With its comfortable and encompassing seating, comical stage conversation and undeniable hair styling abilities, the Jewel Box Theatre is taking its 2007-2008 season to the salon.
Not just for a haircut, for this isn’t just another beauty parlor. When life gets tough or times are slow in Chinguapin, La. it’s that time for a trip to Truvy’s — the place to get your gossip while you get your hair done.
And doesn’t everyone just love a nice dose of small town gossip?
For those who do, the Jewel Box players will be dishin’ out the theatrical version of “Steel Magnolias” — written by Robert Harling starting at 8 p.m. Sept. 14. Kara Quesada is playing the veracious Shelby, while her mother M’Lynn is being played by Kim Hart and Carol Chollar plays Truvy among the six-woman cast.
The 1987 play debuted off-Broadway at a small theatre in New York, but took off into the ‘90s on the success of the Herbert Ross directed film version released in 1989.
Since then it has played across the nation, seemingly offering an intangible universal quality, Jewel Box director Laurel Watt said.
“It literally has been produced in probably every regional theatre in the country, as well as at many, many other little theaters,” Watt said.
But the curtains didn’t rise for “Steel Magnolias” first run on Broadway until fairly recently — the spring of 2005 at the Lyceum Theatre.
“Why don’t we just jump on that bandwagon?” Watt thought after reading a dated article about the play’s history in a theatrical magazine. “It’s always popular, and it’s always well-loved.”
Plus, the theater was looking for a show that could take the place of “Cat On a Hot Tin Roof” by Tennessee Williams, which was slated for 2007-2008 but didn’t quite make the cut. Look for it next year.
“Steel Magnolias” is another nostalgic sit down with a classic and quirky set of characters, characteristic of the Jewel Box. The theater’s last show “Nunsense” — which followed a misfit group of nuns through the production of a musical — was a multi-night sell-out.
This show is somewhat similar.
“I think the universal thing about about this play is really that it speaks about the importance of community, of the support we get from our neighbors, or good friends,” Watt said.
M’Lynn and Shelby and friends — Clairee, Ouiser and Annelle — have found their rock in a sea of the small-town spectacle within each other at Truvy’s beauty parlor — located in a the brightly decorated garage/rec room next to Truvy’s house.
The whole story is based out of that space, which in the play, the world really does seem to revolve around.
The show opens at the parlor as the girls are planning a wedding for Shelby and her good ole’ boy husband Jackson. Then comes the announcement from the bride that she is having a baby, and it shakes the salon.
Seems a simple enough situation for a small town, only Shelby has chronic type 1 diabetes, an obvious complication.
Regardless, she’s having the baby.
“When the women come into the beauty shop, they each have their own things they are talking about,” Watt said. “We end up knowing a lot about these women and their lives … but it always comes around to that central story.”
All the while Truvy’s young and passive assistant Annelle — played by Cheryl Pippinger — is undergoing a transformation from prude to lush to religious fundamentalist while the millionaire Miss Clariee and grumpy old Ouiser are coming to grips with the world. Each character is touched greatly by Shelby over the course of the one-year period the story covers.
“(Shelby) seems to know what they need to make their lives better … and she takes those little steps to make those things happen along the way,” Watt said.
“Steel Magnolias” will premiere at 8 p.m. Sept. 14 at the Jewel Box Theatre — 225 Iverson St. in Poulsbo. The show will run at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 13 with Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Sept. 30 and Oct. 7. Tickets are $14 general/$12 seniors, students and active duty military. Info: www.jewelboxpoulsbo.org or call (360) 779-9688.
Jewel Box 2007-2008 Season At A Glance
• “Steel Magnolias” by Robert Harling
(Opens Sept. 14 — closes Oct. 13)
• “Uh-Oh, Here Comes Christmas” based on stories by Robert Fulghum
(Opens Nov. 9 — closes Dec. 9)
• “How I Learned to Drive” by Paula Vogel
(Opens Feb. 1 — closes March 1, 2008)
• “Painting Churches” by Tina Howe
(Opens March 28 — closes April 26, 2008)
• “The Great American Trailer Park Musical” by David Nehls and Betsy Kelso
(Opens May 23 — closes June 21, 2008)
• “The Last of the Red Hot Lovers” by Neil Simon
(Opens July 18 — closes Aug. 16, 2008)
