Diana Carl Alioto has a transformative habit.

When she puts it on, she admits to becoming a smart aleck. And bossy. And even a little scary to some people.

Carl Alioto is a Milwaukee actress with a thriving career playing the singularly named Sister in the "Late Nite Catechism" package of four different interactive comedies. She will chew you out for chewing gum, chastise you for being late and reward good behavior with a holy card. Expect to have Sister call on you at any time.

If you attended Catholic grade school in the 1950s, '60s or '70s, Carl Alioto is here to jolt you back to the days of getting rapped on the knuckles with a ruler. She has played Sister from Duluth, Minn., to Dallas, and Tuesday she opens a two-week run of "Sister's Christmas Catechism: The Mystery of the Magi's Gold" in Vogel Hall at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. It's the "Late Nite" show aimed directly at the holidays.

The "Late Nite Catechism" phenomenon began in 1993 when two Chicago women, Maripat Donovan and Vicki Quade, wrote the original version. They based it on their own experiences of growing up Catholic. Donovan played Sister.

The first incarnation of "Late Nite" is still running in the Windy City, and it played for almost two years in Boston, a year in Melbourne, Australia, and had lengthy engagements in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Portland, Ore. Shorter engagements were booked all over the United States, and because the four installments of "Late Nite" require only a single actor and minimal props and scenery, one-night stands are common. The shows also are marketed as entertainment for private parties and fundraising events.

Milwaukee was first exposed to "Late Nite Catechism" in a staging that featured an out of town actress playing Sister at the Marcus Center. A later production of the original version opened at the Miramar Theatre on the East Side in 2003, and Carl Alioto got her first taste of being Sister as one of two local performers cast in the role.

Donovan was so pleased with her portrayal, she called Carl Alioto in 2004, asking if she would like to take her habit on the road. The Milwaukee actress' first booking was in Lenexa, Kan. She has played Sister for two weeks in Tacoma, Wash., a week in Houston and two weeks in Madison during the past summer.

She often does weekend run-outs of a single performance, including a high-end fundraiser for a private school in Montreal, and her husband, Steve Alioto, frequently accompanies her, serving as stage manager. Carl Alioto performs three of the four "Late Nite" shows.
Although each edition of "Late Nite" has a script, the comedies are highly interactive with the audience, and they contain elements of standup and improv.

The actresses are free to ad lib, toss in jokes of their own and expand or shrink a performance depending on the type of booking. They are not disrespectful or demeaning of Catholics and nuns, and Carl Alioto has had Catholic clergy in her audiences.

If the performance venue allows it, Sister makes a plea for donations to sustain nuns, who take a vow of poverty, and the combined "Late Nite" productions have raised more than $2 million. Carl Alioto recently said she has become close to the local Daughters of Divine Charity as a result of money she has collected for them.

Although she is Catholic, the actress attended public elementary and high school. She has served on her parish council and sung in the church's choir. While Sister does not dispense theology, the actresses who play her need to be well grounded in the Catholic religion.

"The show has made me more into my faith," Carl Alioto said.

The "Late Nite" productions attract a lot of repeat business, with some members of the audience going to the theater in character. It is not unusual for women to show up dressed in Catholic school uniforms and men to come armed with paper airplanes and other weapons of mass disruption. Sister must maintain order.

And then there are members of the audience who go to the opposite extreme. "Some people are really afraid of nuns," Carl Alioto said. "I am careful to not be mean. A woman got up during the show in Madison and started walking out.

"I stopped her and I could tell she was really upset. 'I'm afraid you are going to call on me,' she said. I promised her I wouldn't, but she still left. She was so upset. I went home and said a rosary for her that night."

People frequently talk with Carl Alioto about their personal experiences with nuns. "They want to tell me their nun stories. They want to get things off their chest," she said.

The actress is often the recipient of religious tchotchkes salvaged by theatergoers from their childhoods. A return customer presented her with a nun doll.

A Marquette University theater graduate with a masters' degree from Binghamton University, Carl Alioto has acted in productions staged by the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Skylight Opera Theatre and the defunct Bialystock & Bloom. In her day job she is director of artistic operations for the Skylight, handling the company's artistic budget, contracts and assorted details on the creative side of the business.

"Sister's Christmas Catechism" opens Tuesday and continues through Dec. 13.

Something more secular

If nuns of any stripe are too religious for your holiday theatergoing, Milwaukee playwright Neil Haven, currently a masters' degree student at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, is rolling out an updated and final version of his highly irreverent, R-rated farce "Who Killed Santa?" A test run was mounted here last holiday season.

The comedy includes seasonal song parodies, puppets interacting with actors, and multiple choices of how to solve the mystery of Santa's demise. Expect to see holiday icons behaving badly.

"Who Killed Santa?" runs Dec. 4-27 at the Bay View Brew Haus, 2535 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. Call (414) 839-7801 for reservations.