Caltech Playreaders 66th Season: "Steel Magnolias" by Robert Harling

Directed by Will Ahrens
Produced by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

Truvy's beauty salon is the place to get your hair done in Chinquapin, Louisiana. Here, amid the hair dryers and curling irons, Southern women, supposedly as fragile as flowers, reveal they're really stern, tough stuff.  Steel Magnolias lives in our hearts as a raucous, wise-cracking comedy, but in reality it's a testament to the ties of friendship, the bonds of blood, and the incredible courage it takes to face unbearable loss.

After Robert Harling's sister died, he sat down to tell her story and Steel Magnolias, "just poured out into my typewriter in a 24/7 tsunami of Southernness." The play became an instant hit off-Broadway. Harling later adapted it as a screenplay for the 1989 movie. His other works include the screenplays for Soapdish and First Wives Club. He is currently adapting the movie Soapdish into a musical.

Admission is $3.00 for members of the Caltech Women's Club; $4.00 for all others. Light refreshments will be served after the reading.

To dine at the Athenaeum beforehand, call (626) 395-8204 for reservations. Plan to be seated by 5:30. You are welcome to join the Playreaders table.