STEEL MAGNOLIAS to Open Everyman Theatre's 2021-2022 Season

Everyman Theatre is celebrateing the return to live theatre with the first offering in its 2021/2022 season with the iconic family favorite from stage and screen, Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling. The production at Everyman is directed by Casey Stangl and runs from August 10 through September 5. Founder and Artistic Director Vincent M. Lancisi, Managing Director Marissa LaRose, and the entire Everyman Theatre staff headed back to full-time, on-site work at the West Baltimore theatre this week.

Steel Magnolias is set in a beauty parlor in northwestern Louisiana, where life is anything but boring. This heartwarming and hilarious story follows six distinct yet uniquely Southern women over the course of three years as they gather to gossip and share each other's lives with wit, warmth, and intelligence. Steel Magnolias celebrates the power of female friendship through the highest highs and the lowest lows. The play received a Drama Desk Award nomination, and the wildly popular film adaptation starring Julia Roberts and Sally Field, was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes.

"It seemed fitting to open this summer with a funny and heartwarming play, '' says Founder and Artistic Director Vincent Lancisi. Steel Magnolias has become a modern classic of sorts. It offers a community of women who gather for the seminal moments in their lives at Truvy's salon. They are hilariously funny, brassy, and at the same time are always there for each other when the chips are down. We grow to love these women and marvel at their strength in the face of adversity."

At Everyman, the inimitable ensemble cast for Steel Magnolias features Resident Company members Megan Anderson (recently named Best Stage Actor in Baltimore by the Baltimore Sun) as Truvy, Helen Hedman as Ouiser, Beth Hylton as M'Lynn, and Katie Kleiger as Shelby. Joining this Resident Company quartet are notable DC/Baltimore actors Heather Gibson as Annelle and Nancy Robinette as Clairee.

Director Casey Stangl is an award-winning director of theater, opera and film. Projects include The Children at the Jungle Theater, The Cake at La Jolla Playhouse, Sense and Sensibility at South Coast Repertory, Erma Bombeck: At Wit's End at Arizona Theater Company, and Ah! Wilderness at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. More recent awards include The Revolutionists at Everyman Theatre, named 2017 "Best Play in Baltimore" by The Baltimore Sun and Cloud 9 at Antaeus Company, which won eight awards from the LA Drama Critics Circle including Best Director and Best Production.

Casey has developed work with dozens of playwrights including Bekah Brunstetter, Samuel D. Hunter, Deborah Zoe Laufer, and Kirsten Greenidge to name a few, and she has directed for such notable festivals and regional theatres as the Humana Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre's GroundFloor, Pacific Playwrights Festival, PlayPenn, Playlabs, Guthrie Theatre, A.C.T., La Jolla Playhouse, Denver Center Theater Company, Portland Stage, and Woolly Mammoth. Casey is a resident artist at Ojai Playwrights' Conference and served a 12-year tenure as Artistic Director of Eye of the Storm Theatre in Minneapolis.

In addition to Stangl, the creative team for Steel Magnolias includes set design by Milagros Ponce De Leon, lighting design by Harold F. Burgess II, sound design by Twi McCallum, and costume designs by David Burdick. Wig design is by Denise O'Brien, Fights/Intimacy Coordinator is Lewis Shaw, with Dialects by Gary Logan. Cat Wallis serves as Stage Manager.

Single tickets for In-Person performances of Steel Magnolias go on sale July 16 and start at $29. Six and five-show subscriptions for the newly-announced 2021/22 season at Everyman start at $99 and are also available, and Video on Demand (VOD) streaming access for Steel Magnolias runs August 27 through September 19 and is on sale now at $30 per household, allowing for an unlimited number of viewers from home by visiting everymantheatre.org or calling 410.752.2208. Box office hours are Monday - Friday from 9am until 6pm and Saturdays from 10am until 5pm.