San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
‘STEEL MAGNOLIAS’ A PASSION PROJECT FOR PLAY’S DIRECTOR
Whenever Anthony Methvin has gone through dark times, his go-to place for comfort is watching the 1989 movie “Steel Magnolias.” Its message of hope, friendship and resilience in times of loss has helped him through many hard times.
But ever since the pandemic began, the 42-yearold co-founder of Backyard Renaissance Theatre Company said he has resisted watching his all-time favorite film because he wanted to have a clean slate when he directed the Robert Harling play that inspired the film. Originally scheduled for a 2020 production, the pandemic-delayed comedy-drama is finally opening Thursday at the Tenth Avenue Arts Center. Methvin promises that audiences will recognize the characters from the beloved film, but his actors are bringing their own interpretations to the stage.
“We’ve stepped up to the challenge by really discovering this text in our own bodies and in our own voices. We’ll be able to straddle that line,” he said. “We’re giving you that comfort food you crave, but we’ve put our own Cajun spice on top of it. There will be unexpected things that are going to be fun discoveries for an audience who only knows the movie.”
Harling’s 1987 play takes place in a Louisiana beauty salon where six very different women from their 20s to their 70s bond, fight, gossip, laugh, celebrate and grieve the ups and downs of their lives. The play’s central character is Shelby, a diabetic young married woman who decides to have a baby despite the the danger a pregnancy could pose to her health. Harling, a Louisiana resident, based the character of Shelby on his own sister, Susan.
Methvin said that the first time he saw the movie around age 12, he recognized the female characters in the film. Born in Tallahassee, Fla., in 1980, Methvin grew up hanging out in his Sicilian grandmother’s homebased beauty salon, where her longtime customers were very similar to those in Harling’s play.
“Being around women in this space where they were connecting and catching up and gossiping, it’s literally like coming back home,” he said. “These are the women I grew up with. These were my neighbors, my aunts and my cousins. Southern women are the bedrock of their community.”
Methvin said the play also resonates with him as a queer man.
“The original production of this show was in the late 1980s and written by a queer man about his own family. So when it came out it premiered in New York City at the height of the AIDS crisis, a whole generation of queer folks who were losing people at an alarming rate were able to watch these people in the movie grappling with big questions and facing adversity with humor and heart and they connected with it. The movie is about these characters leaning on their chosen family and creating their own community, which is exactly what an entire generation of queer people needed at that time.”
Methvin said rehearsals have been a discovery process for him and his cast, which includes Dagmar Krause Fields, Annie Hinton, Claire Kaplan, Wendy Maples, Liliana Talwatte and Marci Anne Wuebben. He said that by working through the script with them, he has found a deeper complexity to the characters than he expected.
“This play has been such a passion project of mine for so much of my life. But the fact is, this kind of story will resonate with audiences right now. It’s about laughter through tears, which right now is what everybody needs. It transcends political, gender and age lines.”
“Steel Magnolias” opens Thursday and runs through Sept. 2. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Thursdays-saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays at the Tenth Avenue Arts Center, 930 10th Ave., San Diego. Tickets are $32 to $40. Visit backyardrenaissance.com.
pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com