Steel Magnolias: a Closer Look 1
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
A Closer Look Compiled and assembled by Megan Hanks Steel Magnolias: A Closer Look 1 Presented by the Steel Commonweal Theatre Company June 23 - October 23, 2017 Magnolias Essentials The Plot (Spoiler Alert!) Act I, Scene 1: On a Saturday morning in on her weakened body. She appears to accept Truvy’s in-home hair salon in Chinquapin this fate and says that she and her soon-to- Parish, northwestern Louisiana, Truvy eval- be husband, Jackson, are perfectly happy to uates newcomer Annelle’s salon skills using adopt. herself as guinea pig. Annelle passes and Scene 2: Shortly before Christmas that Truvy hires her on the spot, despite the young same year, Shelby has returned home for the woman’s cagey responses to queries about her holidays. She announces, first privately to living situation and her background. her mother, then to the others, that she is Soon the day’s customers arrive, including pregnant. M’Lynn is shocked and dismayed neighbor and regular M’Lynn and her daugh- but realizes she must accept her strong-willed ter, Shelby (who, though not a daughter’s choice. The ladies are regular customer at Truvy’s, is delighted at the news. Annelle having her hair done up specially has straightened out her life and because it is her wedding day); is living in Truvy’s guest house. Clairee, a mature widow with She has connected with a church a wicked sense of humor; and, and is becoming very religious, finally, Ouiser, an older woman and she has found a beau, whom who seems to be perpetually in a she met at Shelby’s wedding. bad mood. Act II, Scene 1: Shelby is now Conversation centers on the mother to a boy who, though wedding, the bride, the groom born prematurely, is doing and hair, clothing and colors. well and is so full of energy he At the goading of all the ladies, runs her ragged. Shelby and Annelle reluctantly reveals the M’Lynn—too casually for the story of her husband (if he really A magazine prop created for the show ladies’ taste—reveal that Shelby’s is, in fact, such) absconding with kidneys have failed, she is now their car and household possessions, leaving on dialysis, and that M’Lynn will donate one her penniless and alone. She is now living at of her kidneys to her daughter. The surgery a boarding house across the river. Truvy and is set for the next day. The ladies are shocked the ladies offer sympthay, help and advice and at the apparent secrecy, but all are supportive eventually Annelle begins to feel at home. and circle the wagons to prepare for the event. Shelby, a diabetic, suffers a blood sugar Scene 2: A year later, Shelby has died after crash and becomes momentarily unrespon- complications following the unsuccessful sive. The women (except Annelle) are familiar transplant. The ladies are heartbroken but with her situation and rush to her aid, and she find that, in one another’s love and support, soon recovers. Discussion reveals that Shelby life goes on. Now married and pregnant, has been advised by her doctors against hav- Annelle reveals that she plans to name her ing children as it would put too much strain child Shelby, to everyone’s delight. 2 Steel Magnolias: A Closer Look About the Playwright Robert Harling was born in 1951 in san, in 1985 due to diabetes, Harling wrote a Dothan, Alabama, one of three children of short story and adapted it into the play Steel Robert M. Harling, Jr., and Margaret Jones Magnolias, which was produced off-Broad- Harling. He graduated from Northwestern way in 1987 to great acclaim and was subse- State University in his hometown and ob- quently translated into seventeen languages. tained a law degree from Tulane University Harling also wrote the screenplay for the Law School in New Orleans. While in law 1989 film version, starring Sally Field and Ju- school, he sang in a band which performed in lia Roberts. He played a small role in the film New Orleans on weekends. as a minister. (For more, please see page 9.) However, Harling never used his law de- Harling went on to write more screen- gree: skipping the bar exam, he instead moved plays: Soapdish (1991), The First Wives Club to New York City to become an actor, audi- (1996), and Laws of Attraction (2004); he tioning for bit parts in plays and television also worked as an uncredited script doctor commercials, and working as a ticket seller on a number of films. Harling also wrote and for Broadway shows. directed the sequel to Terms of Endearment After the death of his younger sister, Su- titled The Evening Star (1996). Susan Harling Robinson Much more than just a fond memento an audience we are simultaneously guided of a time and a place for playwright Robert and reassured with them by the strength and Harling, Steel Magnolias also serves as a trib- grace that the other characters display in such ute to his sister. The character Shelby bears moments. a heartbreaking correlation to Harling’s own None of the characters in this play are flat sister, Susan Harling Robinson. At the age of or archetypal. Each is unique, with quirks and 32, Susan passed away from complications unexpected moments. We see these women of diabetes after a kidney transplant failed in choose their own styles and hairdos, and in- October, 1985. dividually claim their favorite sectors of ’80s Susan was a pediatric nurse who, like pop culture. We see them struggle with and Shelby, went against her doctor’s advice and accept gender roles and social hierarchies of bore a son, which ultimately led to her kidney the time. And most importantly, we see them failure. In an interview with People magazine, recognize one another’s struggles as being a Harling is quoted saying that Susan was “the part of their own lives, carefully and honestly. fixer of the family,” and that her death hit It is for this reason that Steel Magnolias con- them all extremely hard. Shaken and unsure tinues to resonate with audiences and readers of how to cope with his sister’s passing, six around the world as a timeless story. We feel months after her death Harling sat down and that these women are real people with real wrote the play in about ten days. lives and families, doubts and dreams, mis- It seems that, to Harling, the most im- takes and victories—like us. portant step in creating Steel Magnolias was Most of my work will be character motivat- constructing his characters with transparency ed… Just people living life and getting through and full identities, and to use honest storytell- it, like they do where I come from. I have a real ing. The characters collectively embody an un- sense of responsibility about that. Through my breakable bond of support and friendship that sister’s story, I’ve been given the chance to give is almost effortlessly maintained. Whether or back, to say thank you. … Even in the darkest not everyone’s moods are happy or match- hours there’s stuff that makes you giggle. That’s ing, there remains a constant sense of unity what my sister would like more than anything— to know that we were able to laugh. that is familiar and warming. When certain characters are confronted with darkness, as —Robert Harling Steel Magnolias: A Closer Look 3 Context – The 1980s Politics — The Regan Era From Hollywood history of psychiatric problems, outside of star to Governor of a hotel in Washington, D.C. The gunman’s California to PO- bullet pierced one of the president’s lungs TUS—Ronald Rea- and narrowly missed his heart. Weeks later gan’s political life Reagan was back at work. That same year, and presidency are Reagan made history by appointing Sandra still controversial and Day O’Connor as the first woman to the U.S. echoing today. In his Supreme Court. younger years, Rea- In Novem- gan was a member of ber 1984, the Democratic Party Reagan was and campaigned for reelected by a President Ronald Reagan, 1981 Democratic candi- landslide, de- dates; but his views grew more conservative feating Walter over time, and in the early 1960s he officially Mondale and became a Republican. his running After making unsuccessful bids for the mate Geraldine Republican presidential nomination in 1968 Ferraro, the and 1976, Reagan received the party’s nod first female Walter Mondale & Geraldine Ferraro in 1980. In that year’s general election, he vice-presidential candidate from a major U. S. and running mate George H. W. Bush faced political party. Reagan, who announced it was off against President Jimmy Carter and Vice “morning again in America,” carried 49 out of President Walter Mondale. Reagan won the 50 states in the election and received 525 out election by an electoral margin of 489-49 with of 538 electoral votes, the largest number ever almost 51% of the popular vote. At age 69, won by an American presidential candidate. he was then the oldest person to be elected to After the more informal Carter years, the U.S. Presidency. Reagan and his wife, Nancy, ushered in a new In his inaugural address, Reagan famous- era of glamour in the nation’s capital, which ly said of America’s then-troubled economy, became known as Hollywood on the Poto- “In this present crisis, government is not the mac. The First Lady wore designer fashions, solution to our problems; government is the hosted numerous state dinners and oversaw problem.” Just two months later, on March a major redecoration of the White House.