I’ve just finished my first stage performance since 2019. It was a production of Robert Harling’s iconic play, Steel Magnolias. The journey to get to the stage was quite an adventure.
Photos in this blog post were taken by a combination of Sophie Skoblar and Olivia French and were edited by me.
When this play was first proposed, it was very early in the year when our state was only 2 lockdowns deep. The theatre company scheduled it with no idea what was coming next and every person who signed up to be part of it did so while looking into the unknown. I put my hand up to be production manager because I wanted it to happen so badly and because I wanted some experience on that side of a stage show.
Initially, I was cast as an understudy for both Shelby and Truvy. The production started with rehearsals on zoom. While we weren’t in lockdown to begin with, standard restrictions meant that we weren’t able to meet in person in any capacity, not in someone’s home and not in a community space. Rehearsals for community theatre rely on either the theatre company having a rehearsal space (this one doesn’t) or community generosity to use spaces. Both of these options were off the table for this production. In fact, only a couple of zoom rehearsals in we go put into another lockdown. One that we in a regional city would see-saw in and out of, and one Melbourne would stay stuck in for weeks.
At this point, I had a call from my mum telling me that my grandfather had been moved to palliative care. I hadn’t seen him since the start of the pandemic due to restrictions on visitors to help keep the elderly in the care home safe. Once he was made palliative though, any family members were able to go and visit in pairs. I called my brother and organised a trip the next morning to finally get to see him. An hour later, my brother called me to tell me that my grandmother, also in care, had passed away. I was naturally confused as I’d had no updates about her. The next morning I woke up to a call from my mother to say that my grandfather had also passed.
Funerals are things that should be experienced together. Families should be able to hold one another and grieve together. My grandmother’s funeral I watch online and then attended the burial at the grave side. My grandfather’s, we were allowed to sit in our household groups. I don’t live with any of my family members so I sat alone. It was awful. I hated it.
Finally, restrictions changed and we were able to start rehearsing in person. I’d been having trouble learning lines because of the other things I had going on, so rehearsals meant holding my script. It was at this point my arthritis began developing a horrible new symptom I’ve been navigating since with pain in my neck, should and arm, pins and needles and numbness. Holding a script was painful as heck. I let the leads have most of the floor time and focused on learning the lines I could for Shelby. This had an ironic twist when about a month out, our Truvy withdrew and I had to step into the lead role I knew least.
On top of all this, our usual venue had some major problems. I had done a heap of hustling behind the scenes to eventually source us a new venue, which ended up being the greatest blessing of the whole production. This means that until a month out, we hadn’t been able to market the show very strongly or to sell tickets, because licensing fees for a show are tied to the dates and venue. In spite of this tickets sold pretty strongly once people knew about the show.
Learning lines is one thing, but for this show we actually had to learn to professionally style hair. The hair styling part was taught pre-show but wasn’t actually practiced on stage as part of the scenes until 2 shows prior to opening. My character also gives someone a manicure as part of the performance. In total I would do 1 manicure and 3 hairstyles on stage.
My favourite prop was one I actually got to help with. We needed to have a wide range of 80s magazines on the coffee table. One of the prop team grabbed a bunch of her knitting magazines. I designed and printed some vintage magazine covers at work and she wrapped them in them so that when someone picked on up the audience would see a vintage cover and a vintage advertisement on the back.
I wore mostly my mum’s vintage clothes from the 1980’s. The first outfit was one I sourced, but the Christmas outfit the jumper and shirt were hers, the floral dress in the third scene was hers and the deep maroon taffeta dress in the final scene was also hers.
For those who are wondering, Steel Magnolia was a stage play first and was later adapted to be a film. The film adaption was also written by Robert Harling.
If you’re in Ballarat and the theatre scene interests you, why not consider becoming a member of Ballarat National Theatre where you can act, make sets, make props, do hair and make-up, help out front of house and more.
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