Sweet Briar College News
SBC Theatre Major Gets to Heart of "Steel Magnolias" Project
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
When Sweet Briar College student Anne Mohana was preparing to direct a production of "Steel Magnolias" for her senior project, she decided to go straight to the story’s source — geographically, at least. The Houma, La., native traveled a few hours north of her hometown to visit Natchitoches, a k a Chinquapin, the town that forms the backdrop for Robert Harling’s play and the set location for the hit 1989 movie. "I really wanted to bring in the organic sense of Louisiana into the play," Mohana said in a recent interview. "I was able to travel there and do actual research. I got to see the house author grew up in, walk the streets and interact with the people." The results of Mohana’s legwork can be seen in the student production of "Steel Magnolias" on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 13 and 14, at 7:30 p.m. in the Babcock Fine Arts Center Studio Theatre. Friday’s performance is sold out, but some tickets remain for the Saturday production (see below for information). Bringing "Steel Magnolias" to life are Sweet Briar students Erin Coleman ’04 ("M’Lynn"), Rosanna Hawkins ’07 ("Truvy"), Emily Olson ’07 ("Clairee,") Courtney Sames ’06 ("Annelle"), and Jessica Taylor ’06 ("Shelby"). Leigh Mackintosh, a Lynchburg College student, portrays "Ouiser." The online "All Movie Guide" sums up the original stage play as "set exclusively in a Louisiana beauty parlor where an all-female cast of characters laughed, cried and compared menfolk." Harling’s synopsis more specifically describes Truvy’s salon as "a place where all the ladies who are 'anybody' come to have their hair done: Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle (who is not sure whether or not she is still married), the outspoken, wise-cracking Truvy dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town's rich curmudgeon, Ouiser; an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee; and the local social leader, M’Lynn, who’s daughter Shelby is about to marry a 'good ole boy' …" "It’s an actual story written by Robert Harling in honor of Shelby's son so that he could remember his mother," Mohana said. "He wrote it in 10 days and was asked to turn it into a screenplay ... He went over to Natchitoches to visit the house she grew up in. They filmed it there in the area." In her one-day visit to Chinquapin — the Native American name for Natchitoches, or "Place of the Pawpaw" — Mohana said she couldn't pinpoint the exact model for "Truvy’s," but nonetheless got a strong sense of what makes the locals tick. "I looked in certain beauty shops and got a feel for the area," she said. "I had the famous meat pie … There’s a bunch of stuff there from the movie. They had tours where they brought you through the actual house Shelby grew up in, where the street is still cobblestone." Her directorial debut, Mohana said "Magnolias" works perfectly as a learning experience. "It's definitely a very good project for theater majors," she said. "This is taking everything I’ve learned: acting, directing … putting my entire four years of studies into one project. It's a lot more work than I would have ever imagined.”