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Prairie Players presents ‘Steel Magnolias’
March 31, 2023 @ 12:00 am - April 2, 2023 @ 11:59 pm
Prairie Players brings Steel Magnolias to the stage at 7:30 p.m. on March 24, 25, 31 and April 1 and at 2 pm on March 26 and April 2 at Prairie Players Civic Theatre, 160 S. Seminary St., Galesburg. Tickets are $16 for adults and $9 for students and can be purchased at https://www.prairieplayers.com.
Director Anne Carman-Hendel says that after the pandemic and other events of the world, this play seemed needed. “It’s a poignant story told with humor. As in the title, it shows a gentle, yet strong friendship between these women. It’s this bond that helps them navigate life’s sadnesses and joys. It shows that friendship is one of life’s greatest gifts.”
The cast includes : Mary Ellen Milem (Truvy Jones), Christina King (Annelle Dupuy-Desoto), Chris Curtis (Clairee Belcher), Maggie Savage (Shelby Eatenton-Latcherie), Cathy Sheagren (M’Lynn Eastenton), and Vera Fornander (Ouiser Boudreaux).
Written by Robert Harling, Steel Magnolias is set in Truvy’s beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are “anybody” come to have their hair done. Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle (who is not sure whether or not she is still married), the outspoken, wise-cracking Truvy dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town’s rich curmudgeon, Ouiser, (“I’m not crazy, I’ve just been in a bad mood for forty years”); an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee, who has a raging sweet tooth; and the local social leader, M’Lynn, whose daughter, Shelby (the prettiest girl in town), is about to marry a “good ole boy.”
Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions, the play moves toward tragedy when the spunky Shelby (who is diabetic) risks pregnancy and forfeits her life. The sudden realization of their mortality affects the others, but also draws on the underlying strength—and love—that give the play, and its characters, the special quality to make them truly touching, funny, and marvelously amiable company in good times and bad.
