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When Chessie Vigran first saw the family comedy “Over the Tavern” in a Chicago production, she immediately thought that the role of Sister Clarissa would be right for her.

So when the Covedale Center for Performing Arts added it to their season, she auditioned and landed the role of the nun, never once considering her Jewish background to be a detriment.

“I found a lot of things in my own experience to lend to the character,” she said. “I’m the only person in the cast who actually remembers the ‘50s, so I have a great advantage, because even if you’re not Catholic, everything was done differently in the ‘50s.”

Vigran attended the Chicago public school system and remembers the dominant teaching method was learning by rote memorization.

“Thinking outside they box was not something you did,” she said. “Thinking in the box is what you did. Even though our teachers didn’t talk about going to heaven or hell, they had a set of values they promoted — cleanliness, punctuality, good citizenship.

“So I feel like I know who Sister Clarissa is in a way because she reminds me of some of the teachers I had — although she had corporal punishment in her hands and my teachers weren’t allowed to hit students.”

She said that her schools were very diverse, and after regular classes were over for the day, the Jewish kids went to Hebrew school, the Greek kids went to Greek school, the Catholic kids went to catechism.

“It seems like the Protestant kids were the only ones who didn’t have another class to go to,” she said.

“Religion was an expression of our ethnicity more than anything else.”

So although she did have some exposure to the Catholic culture — she attended a friend’s first communion, for instance — she still went on-line and did some research about how to pray with a rosary and other fine points of Catholic practices.

“I was acquainted with the core beliefs, but I wanted to understand how those beliefs became part of the culture,” she said.

“I’m hoping the people who see it will say that it reminds them of their own third grade teacher,” she said. “I don’t think you have to be Catholic to appreciate the show, to find it funny.”

Vigran said that she and Sister Clarissa have something else in common: They are both relics from a dying era in their own respective age. 

“I have a real hard time with the digital age,” she said. “I have a hard time understanding the way young people think because of it. I’m just not wired that way, so sometimes I can imagine that Sister Clarissa must have felt that way leading up to Vatican II.”

But according to director Tim Perrino, the Covedale’s core audience in Cincinnati’s West Side won’t have any trouble getting the nuances of the jokes. The theater, he said, is in a neighborhood where they used to joke that there is a Catholic church on every corner.

“It’s a real good story about family and coming of age in a day when the two would clash,” he said. “And we have a sweet, sweet cast.”

The cast of “Over the Tavern” also includes Bob Brunner as Chet Pazinski, Julia Hasl Miller as Ellen Pazinski, Tess Wallace as Annie Pazinski, Tom Boeing as Eddie Pazinski, Patrick Phillips as George Pazinski and Alex McCracken as Rudy Pazinski.


how to go
WHAT: “Over the Tavern” by Tom Dudzick
WHERE:  Covedale Center for the Performing Arts, 4990 Glenway Ave., Cincinnati
WHEN: Oct. 4-21
COST: $21 adults; $19 seniors/students
MORE INFO: (513) 241-6550; www.cincinnatilandmarkproductions.com