Richards celebrates 800 performances of a Sister act
The Catechism crowds are rowdiest in Pittsburgh, and that’s just fine with Sister.
Kimberly Richards has been playing the role of Sister for 16 years, crisscrossing the country to don the habit and perform the seven iterations of “Late Nite Catechism” as the no-nonsense nun with a sense of humor. When she arrives onstage at City Theatre this week, it will be for performance No. 800 in her hometown.
The solo show marries faith and comedy in the setting of an adult catechism class. In the original “Late Nite Catechism” by Vicki Quade and Maripat Donovan — the one that Ms. Richards will perform on this visit — Sister “weaves stories, old jokes and pre-Vatican II dogma into a hilariously funny tapestry of Catholic culture,” declared the Chicago Tribune in the original 1993 review.
More than a dozen actresses play Sister in North America in shows that raise money for retired nuns nationwide. Their total is in the millions, and Green Tree native Richards alone has raised more than $391,000.
When she spoke recently about returning to Pittsburgh, Ms. Richards was on the road again.
Pittsburghers were donning special glasses for a glimpse at the eclipse when the actress was speaking via Bluetooth, heading toward the Seattle airport. She had just closed two weeks in Bellingham, Wash., and was going to her home in Berkeley, Calif., for a day, then heading to Bloomsburg, Pa., for a week as Sister, then back home for a day. After a wedding in Las Vegas, she had one day more at home before coming to Pittsburgh.
“I studied under Maripat Donovan, the original nun — she’s our Mother Superior. Even in the first rehearsal, she said, ‘You know, you
can have this job for the rest of your life.’ And it may be true,” Ms. Richards said.
Before Sister came her way, the plucky redhead had already worked in nearly every nook and cranny of show business — as a performer, director, choreographer, comedian, illusionist and aerialis. She had a job hanging from a rope at 60 feet without a net for two years at Circus Circus in Reno.
Her first audition came before she had ever seen the show, but she arrived with a knack for improv, and she had an aunt who was a nun and had attended Catholic school for 12 years. She also was carrying her picture from her first Holy Communion, in its original frame.
“I walked into the theater and it was floor to ceiling Catholic, and I knew this is what I had prepared for my whole life.”
She has been playing Sister ever since. There are several shows with different themes — Easter, Christmas, back to school ... and she has done them all.
“In four weeks I did five different shows in five different cities in the U.S. and Canada, and that was a little confusing,” she admitted. “The good part is, if I forget where I am [in the script], the other actors don’t care.”
And even if audience members do notice, they had better mind their manners around Sister.
“Because it is interactive, they think they can come mess with the nun. And they really don’t want to go toe-totoe with Sister, because Sister is always going to win,” Ms. Richards explained.
How “students” react to Sister has to do with generational experiences, even for those who attend Catholic school in 2017. There is no “whacking the knuckles” today, and the only nuns in habits might be administrators, she said.
“I remember telling one young girl to cover up — she had very little on. And she said, ‘I don’t have to do what you say.’”
The older people in the audience gasped, Ms. Richards recalled.
“They responded with, ‘Oooh! Yes you do!’”
The audience drives the direction of the show, but Sister has the power. After 1,500 shows and in all her wanderings, Pittsburgh has the distinction of having the most ejections -— adult timeouts, duration to be determined by Sister.
Some of her favorite moments as Sister have happened here, including winning an on-air bet with Sister Seattle, who had to display a Terrible Towel after the Steelers won Super Bowl XL.
The week before the Super Bowl, a Sunday matinee off week for the Steelers, “We were at the top of the show, and I had five people thrown out. They were all women, totally decked out in Steelers gear, and they were all screaming. They would not calm down,” she said, noting that Pittsburgh is “a drinking town with a football problem.”
Ms. Richards makes it clear that Sister does not pick on the students who know“The correct answer is always, ‘Yes, Sister.’”
“Late Nite Catechism,” she said, “is not irreverent in any way. It’s a tribute first to the nuns, and then to the Catholic Church.”
She never refers to her work as a “show.” One of her favorite classes at City Theatre happened when there were four priests in the audience.
“They were all in collar, which they often are not, and I welcomed them. I looked to the audience members and said, ‘They usually come incognito.’ And one of them said, ‘Oh, we did last year. But now we trust you.’”
During that same class, her inner “movement detector” spotted a woman sitting top row center, where she was digging in her purse.
“I was doing a bit and when I finished, she’s still got her hand in her bag,” Ms. Richards said. “I just couldn’t take it anymore and said, ‘What are digging around in that bag for?’ And she did not skip a beat. She said, ‘Stool softener.’
“And I looked at the priests, and there was this huge wave of laughter that died down and started up again. And I finally just said, ‘Did you bring enough for everyone?’” “
Sister may not approve of gum chewers or plunging necklines, but wholesome laughter? That is a blessing.