- November 3, 2017 Sister Stories
By Patti Eischen
Sister Suzanne Giro’s life sounds like a mashup of movie titles, “Sister Act” and an Italian version of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”
She grew up an only child in a large, extended Italian family in Kansas City. She lived in the family duplex with her parents upstairs, grandparents and aunt, uncle and cousins downstairs.
Her family entertained themselves by going to movies, concerts and the theatre all the time.
“On Sunday afternoons, you could hear my grandfather’s opera from upstairs. If you went downstairs, after 4 p.m. on Sunday, he would snatch you up and you’d be forced to listen to his explanation of the opera that was airing,” she explains.
A self-admitted extreme extrovert, S. Suzanne says the performance bug had always been somewhat recessive in her. In her eight-year ministry as the mission coordinator for the congregation, she says she was on stage or at the lectern acting on Jesus’ behalf and the mission of the CSJs. “I was a traveling show and spoke in churches of all sizes. I got rave reviews.”
When she moved to St. Louis attending Mary, Mother of the Church Parish, she heard about a production of “Annie Get Your Gun.” She admits that she thought about auditioning, but didn’t. She ended up getting a small part. “When I was asked to be a townsperson I was on cloud 137!”
It was through her involvement with that production that she learned about Monroe Actors’ Stage Community (MASC) in Waterloo, Illinois. She auditioned, having never seen a production of theirs. She landed a part and started rehearsing. It was only when she had a scheduling conflict between rehearsals and a CSJ community meeting that her life as a woman religious came up.
“I’m not who you think I am,” is what she told her director.
Her fellow co-actors didn’t really treat her any differently after learning that Suzanne was really “Sister Suzanne.” But she explains, “They responded differently as a fellow human. I think they were and are attracted to our charism, which brings them in.”
Bonds were and are created. Help was offered to one another. “Actors are a community themselves. As a whole they are welcoming, accepting—a community forms with each production because of so much time spent together,” she explains. “They are affirming, confirming people and with each production, the idea of ‘we’re all in this together’ comes through.”
S. Suzanne has been in two of the company’s productions as well as two other productions with her church community, and she has found the experiences invigorating.
“Learning to do these things, like fainting and remembering the lines, is a challenge at this stage of my life. I never thought at 67 that I'd get into theatre. But I love it, I thrive on it. I am the happiest when I’m in a show, and my friends tell me they see the difference in me when I am in one,” S. Suzanne explains.
Her involvement with the productions propels her to always be moving to the More. S. Suzanne says that she sees her mission to the dear neighbor fully engaged when she is with her theatre community. “I’m reminded of the quote, 'The glory of God is man fully alive,' she says.
And alive she is, especially when the curtain is going up.