Mantorville Theatre Company to kick off Holiday Musical

The Mantorville Theatre Company will kick off its third show in the “Nunsense” series: “Meshuggah-Nuns” for its Holiday Musical on Friday, Nov. 20. 
Priscilla Ruemping, a MTC board member, says the board wanted to do the show because the other two shows from the series were successful. 
“This isn’t Shakespeare …. it is not an award winning script or songs, but it is super fun and cute. It has got a lot of jokes, puns, so we can just be kind of crazy with it and be over the top,” said Director Denise Ruemping.  “With a show like this you can be cheesy and it just makes it more fun for the audience.” 
The original Dan Goggins production “Nunsense” (1985) has spawned six sequels and three spin offs. This show revolves around the five Sisters on a Faiths of All Nations Cruise. While at sea, the ship runs into a terrible storm and many people become seasick, including all of the entertainers from the cast of “Fiddler on the Roof” except for the actor Tevye. 
The ship’s captain, who knows of the Sisters’ show-business background, asks them and Tevye to put on a show. 
Denise, of Rochester, has been involved with MTC on and off for around 22 years. Although she has had a lot of experience with musicals this is the first one she has directed and says it is a challenge. 
“What I’ve found challenging for me as a director with this one is that 85 percent of it is singing. I can sing, but I am not a music person so I can’t tell them if a chord is right. I can tell them it sounds off, but I can’t tell them how,” she said. 
“I am focusing more on choreography than I’ve ever done in any show and I am not a choreographer.”
Denise added that the Musical Director Levi Livingood, of Dodge Center, has had to step up a lot to help out with the musical side of things.