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Oh, sister. Say a little prayer for the Late Nite Catechism audience this Sunday afternoon at the Hoogland Center for the Arts. This long-running comedy production and participatory theater takes viewers back to the children they once were, either nostalgically or fearfully. A nurse teaches a catechism class to a room full of students who are actually the audience. The show was written in 1993 and popular Chicago actress Mary Zentmyer has been in the role for 26 years.

This is the third time HCFTA has brought Zentmyer to the arts center as a nurse, said executive director Gus Gordon. “We performed ‘Late Night Catechism’ in 2016 and the sequel ‘A Sister’s Christmas Catechism’ in 2017. Both productions were huge hits for Hoogland. The shows have toured the country with different performers, but Mary really blew our local audiences away. They adore her and she is a riot.She is so quick witted and funny as a nurse.

“There’s a big Catholic community in central Illinois,” Gordon continued, “and this show reminds them of all their days in Catholic school. The nuns and priests often get the loudest laughs. But that doesn’t mean it’s a show that only Catholics find funny. Everyone people of denominations find this show amusing.

Over the course of the play, the nurse transforms from a sympathetic instructor who rewards “students” for correct answers with things like glow-in-the-dark rosaries and laminated saint cards to an authoritative instructor. These sharp swings may resonate with those who lived through the ups and downs of going to school with an all-knowing, authoritarian headmaster.

According to Zentmyer, she was drawn to the role of the nurse with its comedic approach to religion, and the performance was funny but not irreverent.

“Having grown up Catholic with a great-aunt who was a Sister of Providence and a great-uncle who was a Passionist father, I knew I had the background. I grew up with an Irish-Catholic mother and am the child of six children. I’ve always wanted to be a teacher, so this acting role fulfilled that dream without a lesson plan. … Raised Catholic, attending C.C.D. classes as an elementary school kid and teaching the St. Francis school nurses at Alvernia High School in northwest Chicago have all prepared me for this role.

Zentmyer appreciates the nurse’s no-nonsense approach to everything. “Rules are rules to be followed. Period. A nurse is tough, but never mean. She’s down-to-earth, quick-witted, fair, funny, but strict and stern—all qualities needed when teaching more than 50 students in one classroom. Teaching Assistants there was none – only one nun.

You don’t have to be Catholic to “get it,” Zentmyer said.

“I’m sure you’ve had a strict teacher or two, no matter what school you went to. It’s even funnier if you go to Catholic school and remember the good sisters. In this scripted but somewhat improvisational play, the audience becomes part of the cast, called answer questions from the pop quiz and share stories if you like. “You’ll laugh and hear other stories about your fellow classmates’ nun memories or stories about bumping rulers. Some of the funniest moments are true stories shared by audience members.

“This is why people keep coming back to nursing class,” added Zentmyer, “Laughter is the best medicine. Come and learn and hear the stories of these hardworking, selfless women who taught us, shaped us and prepared us for a successful future. Come and throw a few bucks in the basket after class and it goes straight to the real retired nuns who took a vow of poverty and kept you in line all those years ago.

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