When Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster gathered her cast on the first day of rehearsals for Steel Magnolias, she did so with a knowing grin and a declaration: “TEARS WILL HAPPEN – in scene work, in discussion, on breaks.” In a year marked by personal loss and upheaval, Lancaster found herself drawn to this story of resilience and unlikely support systems. As she directs the beloved Southern drama for the Capitol Theatre in Port Hope, she is channeling both her deep affection for the story and the emotional truths it uncovers.
A founding member of the award-winning theatre collective The Howland Company, Lancaster is a Dora-Award nominated actor, director and dramaturge, whose work spans theatre, television, and film. She has performed on numerous major Canadian stages, and her recent directorial credits include Rachel Cairns’ acclaimed solo play Hypothetical Baby and the radio drama Tunnel Runners on PlayME on CBC Podcasts. She’s also an assistant professor in York University’s School of Art, Music, Design and Performance.
Known for her character-driven storytelling and emotionally honest direction, Lancaster brings a grounded sensibility to everything she touches. In speaking about Steel Magnolias, she begins by avowing her abiding love for the story – which formed right when she first saw the 1989 film version as a teen. She then shares that, although Steel Magnolias is predominantly a comedy, the cast has also found the material — with its discussion of illness, loss, motherhood, ambition and marriage — “deeply resonant”. “I’ve rarely felt so moved in rehearsals!” she enthuses. ”I’m grateful to our extraordinary actors for their willingness to be vulnerable with each other. A well-known quote from the script is ‘Laughter through tears is my favourite emotion’. And that is certainly true for us as we work on the play.”
This emotional duality—of hard and soft, heartbreak and humour—is central to what Lancaster wants audiences to take away from the production. “I don’t think it’s revelatory to say that we need each other in the good times and the bad, but it’s a valuable thing to remember,” she observes. “The women in Steel Magnolias are engaged in mutual aid. They listen to each other, encourage each other, cook for each other, and call each other on their bullshit. They demonstrate that strength comes from flexibility, from softness, from emotional availability. It’s a good reminder that individualism and brute strength don’t sustain us.”
Set in a fictional Louisiana town in the 1980s, Steel Magnolias is a funny and moving portrait of six women whose lives intersect at a local beauty salon. The play follows them through several years of weddings, losses, and the daily rituals that carry us through life’s ups and downs. Based on true events and people in playwright Robert Harling’s life, the story unfolds every Saturday in Truvy’s salon—a lively hub where beauty routines spark laughter, reveal heartache, and nurture lasting friendship. Lancaster appreciates how, rather than relying on a conventional dramatic arc, the story gives us snapshots of ongoing lives. “In a typical play, there is an inciting incident, arc, climax and conclusion. But in this story, it’s more like the audience drops in on our characters every now and then, to witness these amazing people coping with the simple, inevitable events of life.”
The characters’ interdependence plays out in the vivid and intimate setting of Truvy’s beauty salon, which is equal parts hair station and sacred space. “Playwright Robert Harling describes how, as a child growing up in Louisiana, he’d watch the women in his neighborhood troupe off to the beauty salon every Saturday – only to come back two hours later ‘with the exact same hairdo, but in much better moods’,” recounts Lancaster. “Such is the therapeutic impact of such spaces!” And this resonates deeply with the performers: “Many of the actors in the show are women I’ve had the privilege of working with and sharing a dressing room with. A theatre dressing room is very similar to Truvy’s salon: a lot of vulnerable, funny and deep conversations happen in those rooms.” The result — “it wasn’t hard to relate as a cast to the beauty salon as a kind of confessional space” – has brought an extra authenticity to the actors’ performances.
Lancaster sees Truvy’s as “a place of preparation and repair, where things aren’t necessarily healed, but held”: a kind of sanctuary that is increasingly rare. “I struggle with finding other similar spaces in my life”, she admits. “The virtual ‘group chat’ has replaced the beauty salon and is its own kind of special, but isn’t the same kind of physical escape.” The key for the cast in rehearsal has been “developing all the regular lived-in ‘business’ of the space; the magazines, the coffee, the clutter, the favourite chairs. Finding the comforting routine these women find relief in – so that all the emotional truths can bubble up to the surface!”
And in this production, each character brings a distinct dynamic to the ensemble. “Our characters come in pairs: M’Lynn and her daughter Shelby (performed in our production by real-life mother-daughter duo Deborah Drakeford and Charlotte Dennis) are stressed but giddy, as they prepare for Shelby’s wedding. Claree (Carolyn Fe) is a joyful community leader left adrift by the recent loss of her husband, while her life-long friend Ouiser (Brenda Robins) is a truth-telling force who, after two bad marriages, is determined to play the anti-social curmudgeon. Lastly there is Annelle (Belinda Corpuz), a strange and earnest newcomer to this town who is escaping challenging circumstances. And finally, of course, we have Truvy (Raquel Duffy), the beauty parlour owner who is welcoming and supportive of all, as she makes the best of limited resources to keep her salon and her family going.”
These layered relationships underscore the play’s enduring emotional impact. “Towards the end of the show, Truvy says to a grieving mother, ‘I know it hurts. But it’ll get better’. This is a statement of fact,” notes Lancaster. “The only option is to survive and continue on. And as the lights go down on these women, we feel that their lives will continue beyond the curtain, like all of ours: coloured by joy, laughter and pain, until the end.” There is something special in this story — about women supporting women as a matter of course in their enduring daily lives – being brought to the Capitol Theatre stage by an all-female creative team, at one wonderful moment in their ongoing professional lives.
Despite her long-standing love for the play, the creation of this production did cause Lancaster to reflect on the play’s time period. Why, she wondered, was she uninterested in moving this play from its distant setting in the mid-1980s to the present moment? “Of course, there’s so much pleasure in nostalgia, with the looks and sounds of the 80s,” she observes. “But also, I think we all enjoy period shows so much because we’re sick of the ubiquity of cell phones in our public space! A hair salon waiting room now is too often a quiet space of checking your socials, instead of the chatty free-for-all of Steel Magnolias.“
Her final thought is simple and persuasive: “If like me, folks are sick of cellphones robbing us of attention and community, and are looking for a good laugh and a good cry, come see Steel Magnolias!”
Steel Magnolias runs from July 18 – August 3, 2025 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Hope, Ontario, Tickets are available on capitoltheatre.com.
© Arpita Ghosal Sesaya Arts Magazine 2025
