“And the Southern girls with the way they talk, They knock me out when I'm down there.”
Beach Boys’ “California Girls”

And everybody knows that Southern girls can do their best talking when they are in the comfort of their own safe haven from men and the rest of the world - the beauty shop.

With that in mind, The Renaissance Center’s Performing Arts Theatre will become the stop for a quick wash and set, with a healthy side of all the latest news and gossip, when “Steel Magnolias” opens Sept. 14.

The show runs through Sept. 24 with curtain at 7 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $5 for children under 13.

The close-knit circle of women at Truvy’s Beauty Salon, the unofficial hub of Chinquapin, La., has lots of time to gossip. Their husbands — absent, depressed or dead — have made sure of that. Consequently, visitors to the salon get more than a wash and a cut.

“The reason why I like ‘Steel Magnolias’ the most is it shows really what I consider to be one of the things that describes the South. And that’s the strength of the female gender in the South,” said Leo Sochocki, theatre director for The Renaissance Center. “It’s a different thing than what it is in the North. The matriarch has a different place in the family. It’s something that is hard to describe, but when you see it and you feel it, you know what I’m talking about. And in this play, I think it is beautifully portrayed.

“Of any of the things I’ve read - Tennessee Williams is a good example - it doesn’t quite portray the female characters the way Robert Harling did in ‘Steel Magnolias.’”

Well known as a movie starring Julia Roberts, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Darryl Hannah and Sally Field, “Steel Magnolias” actually began as a short story written by Harling about the actual death of his sister from diabetes after giving birth.

That helps give the play its sense of realism.

“It’s a realist piece and, from that point of view, the characters are people you know,” Sochocki said, “especially if you live down here... It takes all the idiosyncrasies of the characters, those real things about them, and it puts them out there for everybody to see.”

Auditions for the six parts in the play drew 75 interested women over a two-day period. Cast in The Renaissance Center production are:

Malinda May of Waverly appears as Truvy. May most recently appeared in “TOMMY” and “A Christmas Carol;”

Allison Curd of Dickson plays Annelle. Curd is director of educational development at The Renaissance Center;

Jennifer Payton of Dickson will play Miss Clairee;

Jan Dial of Clarksville has the part of Ouiser. Dial is director of The Renaissance Center’s Repertory Company;

Shannon Haley of Nunnelly is Shelby. Haley was in the chorus for “TOMMY,” and;

Nina Cathey of Burns will portray M’Lynn. Cathey appeared in “South Pacific” and is a former drama and voice instructor at The Renaissance Center.

“The show really cast itself,” Sochocki said. “I tried to find the best pairings and combinations. These talented ladies were chosen primarily for the way they interacted with each other.”

“The combination of talent is unique to each presentation. I think that the women that have been cast will bring a fresh perspective to an already excellent script. The show is an ensemble piece and relies completely on the interaction between the characters. In casting, I looked primarily for genuine chemistry between the women. I think it helps that most of the women are already acquainted with each other.”

The wise-cracking Truvy, with the help of her new glamour technician, Annelle, dispenses shampoo with liberal doses of free advice and gossip to the town’s rich curmudgeon, Ouiser; an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee; and the local town social worker, M’Lynn, whose daughter, Shelby, is on the verge of marriage.

Alternately hilarious and touching, the play focuses on the camaraderie of these six Southern women who talk, gab, gossip, chitchat, needle and harangue each other through the best of times — and cry, caress, comfort and repair one another through the worst. They're soul mates in a rarefied way that assumes a cult of femininity — sisters come hell and high water.

While the main story remains the same between the movie and stage versions, Sochocki said the play invites the audience into the beauty parlor to sit with the characters and experience their pain and joy.

“The play, when it’s presented well, does a better job of making you feel that you’re not so outside looking in,” Sochocki said. “There comes a point where you’re feeling M’Lynn’s pain. There comes a point where you’re feeling Shelby’s embarrassment with her mom when she’s talking about the wedding. You don’t get that so much from the movie.”

The play covers about a year in these women’s lives and takes place entirely inside Truvy’s beauty salon.

“That’s one of the charms of the play,” Sochocki said. “In the movie, you don’t get to feel what’s going on in the beauty shop. In the play, you’re in the beauty shop. You’re dealing with the fact that you can’t really hear very well because the fan’s running on the hair dryer. You’re dealing with getting water all over the place because she’s getting her hair washed. These are all of the very real things that you can’t get from a movie, that you can only get from the stage.”

The women at Truvy’s beauty parlor are the steel magnolias of the title: Southern belles, flowery on the outside, but strong enough inside to survive any challenge, many of which are presented throughout the course of the narrative.

“I think we have the opportunity here to present a lovely, small, drama with a level of professionalism that will rival anything one might see in Nashville or anywhere else for that matter,” Sochocki said. “The show offers a dramatic interpretation of what makes relationships, particularly friendships between women, so special in the South.”

The play opened on Broadway in June 1987 and ran for 1,126 performances.

For more information on The Renaissance Center’s production of “Steel Magnolias,” call (615)740-5600.

Visit the Theatre page for more about community and professional theatre.

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