About Church Basement Ladies:

Church Basement Ladies, a celebration of the church basement kitchen and the women who work there, features four distinct characters and their relationships as they organize the food and the problems of a rural Minnesota church.

From the elderly matriarch of the kitchen to the young bride-to-be learning the proper order of things, the book and music give us a touching, funny look at their lives as we see them handle a record breaking Christmas dinner, the funeral of a dear friend, a Hawaiian Easter Fundraiser, and a steaming hot July wedding.

They stave off potential disasters, share and debate recipes, instruct the young, and keep the Pastor on due course while thoroughly enjoying, (and tolerating) each other.

Funny and down to earth, audiences will recognize these ladies as they begin to see the year unfold from below the House of God. This is most certainly true!

Authors/humorists Janet Letnes Martin and Suzann Nelson, the creators of the
best-selling book Growing Up Lutheran and a host of other humorous writings,
have joined forces with Twin Cities based production company Troupe America,
Inc. and it’s Executive Producer Curt Wollan to turn their material into a new
musical comedy, Church Basement Ladies.

Wollan wanted to create a show that celebrates the women who work so hard and with such dedication in the church kitchen whether they be Lutheran, Methodist, Jewish or Catholic. Wollan explained, “I know about these “Steel Magnolias” ofthe church, because my mother was one of them while I was growing up.”

This time around, Wollan commissioned creative writing team Jim Stowell,
one of Minnesota’s favorite storytellers and Jessica Zuehlke, a performance arts
educator and also the daughter of a Church Basement Lady, to develop the
book. This husband and wife duo collaborated with composer/ songwriter Drew Jansen, well-known for his creation of the music for the popular homegrown hit musical, How To Talk Minnesotan The Musical, Directed by Wollan. The
inspiration is found in his mother who was a well-respected church kitchen lady
who’s Church named their new stove in her honor.

100 percent Norwegian-American Lutheran, Martin and Nelson are in high demand as speakers throughout the upper
midwest. Together they have co-authored a number of Scandinavian-American “heartwarming humor” books over the past ten years--beginning in 1994 with Cream Peas on Toast: Comfort Food for
Norwegian-Lutheran Farm Kids and Others, and a Catholic-Lutheran lexicon
called They Glorified Mary, We Glorified Rice. Other favorites include: Uffda, But
Those Clip-Ons Hurt, Then!, a cartoon parody on Edvard Munch’s painting,”The
Scream” and a compendium of rural phrases titled Is It Too Windy Back
There,Then? Their sixth book Growing Up Lutheran: What Does This Mean?
became a national bestseller, and won them the 1998 Minnesota Book Award for
Humor.