I Played Mother Superior
An Arts Patron Remembers Her High School Role
By Elizabeth Skinner, Daughter of Polly and the late Ernie Skinner, Season Sponsors
When Venice Theatre’s Artistic Director Benny Sato Ambush asked me if I would read Agnes of God because he was considering it for the 75th Diamond Anniversary Season’s lineup and needed a Catholic woman’s take, I laughed. I told him I not only knew the play, but I was in it.
In Fall 1991, I played the role of Mother Superior as a senior at John Carroll Catholic High School in Birmingham, Alabama. The director of our theatre troupe was not a nun; she was an English teacher. But one of the sisters who taught at the school, Sister Maureen Therese, was there for rehearsals and added support as an authenticity coach.
When I read the script, I wondered if we would ever get to perform it. We wondered if the Bishop had heard of it. But the production must have been approved, because we performed it to a full house over three nights in our school library. As a senior, I auditioned for it because I wanted the grade. But I got one of the three parts and was excited. Our principal and his wife came to see it. You couldn’t see the hundreds of people in the library, but those who sat up front were very close.
Mom (Polly) and Dad (Ernie) came all three nights and I think they enjoyed it. My mom’s dad was still alive then and he attended, which was special. The year before, we had done Alice in Wonderland—which I hear Venice Theatre is also producing this season—and I played Alice and had a lot of fun. My mom made my Alice costume and the costume of the Caterpillar, who was played by my boyfriend at the time. For that show, we got to perform on the mainstage, not in the library, and went to all the parochial schools to share our stories about it.
But my grandfather did not get to see me as Alice, so it meant a lot to me that he attended Agnes of God and Godspell, which was performed in spring 1992, just before I graduated. There are only three parts in Agnes of God and the role of Mother Superior was substantial. When I read it again, I had to re-read certain sections to remember them.
The sections I struggled with the most tended to be at the top of the scene. That this poor child was very close to my age at the time is something I find so interesting. I recall really enjoying the theatre aspect and that it had been very prominent on Broadway. Re-reading it made me wonder if we paid for the rights back then, or if we just received mimeographed pages from which to rehearse. I know that is a significant expense for Venice Theatre, which is why my mother, Polly Skinner, carries on her and my late father’s legacy by being 75th Diamond Anniversary Season Sponsors.
“It’s the only theatre that I know since we moved to Venice in December 1992,” Mom says. She brought her skills to Venice Theatre when she volunteered to repair costumes. Daddy and she started coming to Venice Theatre as soon as they moved in 1992, having been patrons of the arts for many decades in Alabama. During my entire youth, I remember my parents heading out every Friday, going to dinner and attending live theatre. The theatre is a great place to meet new people and it has become an important part of my memory of their years here.
Their love of theatre is also why they named a Conference Room in the Raymond Arts Center at Venice Theatre. We had been looking forward to its renovation after two long years of the pandemic and the Center being used for prop storage and other things while the rest of the campus was being renovated. When Hurricane Ian hit and the Raymond Center had to be transformed into a temporary theatre, we knew we would have to wait even longer to see the newly renovated conference room. Not long after the hurricane, Daddy passed away, but we look forward to the entire community stepping up, naming spaces like we have, and helping Venice Theatre finish not only the Jervey Theatre, but also the Raymond Center.
This past spring, Mom launched The Skinner Match in honor of Daddy’s birthday in June. I hope everyone will honor the history of this theatre and the legacy of my father by supporting the Next Act Capital Campaign.
Contact my friend Camille at camille@venicetheatre.net to learn more.