Press Release

The Hand-to-Mouth Players proudly announces auditions for "Steel Magnolias" by Robert Harling to be directed by Kathy Colonna. All roles are open, and the cast is for six women. Auditions will be held Saturday, March 22nd, at 2:00 pm. Performances begin May 9. Auditions and performances will be at the Trinity-Boscobel United Methodist Church, 275 Church Street, Buchanan, NY. For directions or further information, please call 914-734-4336. You may also visit our web site at http://www.htmplayers.com/

The play is alternately hilarious and touching and, in the end, deeply revealing of the strength and purposefulness which underlies the antic banter of its characters; a group of gossipy southern ladies in a small-town beauty parlor.

THE STORY: The action is set in Truvy's beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, 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, ("I'm not crazy, I've just been in a bad mood for forty years"); an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee, who has a raging sweet tooth; and the local social leader, M'Lynn, whose daughter, Shelby (the prettiest girl in town), is about to marry a "good ole boy." Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions, the play moves toward tragedy when, in the second act, the spunky Shelby (who is a diabetic) risks pregnancy and forfeits her life. The sudden realization of their mortality affects the others, but also draws on the underlying strength and love which give the play, and its characters, the special quality to make them truly touching, funny and marvelously amiable company in good times and bad.