Assumption Catholic Schools presents “Sister Act” – October ‘25

Hello world, welcome to WFHR's rapid support, probably brought to you by Croc

Inceptic for this Friday, October 10th, 2025. Have your host James here. We're

joined right now by our friends from Assumption Catholic Schools. We have Ryan

Houston with us right now in studio, is the director of campus ministry. Ryan

thanks for being here. No problem, I'm glad to be here. Always good talking with

our friends from Assumption, love our royals and love, you know, Ryan, you know

me. I'm a theater guy. I love theater. I love talking theater any chance I get. So

we had to bring you guys in to talk a little bit about the Assumption

Theatrical production of Cyster Act that's coming up in November. We'll get

more into the details and the dates of it a little bit later, but I want to start

right up the gate. This feels like a smart choice for a plane to do for

assumption. It seems a little on the nose, maybe, but it also makes perfect sense.

I can't imagine like I know the movie itself. I know the play is a very funny

thing. Heaven kids do it is such a different takes it to another level, I think, of

funny and humor. How did the choice of this come about? How did you guys decide on

this one? Yeah, well, first of all, yeah, it is on the who's got it on the nose, but

part of it was simply because of that. I thought, you know, we haven't had a

musical in a long time. It was 2019 when we had the last one and then passed

COVID. It was kind of, kind of, we didn't have the staffing for it and it's just

kind of phased out of assumption for a while. But when I came back, I was like, well,

I definitely want to like be able to do this. So then when coming, figuring out

what chose to do, I thought, okay, all these different things you got to look at,

but the biggest thing I was looking at it was like, what is one that the

community is going to love? What is one that I think the kids are going to love in

terms of how the script is, how the music is all of that. And I think this just

kind of hit me a little bit because it was on the nose, but also just the music in

it is such a blast. The script is incredibly hilarious and just overall, like, it's

such a good, like, it's just very ingrained in culture, I think, still very

relevant in a lot of ways too. Oh, yeah. It's such a, I'll agree with everything

you said there. And again, you know, bringing this to high school is so much of fun

is setting, or as far as the cast and all that. For those that don't know the movie, don't

know the play maybe a little bit. Can we give a little bit of a synopsis, a little bit

of a cliff notes version of what Sister Act is? Yeah. So Sister Act is about a flashing

70s nightclub singer Dolores van Cartier. And she basically witnesses a mob hit. And so

the police hide her in this stuffy convent until she can testify. But with her identity,

a secret to the nuns, she's forced to act as one. So what else is there for a girl to

do than teach the very sweet, but not so sweet sounding? Yeah, nuns, how to sing?

Yeah, that's it's, I mean, right there, the concept is off end. I would love to have been

in the room when they came up with this con this idea. It's fantastic. It's great. It's

it's so much of the things at the points that you made before really come home with this

and knowing that what the play is about the synopsis of it and everything. It's such a

fun show. How is how did it go? So for those that, you know, aren't that in tune with theater

and we completely understand that doing the difference of doing your regular run-of-the-mill

production and a musical is literally night and day, no pun intended. But it's just it's

there's such a it's a bigger thing to take on. And sometimes the royalties can be more

for a musical than they can be for your everyday play. So to what Ryan was saying earlier

about them not doing musicals are really a lot of local theaters not doing musicals. If

you want to see more musicals for one, we want you to come out. We want you to do a try

out for community theater shows and that kind of thing. But also we got to fund these things.

We have to be able to help out the arts in our in our states and our high schools and

our community and everything. And so attending this show, you're not only, you know, going

to take in a great show, but you're going to be helping them be able to put on more productions

in the future and everything. And you guys aren't just giving everybody a show. You guys

got some a little bit of added things to this one. It's either they're going to have a musical

galo along with it. Yeah, yeah. So it's on Thursday is the first day of the show. It goes on

a Thursday. It goes on a Friday and they go on a Saturday. But on Thursday, our little

special thing that we're doing is called the assumption theatrical musical galo, which

includes like the classic dinner show that we've always been able to provide with our musicals.

But we're adding a special aspect to it, which is our silent auction. And then we're going to

have a couple raffle baskets with that too. So putting all of those together is going to be

super helpful. First of all, the auction is going to be super helpful to assumption and the

musical program in the future. But also it gives you the opportunity to have this experience

of life. You know, you you come in, you'll be able to get like cocktails at our bar,

talk to each other, have a social bit on those silent auction things. And then we've got

Laurie and friends catering are fantastic dinner, which will be just amazing. I'm super excited.

All that leading into the opening night of the show, which is a great idea, a wonderful idea.

Certainly, you know, going to be helpful on a investing way of being able to help out this,

you know, keep the musicals going and some of that. But a great idea to combine this stuff too,

because you hit on something right there of a wanting a memory, wanting a moment. That's where

most people are nowadays. If they're going to spend their money on a ticket of anything,

they want to really they want an experience. You're really giving people with that with this.

And Laurie and friends catering is amazing. They're awesome. They're awesome. They're awesome.

That's going to be a lot of fun. Can't imagine the items that will show up in that silent auction.

They're always good stuff and those kind of things, especially with assumption involved.

You know, it's going to be so that'll be fun. So the looking at this, this, you know,

opening night, at least, you've got the cocktails, social, silent auction, kickoff at 5.30.

Six will be the dinner with Laurie and friends catering, as was mentioned. And at seven,

opening night of sister act. That's going to be a lot of fun. That's a great night. Now,

tickets for that, Michael, Ryan, I'm sorry, are 60 dollars for that night? Or are they for just

for that night? Yep. So if you would like to experience the cocktails, the social, the silent auction,

and the dinner and even a dessert during intermission, the tickets are 60 dollars.

However, you could also just come that night and witness the opening night for our regular ticket

price. But you just come in when it's time just so you know, you'll probably be sitting on the

bleachers. But it's really cool because assumptions get new bleachers, which this will kick off

the new bleachers at a auction. Yeah, there you go. Nice time. Good little thing there.

But yeah, so that's the price of that. We'll tell you how to get tickets before we wrap up

today and everything. But I'm also like to let the audience look behind the curtain a little

bit about this stuff. Again, no pun intended. How often were you guys able to rehearse for this show?

Yeah, so we're dealing with a lot of stuff because here's the thing with assumption, we don't just

have people who are interested in theater. We've got a very small pool of people, right? And so

even if you're interested in theater, you're also interested in football. You're also interested in

tennis. And so what we've really had to do is like really work with our our coaches for our

fall sports and make sure that our rehearsals are kind of after all of the all of the other ones.

For me personally, I've been rehearsing every single night. But some of the kids they'll get

two nights. They'll get three nights depending on who they are. They'll get you know, four nights

a week to rehearse. But we've been doing it since basically the second no first week of school

has been auditions. And then second week of school, we jumped into it.

Appreciate that. For one, I like the audience to know how hard people work on these things when

they're coming in to take these shows and what you're seeing out there and the work that's put into

it. It's such a great point and something I think we forget about the farther we get away from

high school and school in general and everything. Well, yeah, I want to do this, but I also want to

do this and this. And there's only so many hours in the day and so many hours after school.

And it's really encouraging and cool to hear of you and the coaches working together on this.

Yeah, yeah. Let me shout out to them for that.

Yeah, they've been super helpful and supportive of it. So for you, throughout this process,

is there something that is anything that stands out to you or the process itself is just enjoyable?

I mean, just I mean, every time I do a show, it's so enjoyable because I just think of all the

things I can do with it, you know, but these kids have been such a fun aspect of the show.

This is my first musical that I've directed and it's a lot of the kids first show as well.

And so I think we've all just had this kind of, I don't know if inaugural is the word, but like,

you know, inaugural sense of like we're here for the first time where, you know, we're learning

this together in a way. And it's been, it's been really cool. But they've been troopers. So

that's been awesome. The feeling of starting something, of getting something kind of a,

hopefully a trend starting and bringing musicals back in some of that. There's that's a powerful

feeling. It's a wonderful feeling. And that kind of feeling is, is a big part of the reason why

we encourage you to support these shows. And while I love all types of theater and everything,

if you're going to choose one thing, this one type of theater support, it's high school theater.

It's these kids. There is no such thing as a bad high school show. It never has happened.

It never will. Every one of these shows are amazing with these kids. They truly are. And I'm not

just saying that to be nice. I'm truly, truly genuinely mean that. And it's one of those things

where again, you're going to spend the money on the ticket. You're going to sit there and you're

going to take it a good show. And from the bottom of your heart to the top of your head,

you're going to be feeling good. Not only from the entertainment of the show and laughing and

all that, but knowing that you would just invest it in your community. You just help the arts

in your community. And there's also the other part of this, what it does for these kids.

We don't know what they might go on to do. They're all going to go on to do great, amazing things.

I'm sure. But whatever they end up doing, they could use some confidence with it. They could use

some people skills, some speaking in front of people skills, some of those things. When you're going

and taking in these shows, you're supporting that. You're helping that. You're encouraging that.

You're literally investing and helping the future because that's what these kids are.

And you're helping them do that just by taking in the show. And a good show at that, by the way,

sister act is a lot of fun. Yeah. And you never know whose life is going to change either by

doing theater. The other has that effect on people. Yeah. And so helping out the arts is always

super, super great. Ryan, it's been great hanging out with you. I do really appreciate the time.

Let's remind everybody the details of the performances when they are, what to expect,

and how they can get tickets. So sister act is opening on November 13th, 2025.

We have that whole dinner show again, 5 30 PM cocktails, six o'clock dinner, seven o'clock opening

night. We also have a show November 14th on Friday night at seven o'clock. And you have,

we also have a show November 15th. It's a two show day. So we have a Saturday matinee at one o'clock,

a closing night performance at seven o'clock. And for all of the performances, adult tickets are

15 dollars. Student tickets are $10. And if you're looking for tickets, you've got a bunch of

places to go. The main place we're selling tickets is our show website that just got up today.

It's you can find it at our dot show slash AHS sister act. I'll say that one more time.

Our dot show slash AHS sister act. You can also find it on AssumptionCatholicSchools.org

or on our Facebook Assumption Theatricals. We're doing a fun little Facebook thing that if we

have 167 people on Facebook followers, you might be entered into a raffle for a free ticket. So

that's super exciting. That's a that's not only exciting. That's a great encouragement to people

those like that page subscribe to a keep up to date on it. And again, buy local support,

local support the arts everybody and take in this great show. Make plans. November 13th or 14th

or 15th or take them all in because there's no reruns in theater. It's going to be a great time

and you're going to enjoy yourself. And Ryan, we had a great time with you. Thanks a lot for joining

us today. No problem. Thanks for having me. Please tell the cast everybody involved. Break a

leg. Have a great run. Thanks. And thank you for joining us. Everybody out there for another

edition of WFHR's Rabbits Report.