Steel Magnolias making return to WiLLow LeaVes stage

This weekend a timeless story about the trials, tribulations and celebrations of the bonds of friendship will be presented by the Actor’s Studio of Hope in collaboration with WILLow LeaVes of Hope with the return of Robert Harling’s “Steel Magnolias” beginning at 7 p.m. Friday.

“This show is back by popular demand,” says producer Naomi Fleetwood-Pyle. “It has sold out every show we have ever done. People just connect with it.”

The two-hour long production is based on the 1989 film that featured an all-star cast led in-part by Dolly Parton, Julia Roberts and Sally Field. When a young beautician named Shelby moves to Chiquapin Parish in Louisiana, she lands a job at Truvy Jones’ salon. It is there she is welcomed into the folds of friendship by an eclectic group of women who demonstrate by example what it means to be a strong woman in the face of adversity.

“I love the fact it is a bunch of gossipy women in a hair salon and yet it has such tender and funny moments,” Pyle says. “It is one of my favorite plays of all time.”

Oddly enough, with this third production, life is sort of imitating art.

Columbus resident Falicia Whited is portraying the young Shelby Eastenton-Latcherie, who has just moved to Louisiana and is engaged to be married.

Whited says she not only grew up watching the movie but feels a special kinship with Shelby.

Whited says she told Pyle, who is her aunt in real life, playing the role of Shelby was on her bucket list.

“I have loved Shelby and always resonated with her and the struggles she has with having a dream she wants to make happen,” Whited says. “For me,

Shelby is young and getting married and wants to have a family and that is where I am in life.”

And, like Shelby’s character in the movie, Whited has been welcomed into the fold with the ladies cast for this production.

“Off stage all of the women are very tight,” she says. “And because I am family to Naomi, and they’ve kind of brought me into their fold, that kind of dynamic we bring to the stage does exist off stage.”

Similarly, Kristy Kelley, who is playing M’Lynn Eatenton, says she’s excited to take on this role as it is something new for her. As a mother with three children, Kelley says she can certainly relate to M’Lynn.

“I have a daughter,” Kelley says. “So the whole mother-daughter relationship, which is really important to my character, I feel that a whole lot in my own life.”

Alongside the commonalities of life imitating art also lie challenges.

Debi Hahn is cast to play Clairee Belcher, who was played by Olympia Dukakis in the movie.

“So, I am playing old and southern,” Hahn says. “Which, for me, is hard work because obviously from my accent I’m not even American.”

Hahn says she hopes to portray the character so well that audience members do not realize she is English. However, going from an English accent to American southern with ease takes a bit of practice, she says.

“I’ve audio from the film and cued to the parts that pertain to me in the play,” she explains. “I’m just listening to the accent over and over again. There are times when I’ve had to ask them to phonetically sound out a word during rehearsal and I’ve written it down so I can produce it.”

As rehearsals are underway, Pyle says having presented this play previously offers her experience to build on. When the Actor’s Studio of Hope presented “Steel Magnolias” the first time back in 2014, Pyle admits she had only directed one other play.

“Going into ‘Steel Magnolias’ in 2014 was a new experience for me,” she says. “Such as learning to block the acts, and now we have it down to a fine art.”

And it is the act of honing one’s skills with purpose and building experience that makes for a great production, she adds.

Pyle also points to the fact that everyone knows the story and has seen the movie and it is that familiarity coupled with how it “runs you through the gauntlet of emotions” that keeps people coming back, Pyle says.

It is a sentiment that Hahn wholeheartedly believes as well. Of course, as with any play, you want the audience to be able to relate, she adds.

“The prime goal is to entertain the audience,” Hahn says. “If this play is done right, unfortunately, it is going to make some people cry. There will be plenty of laughs, but if we get this right there will be tears shed.”

As she looks forward to opening night, Pyle says she hopes audiences not only feel all the feels, but that they feel empowered while holding tight to those they love.

“I hope they take away the fact of, even after COVID right now, love your family as much as you can because you just never know,” Pyle says. “And I think people are feeling that. ‘Steel Magnolias’ gives women a sense of strength because they are the steel magnolias.”
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