You wouldn’t guess from their performance that the cast of “Steel Magnolias” at the Geyer Performing Arts Center come from very different places in their acting careers.
Of the show’s six stars, three have never acted in a performance at the theater. For one of those three, the upcoming performance will be her first time acting on stage. And among the other three, two are longtime Geyer performers and one, a recent high school graduate, has acted in shows at the theater since childhood.
Much like the six eclectic Louisiana ladies who gather in the play’s famed hair salon, the all-female cast has grown close over the course of many rehearsals and consider each other friends.
“We definitely have become really comfortable with each other,” said Jeanie Cygrymus, who is playing Clairee, the former mayor’s wife, in the play. “There’s a lot of emotion. … From the beginning, we have seemed just to really click.”
“We’ve tried to spend some times at rehearsals before or after having ‘girl talk,’ ” said director Jessica Zack. “In the show, these people have known each other for years, so I try to let them have that time.”
“Steel Magnolias” runs at the Geyer at 111 Pittsburgh St., Scottdale, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and at 2:30 p.m. Sunday. The play, like the 1989 movie adaptation, details the journeys of six friends living in Louisiana who gather at a hair salon and support one another through their troubles.
It’s a show that the Performing Arts Center has wanted to do for years, Zack said.
“Everyone’s been excited and hopeful for it,” she said. “The movie is something that my grandmother and I used to watch together. She passed away many years ago, but it feels very special for me to be able to sort of almost relive my childhood and bring that to life. It’s a popular show, it’s a classic, a lot of people know it, but as cliché as maybe it sounds, it’s still a very personal favorite of mine.”
Cygrymus, who lives in Peters , regularly drove an hour to get to rehearsals for the show. She was drawn to audition by her love of the “Steel Magnolias” story.
“I just decided to go out on a limb and audition,” she said. “I just saw the audition notice on Facebook, and I had been in ‘Steel Magnolias’ in my 20s and played the part of Shelby. I was just like, you know what, I’m just going to go for it.”
Gena David, who plays Truvy, the owner of the hair salon, isn’t new to the Geyer, but it’s her first time performing in a show there.
“I was taking my daughter there for a couple of years and being a theater mom through that, and she really enjoyed the theater, and I started to get to know some of the people,” David said. “It’s a really, really nice environment, and the people are all really supportive, and I just decided I was going to give it a go. I hadn’t been in a show since high school. Plus, my daughter was like, ‘Mom, you should really audition!’ ”
To David, the story is “classic.”
“It’s a really heartfelt show about how women support each other throughout their lives,” she said. “It’s a great message.”
The interactions between friends in the play stand out to her, she said.
“They’re sassy and snarky and funny, but at the same time, they are loving and caring,” David said. “They get on each other’s case and make fun, if you will, of each other, but at the same time, they would drop anything to help any of their friends. It’s just a real true friendship that is kind of real — that’s how we are with our friends.”
“I think the audience is going to laugh, and they’re going to cry,” Cygrymus said. “We on stage have already cried, I can’t tell you how many times. It’s an emotional show, but it’s also very funny.”
The play differs in some ways from the movie adaptation, but Zack says audience members can expect to see some callbacks to the film.
“One thing that is nice is the playwright also wrote the screenplay for the movie, so they’re definitely very similar,” she said. “The movie has a lot more characters and things like that, so while we’re doing this process, there’s certain lines that are iconic that you remember from the movie that are still in the play. We’re making sure to give those their moments, and try to do some nods to the movie that weren’t necessarily in the script so that there’s that familiarity with people.”
Tickets can be purchased online at geyerpac.com or at the door. Zack advised visitors to allow some additional time for parking due to the fall festival in Scottdale, which runs through the same weekend.
