Catholic School Girls
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Whether it was a collective epiphany or something in the water, 1982 brought a higher-than-average offering of nun-centric theatrical exploration, from Jonathan Pielmeier’s dark, distressing Agnes of God to John R. Powers’s musical frolic Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? Casey Kurtti’s Catholic School Girls also dates from that year. She starts out very Powers-like, introducing the four girls we’ll follow from first through eighth grade at St. George’s School in 1960s Yonkers. But where Powers (and lyricists James Quinn and Alaric Jans) slough off the nuns’ strictness with wisecracking songs (“If you miss a Sunday mass / Or talk back with any sass / Who will really kick your ass? / It’s the nuns!”), Kurtti reveals the deep wounds such discipline inflicts on fragile little egos and the genuine confusion of sorting out both one’s coming-of-age and a relationship with God in the midst of eerie rituals and unbending rules. Adult Catholics in the audience may well hear echoes of their own unresolved childhood questions, disillusionments, and hopes.
Four actors each play a schoolgirl and a nun, but the emphasis is on the girls. Tomboy Colleen (Lacy Coil) plays basketball and sneaks dirty magazines into class but is terrified at the thought of becoming a woman. Elizabeth (Dina Connolly), whose memories frame the play, lives in a fantasy world with an imaginary friend, keeps up a direct correspondence with God, and idolizes a grandmother who makes her feel special while the rest of the family keep their distance. Maria Theresa (Jennifer Grace) comes from a large, loud Italian household where the kids, all named after saints, sleep in rows of bunk beds and the dining room table occasionally gets slammed into the wall. Teacher’s pet and only child Wanda (Samantha Kozloff), daughter of a Polish butcher who donates prime cuts for the convent’s Sabbath dinners, dreams of stardom, appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, and marrying Paul McCartney.
