All-women cast in Pocket's upcoming Steel Magnolias will 'delight' audiences

Rehearsal photo by Stephen Campbell

In an all-women cast, six actresses will hit the staged beauty shop at the Pocket Community Theatre starting this Friday to perform Robert Harling's 1987 classic Steel Magnolias.

"I think everyone is familiar with the movie. The play is a little bit different," Director Ann Wilson said.

"The audience can expect to be delighted. I've heard the lines many times, and I'm (still) laughing."

The show will run the next two weekends. Tickets can be purchased here.

Wilson said the play "touches every emotion."

"It is a powerful portrait of strong southern women, and really women everywhere," she said. "It is a funny play with a lot of laughs ... but there is tragedy ... as happens in life."

In what Wilson describes as an "ensemble piece," there are no leading ladies.

"Three generations are portrayed in the play and it has been fun to see the connections happen among the cast ... as actors and in real life," she said.

The cast includes Brittany Cranton as Annelle, Christi Goode Day as M'Lynn, Lilie Lim as Shelby, Melony Martinez as Truvy, Barbara Morgan as Clairee and Linda Rickel as Ouiser.

Harling wrote Steel Magnolias in a short 10 days in 1987 as he grieved the death of his own sister. It had a successful off-Broadway run before he went on to write the film script, "and we're still laughing and crying with it 35 years later," Wilson said.