rehearsal time. The Friendship Hall has been the host of previous shows, among them “Brigadoon” put on by the Student Summer Theater a few years ago, and “Comedy on Tilt” last year.
“Nunsense” will be presented on the weekends of May 11 to 13 and 18 to 20, in the Friendship Hall of the Kelseyville Presbyterian Church, and on June 1 to 3 and 8 to 10 in the Lower Lake Schoolhouse Museum. Showtimes are 7 p.m. for Friday and Saturday shows, 2 p.m. for Sundays. Tickets can be purchased at the Lower Lake Museum, Lake County Arts Council, Head Feathers Salon, Catfish Books, and Shannon Ridge Winery, or for the confidant, at the door.
