Steel Magnolias to open Friday at Lantern Theatre in Conway

The Conway Community Arts Association will present Steel Magnolias on Friday though March 4 at The Lantern Theatre. Cast members include Wendy Miers, from left, as Clairee, Danielle Carney as Annelle, Lisa Ray as Ouiser, Darby Burdine as Shelby, Wendy Shirar as M’Lynn and Kelly Webber as Truvy.
The Conway Community Arts Association will present Steel Magnolias on Friday though March 4 at The Lantern Theatre. Cast members include Wendy Miers, from left, as Clairee, Danielle Carney as Annelle, Lisa Ray as Ouiser, Darby Burdine as Shelby, Wendy Shirar as M’Lynn and Kelly Webber as Truvy.

CONWAY — It’s been several years since the Conway Community Arts Association presented Robert Harling’s bittersweet story Steel Magnolias.

“It was in the early ’90s,” said Carla Grant, director of the local production that is set to open Friday at The Lantern Theatre and continue through March 4. “I stage-managed that show.

“This is the same story,” she said. “Nothing’s changed. We’re using the same script.

“The cast is having a great time. We’ve become like a family.”

Show times are at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and again March 1, 2 and 3; and at

2:30 p.m. Feb. 25 and March 4. The Feb. 25 performance is already sold out, and several performances are noted on Facebook as “limited availability.”

Tickets are $15 general admission online or $17 at the door. Student rush tickets at the door are $5; kids younger than 7 will be admitted free. Steel Magnolias is rated PG; there are some adult themes.

The Lantern Theatre will host a special benefit performance of Steel Magnolias for the Central Arkansas Women’s Shelter at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28. Tickets for the benefit performance are $30, and half of the ticket sales will go to the Women’s Shelter. Heavy hors d’oeuvres will be served; the doors will open at 6:45.

All tickets are on sale online at conwayarts.org.

The action in the upcoming play takes place in Truvy’s beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are anyone come to have their hair done … and gossip while following the marriage, motherhood and eventual death of one of the customers’ daughters. As the title suggests, the women are as delicate as magnolia blossoms and strong as steel.

Harling’s play, based on real events in his life, made its 2005 Broadway debut after a 1987 off-Broadway premiere and successful 1989 film version starring Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah and Olympia Dukakis.

The local cast includes the following:

• Wendy Shirar appears as M’Lynn, the leading lady of the town and the mother of Shelby.

“I’m the mama, again,”

Shirar said, laughing. “I just played the mother in Mothers and Sons. Seems like I’m being typecast, but that’s fine. One of my greatest accomplishments in life is being a mother. I have two grown sons.

“We had a great turnout for auditions,” Shirar said. “The competition was tough. I was very surprised to receive the call back. I read for all parts, except the younger ones.”

Shirar recently changed jobs. After several years at Acxiom Corp., she now works as an executive assistant in human resources at Simmons Bank in Little Rock.

• Darby Burdine portrays Shelby, the prettiest girl in town.

“I’m really excited to get this part,” said Burdine, who teaches theater and English at Bigelow High School. “I have only seen the movie, so I was not familiar with the play. In the play, all the action takes place in the beauty salon, and there are no male characters in it. It’s more heartfelt; it’s just the women in the beauty shop. It’s more close, more personal.”

Burdine, who has been in several CCAA productions over the years, said this role has been “a challenge.”

“I am used to doing drama, but this play is both drama and comedy,” she said. “I’ve had to find that balance.”

Burdine is a member-at-large of the CCAA Board of Directors.

• Kelly Webber plays Truvy, owner of the beauty salon.

Webber retired as the drama teacher at Conway High School in May 2016 after 28 years.

“I’m doing this now,” she said, laughing, “and spending time with my family.

“I am having so much fun doing this play. I haven’t been onstage in a long time. The last show I did with Conway Community Arts was a Late Night at the Lantern show, True West. That was at least five years ago.”

• Danielle Carney appears as Annelle, Truvy’s newly hired assistant.

This is the first time Carney has appeared in a CCAA production. She is a graduate of Jacksonville High School and a freshman at Hendrix College in Conway.

“I did theater in high school, but mostly musicals,” she said. “I also have done musicals at the Studio Theatre in Little Rock, but this is my first time to do a play, focusing on a character rather than music.

“My character, Annelle, is very ambiguous,” she said. “I remember watching the movie as a kid and crying, but not really understanding why I was crying.”

• Wendy Miers portrays Clairee, the grand dame of the town and the widow of the former mayor.

Miers was active in CCAA for many years but took an eight-year break to care for her mother.

“It’s time to get back,” Miers said, smiling. “I never imagined myself doing a role like Clairee; she has such a dry wit.

“Of course, I am familiar with the movie,” Miers said. “When I saw the audition notice, I just thought it was time I get back onstage.

“There were 27 women who auditioned for this play,” she said. “I feel very blessed to have gotten this role. I am having a lot of fun with it.”

Miers last appeared in the 2010 CCAA production of A, My Name is Alice. She has worked at Acxiom Corp. for 35 years. She has four children and 14 grandchildren.

• Lisa Ray plays Ouiser, a wealthy curmudgeon.

“She’s wonderful,” Ray said of the character she is playing. “She says what everybody else is thinking.”

Ray mentioned the 27 women who auditioned for Steel Magnolias.

“There were several in our age group, reading for the parts of Clairee and Ouiser,” she said. “I thought I might not have a chance for a part, but they cast me as Ouiser. I am over the moon about it.”

Ray said Steel Magnolias is among his top five favorite movies.

“I think I like the play more, since it’s all about the women in the beauty shop,” Ray said. “I like that; the characters have more depth.

“I am trying not to channel Shirley MacLaine (the actress who played Ouiser in the movie),” she said, smiling. “I am trying to find Ouiser.”

Ray is secretary of the CCAA Board of Directors. She is a full-time faculty member at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and serves as program director for the addiction studies degree program. She and her husband have one daughter and one granddaughter.

Erin Henderson is stage-managing the upcoming production of Steel Magnolias. Trent Reese, president of the CCAA Board of Directors, is the box office manager and costumer. He has dressed each of the cast members to represent a flower — Truvy as a marigold; Annelle, lily of the Incas; M’Lynn, prairie gentian; Shelby, bleeding heart; Clairee, orchid; and Ouiser, jack-in-the-pulpit.

For more information on CCAA, visit the website or Facebook page or email trent@thelanterntheatre.com. The Lantern Theatre is at 1021 Van Ronkle St. in downtown Conway.

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