St. Petersburg – American Stage is ready to start the summer off right—with a play as tough as steel, but as delicate as magnolias.
The newest production of the popular 1987 Robert Harling play Steel Magnolias opens on May 23 and runs through June 15, and at the helm is St. Petersburg’s Bob Devin Jones.
“Sisterhood, love, and laughter,” says Jones of the central theme of the play. “It’s the glue that binds these women together.”
The play, which has twice been adapted to film, follows the familial bond of six women in northwest Louisiana.
“It’s one of my favorite movies, coming into it, so many people have seen the movie and they have expectations,” says Erica Sutherlin, who plays the role of Clairee Belcher, made popular by Olympia Dukakis in the 1989 film. “I think that it’s going to be interesting to hear the responses to their expectations and what we give them. For me as an actor, I have to constantly tell myself to move away from what I’m accustomed to and know [about the film], and find the character myself.”
Newcomer Whitney Drake, who plays Shelby, echoes Sutherlin’s sentiment and knows of the film’s popularity, especially among the LGBT community.
“I’m nervous, the original [1989 film] is very popular so people do have those expectations,” she says.“I don’t want to fail at delivering in this role that Julia Roberts played, and did such an amazing job with.”
Jones explains how this production is somewhat unique.
“The play, as written, is about six white women in the south. This version that I’m directing is six African-American women in the south. The commonality is their love and bond of friendship,” he says. “This might be a bit of a stretch of an analogy, but it’s like going to a Catholic mass, and a southern Baptist church. These women are always responding, because that’s how they occur together. And I don’t have to illicit that, it’s natural, I just have to shape it.”
The stellar group of actors began with the casting of Sutherlin, who was cast in an unexpected role.
“When I got the email saying ‘We would like to invite you to play the role of Clairee’ I thought ‘Oh….Clairee?’” she says. “I figured if I was going to be in the show there were only certain roles I could play, and when Clairee came up I thought, ‘Oh my! But they feel like I can do, so I’m going to do it.’”
The character of Clairee is twice Sutherlin’s age, however the actress has found that she’s coming to enjoy playing an older role.
“I’m finding that she has some great moments, some great lines, I’m having a good time with her,” she says. “Channeling an older character, you get to explore things, you get to try things. I can sit the way I want to sit, if I get up and my knees hurt when I do, it’s truly ok to let out a little groan.”
Drake’s journey to the role of Shelby was decidedly different. Jones spotted her while she was rehearsing for her role as Dorothy in American Stage’s recent production of The Wiz, and saw in her the perfect energy for the role of Shelby.
“When I saw Whitney in rehearsal [for The Wiz], she was working full-out, and that’s the only way you can work,” he says. “If you’re not 100% present, then I’m ‘seeing’ you, but I’m not seeing you. If you’re going to do the work, then do the work. I just saw that spirit that would be essence of that character.”
What Jones didn’t know at the time was that Drake was a seasoned musical actress, but had never acted in a play before.
“Musicals? Yes, plenty. But a play? No, I’ve never done anything that didn’t involve a break for singing or dancing, so this is nerve wracking,” says Drake, who admits she initially didn’t expect to land the part of Shelby. “This isn’t like The Wiz, this isn’t like any musical. I have monologues, I have a lot to say. Give me a song, I can learn it in 15 minutes. But now I’m learning lines, it’s very different.”
Shelby is described as the “prettiest girl in town” according to materials describing the play and its characters.
“I’m looking around the room and I’m seeing girls that are gorgeous and, I’m talking to them and they’re saying ‘Oh I’ve worked on this, and done this play, and won this award,’ and I’m thinking ‘Oh my God, why am I here?’” she says. “Then it came time to read, and something got in me, and when I had the script in front of me I wasn’t nervous, I felt confident, and here I am.”
It’s that energy that Jones thrives on as a director.
“Every project is new, and I am a very intuitive director and very much base my direction off of the actors’ sprit, how they occur as an artist. So I have no preconceived notions coming into any play other than that I just want to get to the heart of the matter,” he says. “I’m not a good reader of plays, I’m a good director of plays when I have actors giving decision and movement to the space.”
Now, only days away from opening night, the cast and director find they each have unique perspectives on their journey together.
“The journey is the yummiest part,” says Sutherlin.
“The performance is for the audience to enjoy what we’ve birthed through the process.”
Drake agrees, and finds the final product to be the most appetizing. “For me, it’s the performance, I love to see the audience’s reactions. “The journey is amazing, it’s hard, and I can’t wait to have it all locked in and then look back on the journey it took to get there.”
And for Jones, there is a more internal sense of peace that comes with the creative process.
“The older I get, the more I just want the best and brightest around me. You can be new at it, or in the middle of it, it’s about who you want to be in a room with for three weeks,” he says. “The best part of it for me is the process, and the performance is the joy of release of what you have discovered in rehearsal. Whatever it ends up being, I’ll be changed by the experience, and so will these women.”
For more information, and to get tickets for Steel Magnolias, visit AmericanStage.org.
