The Champaign-Urbana Theatre Company will present “Steel Magnolias” on March 12, 13,14 and 15 at Parkland College Second Stage. Tickets can be purchased here.
BY DANI TIETZ
dani@mahometnews.com
“Steel Magnolias,” a play written in 1987 by Robert Harling, still strikes a chord with performers and spectators.
Set in northwest Louisiana, Harling used the experience of losing his sister from diabetic complications to weave a story of sisterhood as Shelby, the story’s main character, and her mother M’Lynn, deal with the reality of marriage, children, illness and heartache.
It’s a story that has stuck with crowds of women for decades. And it’s a story that Maggie Kinnamon, Gabrielle Smith, Gretchen Krieger, Cindy Kelly, Maya Hammond and Susan Curtis have dreamed of acting in.
“I’ve wanted to be in this play since I saw it at Parkland around 2002,” Kinnamon said. “I was a new mother, and the part that I’m playing right now (M’Lynn), I just connected with it so hard when I watched it. I thought I want to play that role someday.
“Being a new mother, I was full of that rush of maternal love; that is very much the motivation of that character throughout the play.”
When Kinnamon saw auditions open up with the Champaign-Urbana Theatre Company in early January 2020, she knew that with grown children who are undertaking their own acting ambitions throughout Champaign County, the time was right.
“I literally gasped,” Kinnamon said. “I was like, ‘I have to do this.’”
She didn’t tell anyone that she was auditioning, though. Krieger, who plays Clairee, the former mayor’s wife, didn’t tell anyone, either; even her daughter who shares her love for the story of “Steel Magnolias.”
Stepping outside of her comfort zone, Krieger, who has only performed in one other theatrical production in her adult life, felt like she needed to be part of the realistic portrayal of what a mother and daughter, who has a life-threatening illness, go through.
Hammond joined the cast for a similar reason. A Parkland College student from Michigan who is studying theatre, Hammond saw the opportunity as one where she could come full-circle in her relationship with her step-mom.
“When I was 11, my dad remarried,” she said. “It was really hard for me.
“We had a really hard time bonding, and I didn’t like the idea of a new mom.
“And then one day, she showed my stepsister and I this movie, ‘Steel Magnolias.’ I don’t know why, but we really just clicked after that; we really bonded and we just quoted it all the time.”
Since then, Hammond has watched the movie adaptation with her family over and over. But as the CUTC six-women cast takes the stage at Parkland College Second Stage on March 12 to 15, Hammond will portray Annelle Dupuy-Desoto, a hairdresser who finds work at Truvy’s Beauty Spot on the day of Shelby’s wedding.
“Now, she’s like my mom and my sister and it feels real; they’re not step-family anymore,” Hammond said.
“Once (girls) see the movie with their mom, it always just bonds you.”
Kelly was unaware that “Steel Magnolias” was even a play; she had only seen the movie. But when the opportunity to play Ouiser came up, she knew she had to take a shot.
“I think we’re perfectly cast,” Kelly said. “Everybody has some type of affinity for the character that they’re playing.”
The group believes that the intense plot with hilarious quips and the freedom to add their own spark into each character is only one component that will make their upcoming performances special.
“Every single time I come here, it was just such a thrill,” Smith said. “It’s just such a safe spot. We really feel like a family.”
After seven weeks of practice, the group still rejoices in spending time together.
“I feel like we’re all really connected,” Smith said. “Even though we’ve run this so many times, every single night, but it’s always fresh. It’s always new.”
A Mahomet-Seymour graduate, Smith is also studying theater at Parkland with Hammond. Kinnamon also has ties to Smith.
“The role she just played in ‘Bus Stop,’ I played when I was about her age,” Kinnamon said. “We’re mother and daughter in this play. And the first show she was ever in at Mahomet-Seymour Junior High, I choreographed.
“I just thought it was so cool that we got cast in these two roles. I just always thought she was very talented and so I was just excited when I saw that she got this role.”
Without clashing personalities within the cast, the women have been able to share their own life experiences and heartbreak as they’ve worked through blocking and lines.
“So right at the beginning of this, I went through a breakup,” Hammond said. “The breakup was really hard and I feel like most young girls want their mom during that time. Everyone here just kind of became a mom to me.”
“I would have been at home crying in bed all night long, if I wasn’t here. So it was really nice to come here and have some fun.”
On Valentine’s Day, the cast surprised Hammond with Valentines.
“It’s very important as actors that we’re open, honest and vulnerable with each other,” Smith said. “We all have this beautiful atmosphere with this beautiful story and we’re all here to do our job, but we’re all understanding that we’re women: we have wants and needs.”
Although Kelly did not have a life experience to process through, she did say that being part of “Steel Magnolias” has been a life-changing experience for her.
“We’re all Facebook friends; we’re texting all day,” she said.
“My favorite thing about this is there’s not a night that goes by that I’m not laughing hard at everyone’s lines,” Krieger added.
The relationships and community is exactly what Champaign-Urbana Theatre Company (CUTC) Director Jennifer Goran wanted to bring to life.
“One of the things that I keep going through as I’m listening to all these ladies talk, is about how our lives are intersecting with the stage lives; it’s life intersecting with life.
“Two of my favorite topics are community and women,” Goran continued.
“I love the fact that we create communities. I love to study communities: how they’re created, what we need from them, what we give to them. And probably, in terms of my objectives, the fact that they’re so close, as a cast is just as important to me as to how the show turns out.”
The cast appreciated the freedom Goran gave them as they began rehearsals, and the wisdom she adds into the mix here and there, especially as they get closer to their opening date.
“She wanted to see how we would move organically on the stage, when we set our lines, what felt right, what felt natural,” Kinnamon said. “And then of course, we have to go back through and actually block things and choreograph scenes.”
Known as an “actor-friendly” director, Goran likes to watch her cast take on the roles of their characters and play with them. She said she might have a suggestions as that development plays out, but she’s patient in her decision making.
“I want to watch all of it, and then I want to choose the best,” she said.
That creative freedom, and the opportunity to continue to be creative as adults, is something the “Steel Magnolias” cast values.
“It’s wonderful fun to come in and have to be able to use that creative part of yourself. I am an accounting professor by day, so there’s not much creativity there,” Curtis said.
Balancing work and children, then making tough choices between doing an interview and learning lines, Curtis does what she needs to, then commits to “doing what’s right for the cast.”
“I think there’s just really good lessons for me as a parent to be able to demonstrate, model, to show my kids that I can audition and not get a part or audition and get a part, then work your butt off,” she said.
Having put acting aside while she raised her kids, Kinnamon is excited for the debut of “Steel Magnolias” because it will be the first time that her children will see her on stage.
“I had my three right in a row, so it didn’t leave time for going to rehearsals at night,” Kinnamon said. “So I really kind of put all my love of theater energy into them.”
Kinnamon also teaches drama in the Urbana School District.
“This is the first time that they’re going to actually come sit in the audience and watch their mother be in a play,” she said.
“It means a lot to me.”
“Steel Magnolias” will be performed at Parkland College Second Stage on March 12, 13, 14 and 15 at 7 p.m. with matinee showings at 2 p.m. on March 14 and 15.
The cast has their hearts set on providing the same rich experience of emotion and laughter for the audience that they’ve experienced for themselves.
“I want people to experience the bonding between women that can be so incredibly important, vital, life-affirming, life-saving, all those things that women can be and are for each other,” Kelly said.
Goran’s vision will bring the audience into the intimate hair salon setting.
“They’re walking right into the environment, as opposed to watching the environment,” Goran said. “I want them to be there with us; one of our goals is to include them in what we’re living.”
Hammond said that while the characters may not go through the exact same circumstances as the audience members, “Steel Magnolias” has always been about the vast emotions one experiences throughout a lifetime.
“I think that every character goes through something totally different in their development throughout the story,” Hammond said. “So I think that every audience member will have numerous opportunities to relate to something.
“That’s really important in a show like this because that’s what makes you leave feeling fulfilled.”
