Life’s ups and downs give Gaslight’s Steel Magnolias its charm Aug. 23-Oct. 13
Release Date: 8/8/2007. Expired: 10/13/2007
With its sense of realism mixing hilarity and heart-wrenching drama, Steel Magnolias has become a standard-bearer for recognizing the strength of women in the modern South. It highlights its characters as strongly independent women who, at the same time, draw courage from each other.
Steel Magnolias comes to the Gaslight Dinner Theatre at The Renaissance Center in Dickson Aug. 23-Oct. 13. Presented by Tennsco, performances of Steel Magnolias will be Fridays and Saturdays beginning with a buffet dinner at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $30 per person and include dinner, drink, dessert, tax and the performance. Senior Matinees for ages 55 and up will be Thursdays and Fridays beginning at 12 p.m. with a buffet lunch. Tickets are $20 per person and include lunch, drink, dessert, tax and the performance.
Written by Robert Harling, Steel Magnolias originally was a short story based on the death of the author’s sister from diabetes after giving birth.
“Being based on an actual event in Harling’s life gives Steel Magnolias such a sense of realism that the characters are all people we know or can identify with,” said Pacer Harp, managing director of the Gaslight Dinner Theatre and the show’s director. “From the way these characters interact -- laughing together, fighting with each other and leaning on each other – we can all find something that relates to our lives.”
The play takes place in Truvy’s beauty salon in Chinquapin, La., 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 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 40 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."
Amy Scott (Truvy Jones) is Managing Director of the Renaissance Players at The Renaissance Center. The Cedar Hill, Tenn., native has appeared in 16 Gaslight Dinner Theatre productions, with past shows including Nuncrackers, Anything Goes, The Honky Tonk Angels, Nunsense, I Do! I Do!, The Dining Room and others. She also has appeared in three Renaissance Players productions and 17 shows for the Mind Enriching Theatre series. She has directed four productions in the Gaslight Dinner Theatre, including Chicago, Run for Your Wife and The Foreigner, four Renaissance Players productions, including Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and Dracula, the MET series production of HONK! and the Young Entertainers on Stage productions of Disney’s The Jungle Book Kids and Disney’s Aladdin Jr. Amy is the resident costumer for all theatre productions at The Renaissance Center.
Ayla Harrison (Annelle Dupuy-Desoto) returns to the Gaslight Dinner Theatre where she previously appeared in the 2006 production of The Miss Firecracker Contest. A Florida native, Ayla’s credits include The Little Prince for People’s Branch Theatre, Driven to Abstraction for the Orlando Shakespeare Festival, Unicornicopia for Orlando Fringe Festival, 5th of July, The Marriage of Bette and Boo and Blithe Spirit for UCF Conservatory Theatre. As a lit assistant/dramaturge and playwright, Ayla has worked with the Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Tennessee Women’s Theatre Project, People’s Branch Theatre, La Mama Experimental Theatre in New York and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington D.C. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Performance from the University of Central Florida. Ayla can also be seen in the upcoming Mind Enriching Theatre series productions of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas.
Emily Winters Bergen (Clairee Belcher) is appearing in her first production in the Gaslight Dinner Theatre. She has served as an assistant professor of Communications and Theatre at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville and Tennessee State University in Nashville. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Memphis State University, her Master of Arts from APSU and her Doctor of Education from Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. She has appeared in productions of To Kill a Mockingbird, Cabaret, The Importance of Being Earnest, Tartuffe and Sister Mary Ignatious Explains It All for You at APSU and founded the APSU Improv Troupe. A co-founder of Back Lot Productions, she has appeared in The Taming of the Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other theatre credits include Southern Fried Murder, Godspell, The Haunting of Hill House, Annie Get Your Gun, The Odd Couple and The Curious Savage.
Anna Hammonds (Shelby Eatenton-Latcherie) is a native of Evansville, Ind., and received her Bachelor of Arts in Music Business from Anderson University in Anderson, Ind., where she toured Scandinavia and the United States as a member of the AU Chorale. She has appeared in Gaslight Dinner Theatre productions of Lend Me a Tenor, Anything Goes, Nuncrackers, The Foreigner, Chicago, A Grand Night for Singing and Run for Your Wife. She won the first Rising Star Award at the 2005 Jimmy Awards and has had roles in the Renaissance Players productions of Children of Eden, Annie, Faith County and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, for which she won Best Actress in a Musical. For the MET series, she has appeared in SNOOPY!!!, Auschwitz Lullaby, HONK!, Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr., Nightfall with Edgar Allan Poe, Pinocchio and Bird Woman (The Story of Sacagewea). Anna also appeared in Now That’s Country and Fabulous Flicks at Bearcreek Farms and Resort in Indiana. She can be seen in the upcoming Mind Enriching Theatre series production of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Marilyn Fair (M’Lynn Eatenton) has appeared in the Gaslight Dinner Theatre production of Driving Miss Daisy and as Miss Hanningan in the Renaissance Players production of Annie. Marilyn came to Tennessee after a very long and successful run as Luisa in the original Off-Broadway production of The Fantasticks on Sullivan Street in New York City. This Florida native earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre Arts at Florida Southern College and has been performing for more than 20 years in such roles as Margot in Dial M for Murder, Sheila in The Boys Next Door, Meg in Crimes of the Heart, Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, Fiona in Brigadoon, Katalin Hunyak in Chicago, Maggie in A Chorus Line, Grace in Annie as well as numerous commercials, industrials and print advertisements. Marilyn left New York to portray the role of Fairlight Spencer in Christy The Musical at The Cumberland County Playhouse in Crossville, the beautiful Smoky Mountain Amphitheatre in Townsend, Tenn., and The Roy Acuff Theatre in Nashville. She met her husband, singer/songwriter Joe Fair, and the couple has settled in Fairview to raise their son, Nicolas. Marilyn is an adjunct voice instructor at The Renaissance Center.
Donna Adams Schulte (Ousier Boudreaux) is making her Gaslight Dinner Theatre debut in one of her favorite roles. Donna comes to Tennessee from the Tibbits Theatre in Coldwater, Mich., where she appeared as Mrs. Potts in Picnic. Prior to that she appeared as Louise Seger in Always… Patsy Cline at Cornwells Dinner Theatre in Marshall, Mich. A Texas native and graduate of Baylor University, Donna currently lives in Marion, Ind., with her husband Ed and their cat Zeke and has appeared in theatres across America. In addition to Ousier in Steel Magnolias, Donna’s other very favorite role is Grace Stiles in Grace and Glorie. Other favorites include Aunt Eller in Oklahoma, Aunt Martha in Arsenic and Old Lace, Eulalie McKechnie Shinn in The Music Man, Penny Sycamore in You Can’t Take It With You, Opal Kronkie in Opal’s Million Dollar Duck and Opal’s Wedding and Veta Louise Simmons in Harvey. Donna’s absolute favorite role, however, is being Grandma Donna to 10 grandkids.
The colorful cast of characters was made famous in the 1989 movie starring Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Julia Roberts, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah and Olympia Dukakis, and hit Broadway in 2005 with Delta Burke, Marsha Mason and Christine Ebersole.
“Steel Magnolias is one of those rare shows that can take you from laughing to crying and back again, just like life,” Harp said.
For more information on the Gaslight Dinner Theatre production of Steel Magnolias, presented by Tennsco, call (615) 740-5600 or visit www.rcenter.org. To purchase tickets, call (615) 740-5601 or (888) 700-2300.
The Renaissance Center is a fine arts education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.
Visit the Theatre page for more about community and professional theatre.
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