Delicate women of steel: PAPA cast presents six strong voices

It is being staged at the Fort Columbia State Park theater in Chinook. The show opened last week and continues for two weekends. Performances are 7 p.m. March 24, 25 and 31 and April 1; 2 p.m. March 26 and April 2.

Amid humor and comfortable bantering, six women living in Louisiana cement lifetime friendships at an in-home beauty parlor. But as the play progresses, one of the younger women’s serious issues with Type 1 diabetes start to cloud everyone’s happy outlook.

The cast

The production is directed by Jerr Harding, who retired to the Peninsula in 2013 after a sales career and has a long history of community theater dating back to his college days in Salt Lake City where he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and minored in theater.

The story was written by Robert Harling, based on his sister’s health struggles. It was first a play then a 1989 movie featuring six iconic American actresses, earning Julia Roberts a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. Olympia Dukakis and Shirley MacLaine portrayed the feuding Clairee and Ouiser while Dolly Parton played the hairdresser.

In the PAPA version, Katie Perez appears as Shelby, a young woman about to get married, and Raelee Erland is her mother, M’Lynn. Truvy, the hairdresser, is portrayed by Genice Normand. Jane Schussman and Cindy Flood portray the mature friends who have spent a lifetime bickering. Carly Keone rounds out the cast as Annelle, a shy newcomer whose character transforms twice as the show progresses.

‘Wonderful’

Harding, the director, has been involved with PAPA in productions of “Fiddler on the Roof” and more recently “Letters to Anne of Green Gables.” He is excited about the intimacy of the stage version of “Steel Magnolias,” which tells the same story as the movie with two important differences: all the action takes place in the salon and none of the male characters appear.

“The stage production is wonderful,” he said. “On the surface, it is a really nice view of lives and Americana based in the South, but it’s actually about life and death.”

Happiness and grief tread a fine line that is “more than yin and yang,” he said.

“It shows the balance we have as humans, and how we use humor to address that. You will be crying and laughing at the same time.”

Fantastic chemistry

His cast is a mix of veteran actors and newcomers. Harding is delighted to blend Erland, in her first show, with PAPA stalwarts Schussman and Flood. “The chemistry between Jane and Cindy is fantastic,” he said. “They use their relationship to pull that all together.”

During a break in rehearsals, their characters’ banter appears inseparable from the women themselves. Flood is the founder of PAPA. They met performing with Bayside Singers after Schussman moved to the Peninsula in 2006. They have acted together in numerous shows and even carpool to rehearsals.

“It’s typecasting,” teased Flood, whose family business is breeding German shepherds. “I missed a board meeting and found out we are going this and I am playing a curmudgeonly old lady who loves her dog!”

“I am the elegant one,” Schussman said, with a flounce.

‘It should be reversed!” Flood retorted.

Newcomer Erland said her daughter, Madeline, who loves theater, encouraged her to become involved. “I am having a lot of fun,” she said, describing how she had to master the lines and a Southern accent. “At first it was overwhelming, but after we got into it, it has become a part of me.”

• The show is the first of PAPA’s two 2023 shows. The troupe will stage the musical “The Sound of Music” July 7-Aug. 6. An earlier production was cancelled because of covid restrictions.