From the Director:
Pulitzer Prizes are hard to come by. Robert Harling earned this one. The women in this show really exist as do the circumstances that unfold. It is fiction, in that Harling managed to bring each of them to life and transport us across two years or more of their lives together in just under 70 pages of script and two hours of stage time. The characters are real, the dialogue outrageous, the situations human, and our ladies performances today - hilarious, poignant, and heart breakingly human. Only a few of the names were changed to protect the guilty.
Ensemble is a term bandied about in theatre that simply means a close-knit team of equals bent on the joint telling of a powerful story. Our ensemble cast has come to love each other much like the women they portray, and those of us off-stage bond with them in bringing this gem of American Theatre to you. Life is too short to spend with people who won't let you love them. I think you will find six in this production that you will love - sometimes in spite of themselves.
Please tell your friends not to miss this opportunity. It is a gift that is easy to share and will live on as you flip through this program in the days to come.
Steve McCurdy
From the Producer - our Director of Music and Fine Arts
My largest contribution to "Steel Magnolias" is this piece of information: There is no 'WE' in Louisiana. Spelled in poor man's phonetics, it would look like this: Loozeeana.
Okay, I guess I did help with a few more pronunciations, because you see, these are my people. Northwest "Looziana" is my home and characters the likes of M'Lynn, Ouiser and Truvy (et al) are so close to reality that I have to stop and say, "Yeah - so?" when they deliver iconic lines. I have even marched in the Nachitoches (hereafter referred to as "Chinquapin") Christmas parade 6 times, and everything these women say about it is true. It is the oldest settlement in the Louisiana Purchase, and so are some of the decorations, as I recall.
But the culture runs deep and the 'bless their hearts' manner of caring for one another is non-fiction, I assure you. It's a heavily matriarchal society and without those magnolias made of steel, everyone would starve, churches would be shuttered and certainly not one birthday/Christmas card would be sent. But make no mistake, these emotional bayous run deep and there are no cartoons here. Genuine love and concern are as guaranteed as jello salads at a covered dish, and our cast tapped into that flow from the first rehearsal.
I'm always proud that St. Luke's takes all types of art seriously, but never more proud than of this cast and their director. And despite the fact that Jesus wasn't born until Clairee's junior year in college, he would recognize God at work in these very common vessels. I hope you will, too.
Sid Davis
