Steel Magnolias — director’s programme note (2006)

2006 season · Programme note

Production: Steel Magnolias
Director: Robert Kramer
Ran: July 7 – August 12, 2006

The note, as printed

One of the hardest steps in a directorial process for me is selecting the play I want to direct. There are so many criteria and they all seem to conflict. Critics are more likely to review and promote new works, but audiences turn out more for old standards. Plays with smaller casts tend to develop more complex and interesting characters, but the acting community tends to get more excited about ensemble pieces. Most plays call for multiple sets or elaborate set changes, but with our limited space it becomes very difficult. Male actors are at a premium in Colorado, while fifty women turn up at every audition; and yet most plays call for twice as many men as women. Trying to marry all these considerations is daunting to say the least; it is the proverbial blank page.

So, when faced with the decision of what to direct with a deadline approaching fast, I wrote down the first play that popped into my head — Steel Magnolias. I had never intended to direct the play; I hadn’t even read it. The film, which my wife loved, had not inspired me at all — the material seemed dated and melodramatic. But actresses I knew kept pestering me to look at it, and finally I consented.

Then a truly amazing thing happened: I was completely captivated by the play. Reading the words on the page, I saw that it was not a play about the ’80s and their remarkably big hairdos. It was not a play about the “south,” new or otherwise. It was not about limiting women to a stereotype or man-bashing. It told the truth about six incredibly strong, diverse, independent, loving women and the unique challenges they face. As Harling himself writes, “the women in the play are witty, intelligent, and above all real characters… not caricatures.”

As a result, working on the play became a labour of love — discovering the warmth and charm of our six actors. I have so relished the opportunity to work with this astonishing array of talented and intelligent performers. Their truth and beauty have been something to behold. I certainly hope that you agree.

A stack of blank vintage theatre programmes and folded playbills on a dark oak table — Programme notes are the most perishable part of a theatre’s record. Five of the Vic’s survive because they were published online.

Why this survives

The first paragraph of this note is the clearest surviving description of how a seventy-five-seat theatre actually chose its season: not by artistic policy but by the intersection of cast size, set requirements, who turns up at auditions and how long there is before the deadline. Almost every constraint it lists is a consequence of the room.

The production page carries the synopsis, the cast and the notices the production drew, which were among the strongest in the theatre’s archive.

This page is part of the production archive of the Denver Victorian Playhouse, a seventy-five-seat theatre in the basement of a northwest Denver house that staged its last performance in 2011. Details here are restored from the theatre’s own records as they were published at the time; press quotations are reproduced with their original attributions and nothing has been added to them.