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HUNTINGDON — The ideal venue for a play full of strong Southern women, tradition, wit and charm, The Dixie Carter Performing Arts and Academic Enrichment Center will be home to Robert Harling’s bittersweet Steel Magnolias this March 15 and 16.
Steel Magnolias chronicles the story of Shelby Eatenton, her mother M’Lynn and their small, tight-knit group of friends. While the strong bond of friendship is certainly in the forefront of the play, the story also focuses on another kind of strength, the quiet kind that allows us to face hardship and carry on. With each other, the women of the play face head on the struggles of hard decisions, the joys of family and the heartache of unfair loss. Set in a small town beauty shop in northwest Louisiana, Steel Magnolias takes a peek under the poised grace of southern femininity to reveal the real fortitude that keeps our communities going.
In the 32 years since Steel Magnolias was written and opened off Broadway, it has become a fiber in our shared history. Though the play is distinctly Southern, countless stage renditions have premiered across the country and internationally, striking deep chords with their audiences wherever they show. The play also inspired the well-loved movie by the same name.
However, author, Robert Harling, a Tulane University Law School graduate turned actor, never imagined the success the play received. He wrote it, instead, as a way to cope with his younger sister’s death. Like Shelby in the play, Robert’s sister Susan died of complications from Type 1 diabetes, exacerbated by carrying and giving birth to her only child.