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Show "fV 14 Vernal Express Wednesday, April 14, 1993 Smash hit 'Nunsense' to be presented at USU ttHneattire by Melanie Morrison Express Writer Some musicals have been based on plays, books, movies, newspaper articles and even comic strips, but how about a musical inspired by a line of nuns' greeting cards? "Nunsense," the USU dinner theater the-ater musical that opens Thursday night, was triggered by the popular line of greeting cards of the same name created by writercomposer Dan Goggin and actress Marilyn Farina. The cards feature photos of Farina garbed as a Mother Superior in a variety of comic situations with greetings suitable for birthdays, valentines, thank-yous and sappy occasions. One- card shows Ms. Farina in her black and white habit, checking the chin of a store window mannequin, also dressed as a nun. The greeting card reads: "Happy Birthday, Dummy!" "Nunsense" was first tried as a workshop production at the Baldwin Theatre on West 74th Street in Manhattan. It was extremely well received. "We knew we had to go off-Broadway with it," said Goggin, "but we didn't know anyone who particularly wanted to produce a r" DEMONSTRATING THE cookbook which bears the recipe that killed 48 sisters in their convent are Sister Hubert, Sister Amnesia and the Mother Superior. 'Night of 1 ,000 Stars' welcomes celebrities from area schools CENTRAL'S PRINCIPAL, Ken Morgan will present pre-sent poetry written by Robert Service on his fa musical about nuns-five live and four frozen. I had done a lot of industrial in-dustrial shows, so I decided to produce pro-duce it myself. I didn't know how I did it, but I raised $150,000." Goggin not only produced the show, but wrote and directed it. For economy's sake he also designed the nun's costumes, purposely avoiding a habit worn by an existing order because he didn't want any convent accusing him of impersonating imperson-ating them. Goggin says he really likes nuns. He says he likes them so much that he wanted to write a show that would portray them the way he remembered re-membered them: as fun-loving, good-natured, and just plain nice people. Goggin was raised in the Roman Catholic Church with sisters all around him. In an interview with the Catholic Standard and Times he recalled that he always had a good experience with nuns and a lot of respect re-spect for them. The order of the Little Sisters of Hoboken, affectionately known as the "Little Hobos," has a problem. Botulism, caused by contaminated vichyssoise unleased by the culinary efforts of Sister Julia, Child of God, has killed 48 members of the order. All but four have been buried; their bodies remain in the convent's . I ',;Llf V f vorite subject, Alaska during Night of a Thousand Stars at the Uintah County Library. freezer because the Mother Superior used money from the burial buri-al funds to buy a beta max video recorder. To raise more funds, the sisters forgo the usual bingo games and stage a variety show in the auditorium auditori-um of the school they operate. Each of the five nuns have their own personality which have been developed by their actresses. Marci Devilbiss plays Sister Mary Amnesia, the tiny one with the teeth and vacant look of adoration who lost her memory when a crucifix fell on her head. However, Sister Amnesia has a feeling that she wants to be a country-western singer. "This has been one of the most vocally difficult characters I've ever played," Devilbiss said. She explained that in one scene she has to throw her voice between a puppet and the character and go from high to low octaves. Devilbiss said Sister Amnesia is the comedian of the five nuns. Because she has amnesia Devilbiss mmmmam i mmmmm ntMffl yw&a,, - v ' f if ... - -1 THE DYING nun, Sister Mary Taunia Wheeler. SHEER NUNSENSE is Devilbiss, Joyce Orton, (left Betty said that at several points during the musical, her lines are "I forgot." Therefore, if a line is overlooked, Devilbiss can improvise with a "I forgot" and get away with it She calls Sister Amnesia the "typical blond." Leo, short for leotard, played by In recognition of National Library Week, April 18-24, the Uintah County Library and Uintah Basin Reading Council will be hosting a "Night of a Thousand Stars" on Wednesday, April 21, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in various locations loca-tions at the Library. This will be a very special night' where families are invited to participate partic-ipate in a free program featuring the elementary principals in the Uintah School District Council spokesperson, spokesper-son, Pam Hatch, said the program has been adjusted to meet the needs of the community. Reading and story telling will be presented in the doll room by Mr. Andreasen of Ashley Elementary and Mr. Gurney from Discovery. Andreasen said he has selected stories sto-ries from the McGuffey Readers, one of America's first readers and Mr. Andreasen's more memorable children's books. It is a collection of short stories written by various authors and includes stories, poetry and thoughts. Over 150 years ago American children learned to read from this set of books. They were published in the 1800s by William H. McGuffey and used by children when they started school. Mr. Morgan from Central Elementary and Mr. Merkley of Lapoint will be reciting stories and poetry on Alaska and Somoa in the multi-purpose room at the Library. Morgan spent several years in Nome, Alaska where he taught students stu-dents in one-room schools in Eskimo villages. His favorite poet is Robert Service, the author of "The Cremation of Sam McGee" and other Alaskan gold rush tales. See Night page 16 to right), Marci Griffin, Taunia Devilbiss is a veteran to USU din- ner theatre having performed in every ev-ery USU production since the late 1970s except one. In addition, she has performed in many other productions pro-ductions including the lead in two Outlaw Trail plays. Sister Mary Leo (short for leotard) is the novice, played by Taunia Wheeler. Sister Leo is named because be-cause of her desire to be a ballerina. "She is always dancing and interprets inter-prets whatever is happening in her dance," Wheeler said. This was an easy character for Wheeler to develop devel-op because, as Wheeler admits, when she was the age of Sister Leo, she too wanted to be a ballerina. As everyone knows, Wheeler is putting her life-long dream into many of the Uintah Basin's young ballerinas with her dance school. Wheeler is also a veteran to USU theatre. She has performed in Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, South Pacific, Man of LaMancha and Broadway Review, among others. . The street-wise character of Sister Robert Ann is played by Wheeler's daughter, Devini Hill. This is Hill's first encounter with USU theatre and says she loves it The character is very contradictory contradicto-ry for Hill. Sister Robert Ann is a non-caring character with a "heart of gold" and a spiritual side. She was raised in a dysfunctional family without a father and a mother who was always gone. This caused the sister to get into trouble and eventually eventu-ally sent to St. Claire's School of the Deplorable. Hill said this is where Sister Robert Ann develops 'M l I v Ml DIXIE ALLEN, Davis Elementary principal, will present information on horses, horse care and rodeos. TV- If 1 ' n FRANK ANDREASEN. princiDal reads from the McGuffey Readers. Wheeler and Devini Hill. They are performing the off-Broadway hit starting Thursday evening. her faith. "The character was very hard for me to develop. It is contradictory to Devini. Sister Robert Ann portrays the air that she doesn't care what people think about her and I'm definitely defi-nitely not like that" Hill explained that in order to develop de-velop her character, she read and reread her lines and analyzed what the sister would do in different situations. situ-ations. Nunsense is Hill's first on-stage production with USU. She has assisted as-sisted her mother with the choreography choreog-raphy in various productions, but not actually worked on stage with USU. She has been seen in lead roles while attending Uintah High School and has performed in the Outlaw Trail Festival. This convent is lead by the wisdom wis-dom of Mother Superior, played by Roosevelt resident Betty Griffin. Mother Superior becomes a nun after af-ter making a pact with the Lord to spare her family following an accident acci-dent She has the attitude that the Lord will provide anything to anyone any-one who waits. She is very exuberant exuber-ant and many times doesn't think out consequences to her actions. Griffin has many years of experience experi-ence in theatre, having started acting act-ing when she was 12 years old. She has performed in the Old Lyric Repritory Theatre, the Pink Garter Theatre in Jackson Hole and Cody, Wyo. and community theatre in Pamona, Calif. She is currendy an See Nunsense page 16 1 at Ashlev Fipmantarv " VUM"IU"' |