Uh-oh. Detention. For too much laughter.

This would be a crisis if you were a student in a Catholic school. It would involve a couple of hours of cleaning blackboards and Hail, Marys under the watchful eye of Sister.

Right now, at Smith Theatre, it is not such a bad thing when Sister (actress Lela Frechette) and detention mean added performances of Late Nite Catechism, the audience participation comedy that has entertained the religious and irreligious alike for many years running.

The show has been a big draw for Shea’s Performing Arts Center and the decision to continue the show to April 1 was an easy and a happy one. This is also a happy thing for Ms. Frechette. She has been playing Sister in this show for almost two years, touring from city to city, ruler in hand, mirthfully correcting audiences across the country.

When first striking out as a performer in New York City, Frechette tried to make her way as a cabaret singer. “For a number of reasons,” she says, “I left the city and left the industry and decided I had to get a real job.”

She spent 14 years in mid-state, returned to school and got “real jobs.” Then, she adds, “I realized just how miserable I was and how much I missed this.”

No longer dewy and innocent, she retackled her performing career. “In a sense it was easier the second time, because I knew what I was doing and knew what I had to do. I knew what kind of work was involved and I had a perspective of what my talent was and what I offered the theater world. Plus a great deal more confidence than I had when I was in my twenties. That said, it is much harder to be the prototypical starving artist living in your two room shoebox at this age than it was in my early twenties.”

Lela describes being sent out on an unusual audition, for a musical titled We’re Still Hot, where no one was asked to sing. However, the casting director asked her if she had heard of Late Nite Catechism. Frechette answered that she had, but she knew nothing except the title.

Entertainment Events, producers of the road companies of Late Nite Catechism, gave Frechette a script which she read immediately while riding the subway. “I opened the script to look at the part of Sister,” she laughs in recollection, “and it’s just Sister. I think, ‘Ooh, what have I agreed to do…ooh, my goodness.”

Nonetheless, Frechette was soon on a plane to California to rehearse the show. Training may be a more accurate word than rehearsal. Late Nite Catechism, which started as life as an off-Broadway romp, is now a thriving cottage industry…or convent industry, if you will. It has gone from “show” to “show business.” Presently, there are more than 20 companies of Late Nite Catechism with at least as many “sisters” working the role. Really, enough to start an order of their own.

Part of Frechette’s preparation was observing a week of performances by Mary Pat Donovan, who created the role and is one of the show’s co-authors. Donovan encouraged Frechette not to imitate the original performance but to be herself in Sister.

Frechette mentions that there were members of her own family in religious service. An aunt who was a nun was a loving relative and a boisterous friend who would adjust and tuck her traditional habit to enjoy playing softball with nephews and nieces. Her father’s best friend from college, who she considered an uncle, was a priest who would visit for late Saturday pinochle games and then take the altar on Sunday morning. Lela embraces the reality that Sister is not the arbitrary sadist in robes but a humorous, vigorous, intelligent woman with lots to share with her charges.

Lela’s personal and professional background have also prepared her for this job and this role. As an actress, she did a stint with a small comedy troupe, almost a career requisite in the life of a performer. She adds, “I worked as a bartender for a lot of years and that’s nothing but improv. Best training for this I could ever have.”

In addition, during her “real job” hiatus, Frechette spent nine years as a school counselor, giving her enough fodder to negotiate any one-on-one conversation with a student, or during the audience participation sections of Late Nite Catechism.

“I had been told Buffalo was a Catholic city,” she points out, “but I had no idea until I got here. I have had a lot of clergy come to the show. And a lot of real sisters. They like it simply because anyone has to have a sense of humor about yourself.”

Frechette says most time she finds men and women of the cloth by complete accident. Sometimes they might be chewing gum as they enter the theater—something Sister scolds, and when asked their names…well.

“Sometimes,” she says, “you wait for a behavior. Sometimes it will be someone who might be laughing too loud. Boom! You can nail them. One time, I asked a man a catechism question and he got it right. I made him stand and tell me how long he went to Catholic school. He said, ‘Well, I still am…’ I asked if he was a priest and he said, ‘Well, I can neither confirm nor deny that.’ Well, I answered…” and here Frechette assumes the voice, “…‘Oh, yes, you can! You’ll tell Sister!” And he did.

Late Nite Catechism, presented by Shea’s Performing Arts Center at Smith Street Theater (660 Main Street), runs through April 1. For tickets call 852-5000, or go online to www.ticketmaster.com.