Fun Facts 

• Steel Magnolias is based on a true story.

• It took just 10 days to write.

• Harling's original Off-Broadway play opened on March 28, 1987 at the WPA Theatre in New York City. It closed on February 25, 1990 after 1,126 performances. 

• The play is set in Northwest Louisiana, in the fictional Chinquapin Parish. 

• Playwright Robert Harling wrote the play Steel Magnolias shortly after the death of his sister Susan Robinson, aged just 33 in 1985. Susan left behind her husband Dr. Pat Robinson and their 2 year old son Robert. Just like the character of Shelby, Susan also had diabetes. Harling wrote every character in the play based on people in his life. 

• Susan also had an armadillo groom's cake at her wedding. 

• The play has been translated into 17 languages. 

• Steel Magnolias was turned into a Hollywood blockbuster in 1989 and starred Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley Maclaine, Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis - and a young and unknown Julia Roberts, then just 19, who played Shelby, the character based on Susan.  

• In the movie auditions, before Julia Roberts, Winona Ryder and Meg Ryan were possible candidates to play the role of Shelby. 

• Movie director Herbert Ross told Dolly Parton to take acting classes for the film. 

• The doctors and nurses in the film were not actually actors, they were the ones who took care of Susan in real life. 

 Special Thanks: 

Felicia Gomez-Walker, Superintendent 

Mary Lou Sumrall, Director of Special Programs

Lisa DeJean, Gifted and Talented Technical Assistant

Stephen Weber and the DHS Administration

Linda Taylor 

DHS Custodial Staff

Kelly and Robert Johnson

Tim and Tasha Levert

Lannie and Tina Zeringue

Robert Townsend 

Donald Diodene 

Mandy Zirkenbach and Ursuline Academy

Megan and Lucas Harms 

Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts

Tom Dawson, Jim Means, and Michael Santos

Delgado Community College