QUINCY — Quincy Valley Allied Arts is telling the story of a murder witness on the lam, a nunnery, learning from others and making music.

The second weekend of “Sister Act” is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the Quincy High School theater, 403 Jackrabbit St. NE.

Director Brian Higgins said “Sister Act” is the company’s first musical in the QHS theater since its production of “Mary Poppins” in February 2020.

Singer Deloris Van Cartier (Marie Jamison in the QVAA production) picks the worst possible time to try to break up with her boyfriend, gangster Curtis Jackson (Darryl Pheasant) – just as he and his henchmen are murdering an inconvenient witness. Forced to go into hiding, Deloris ends up at the Holy Order of the Little Sisters of Our Mother of the Perpetual Faith.

Deloris is the Lady Fabulous of 1978 Philadelphia, and the convent restricts her style. But Mother Superior (Vonna Harris) isn’t all that excited to have Deloris around, either. When Deloris sneaks out for a drink – followed by sisters Mary Patrick (Allison Pheasant) and Mary Robert (Abigail Castillo) – it doesn’t end well. Mother Superior sentences Deloris to join the church choir, which is awful, to put it politely.

Higgins said “Sister Act” has a unique mix he really liked.

“There’s a really cool blend of tradition and change that the show is really about,” he said.

Higgins is a veteran of musical theater, both as an actor and behind the scenes. He’s a Quincy native, and his dad Bill was the first president of the QVAA board.

His first QVAA show was in 2000, he said, and between then and now the audience has changed. And the audience five years from now will be different from the current audience, he said. The company has to take that into account when planning its shows.

In addition, local theater was among the activities shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic. Getting back in the theater, getting the audience back and building a new audience, is requiring some rethinking of the company’s productions, he said.

“I recognize they’re in this moment of flux,” he said.

“Sister Act,” based on the hit 1992 film of the same name, premiered on Broadway in 2011 and was recently released for community theater. Since it’s set in the late 1970s, the music is influenced by its times, as well as by traditional musicals.

“The music feels fresh,” Higgins said.

And the play itself is about embracing change, he said. Deloris comes to see the value of the religious life, he said, and the nuns come to see the value of reaching out into their community.

Higgins lives in Wenatchee, and said he wanted to make “Sister Act” the kind of show that would bring him in from Wenatchee.

The QHS theater opened just before the coronavirus pandemic began, and QVAA hasn’t had the chance to take advantage of all its stage effects. Higgins said he couldn’t figure out how to get a flying nun into the play, as the theater has rigging for flying effects, but he will use the theater’s lighting setup.

“We are using them like no Quincy show has used them before,” he said.

“‘Sister Act’ may or may not be a Broadway-level show, but it will feel like a Broadway show,” Higgins said.

He’s also experimenting with set changes, which will require the entire cast. They’ll happen while the action is still going on, he said. And the audience should expect a fast pace.

“We’re on a locomotive and we’re not going to stop until we run out of fuel,” he said.