8 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Katherine Lacaze
Cast members in a recent rehearsal of the Coaster Theatre Playhouse’s summer
musical “Nunsense,” which opens Friday and is full of heart, pep and plenty of
dancing.
George Vetter
A scene from “And Then There Were None.”
Singing nuns, murder mystery
Coaster Theatre Playhouse raises curtain for ‘Nunsense,’ ‘And Then There Were None’
By KATHERINE LACAZE
FOR COAST WEEKEND
T
he Coaster Theatre Playhouse’s
marketing committee came up
with a clever tagline to jointly
advertise the two wildly different shows
in its summer repertoire: “And Then
There Were Nunsense.”
Beyond the ability for their titles to
be seamlessly tied together, Dan Gog-
gin’s campy and fun-filled musical,
“Nunsense,” opening Friday at the Play-
house in Cannon Beach, and Agatha
Christie’s murder thriller “And Then
There Were None” which opened June
21, are as different as they come.
“It’s going to be very hard not to
walk out of the theater with a smile
on your face,” said Richard Bowman,
who is making his directorial debut
with “Nunsense.” “It’s just one of those
IF YOU GO
“NUNSENSE”
When: June 28-Sept. 1. Performances are 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday with 2 p.m.
Sunday performances Aug. 18 and Sept. 1
Where: Coaster Theatre Playhouse, 108 N Hemlock St., Cannon Beach
Details: Tickets are $20 or $25 and can be purchased at the Coaster Theatre box office,
online at coastertheatre.com or by calling 503-436-1242.
“AND THEN THERE WERE NONE”
When: June 21-Aug. 31. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday with Sunday
performances June 30 and Aug. 11 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Coaster Theatre Playhouse, 108 N Hemlock St., Cannon Beach
Details: Tickets are $20 or $25 and can be purchased at the Coaster Theatre box office,
online at coastertheatre.com or by calling 503-436-1242
shows.”
“Nunsense” features an ensemble
cast of five women who play the Lit-
tle Sisters of Hoboken: Heidi Hoffman
as Mother Superior; Sue Neuer as Sis-
ter Mary Hubert; Ann Bronson as Sis-
ter Robert Anne; Cameron Lira as Sister
Mary Amnesia and Brittania Williams as
Sister Mary Leo.
When their cook accidentally poisons
several of the sisters and they realize
they desperately need funds for the buri-
als, the sisters decide to put on a vari-
ety show.
To host the benefit, they take over
the Catholic high school – which is in
the process of staging “Grease” – and
that sets the backdrop for the audience
to become acquainted with each sister’s
unique characteristics, history, ambitions
and even personal demons.
According to Lira, one of her favor-
ite aspects of the show is “it’s really an
ensemble cast.”
“We’re all totally in it together,”
she said. “We all have our time in the
spotlight and our time as supporting
characters.”