This Nov.  the drama department put on “Steel Magnolias” and the Virginia Theatre Association High School Theater Festival Runner Up “Shakespeare’s R&J”.

The drama department presented the shows Nov. 22-24 with “Steel Magnolias” showing on all three days and a double presentation of the two on the last.

“R&J” competed in the Virginia Theatre Association competition from Oct. 25-27 and placed runner up, meaning they will get the chance to compete again in the Southeastern Theatre Conference this March in Mobile, Alabama.     Director Fay Cunningham knew she wanted to do R&J for competition, and the cast consists of four boys.

Once Cunningham knew she was going to do an all male show, “I thought it would be really cool to do an all female cast to balance the two.”

She looked at several female plays, but chose “Steel Magnolias” because it was a show she was already familiar with and one she had directed before.

“Steel Magnolias” is about a group of six women centered in a beauty parlor in Louisiana where long-lasting relationships develop between the women.  With such small casts and with all characters being lead roles, auditions were competitive.

Steel Magnolias had 22 people audition with six scoring the parts. Seniors Melika Rahmani and Brianna Valine were cast as M’Lynn and Annelle and juniors Morgan Barr as Ouiser, Olivia Whicheloe as Clairee, Issi Marsh as Truvy and Tara Singh as Shelby. Even though many students weren’t able to get involved with acting, they still found a way to be a part of the shows, through hair and makeup, being a member of the stage or tech crew or by assistant directing.

“Steel Magnolias’” assistant director was sophomore Madison Valine.

Cunningham said, “Madison Valine, she’s just a sophomore so she had to work really hard to learn the craft of assistant directing, but she did a really nice job.”

“It was an experience, a good one. I really bonded with the cast members,” Valine said. “There’s definitely a lot of drama involved with girls, but that’s just general.”

When it was showing, Valine said that the show went really well, “I’m just sad that it’s over.”

The cast also felt that the audience received the play well, but according to junior Issi Marsh, who played Truvy, the audience seemed to get the humor and meaning of the play better on Sunday’s show.

However, junior Sam Muhler who saw the show on Friday said, “the show was great, I loved how close the cast seemed and it was hilarious.”

Senior Bree Valine played the role of Annelle in the show.

She went into auditions thinking she wanted a different part, but Cunningham had her reading as Annelle and she started thinking, “Oh my gosh, this character is just like me.”

Being set in Louisiana, the actors had to get in the mindset of southern characters.

Valine said, “I kept a journal, it was Annelle’s journal. So I would just pick a random day of her life and I would just write like I was her writing in a diary.”

For Marsh, “I became one with my inner hoochie mama. Actually, I would think about how my boobs and butt looked in an outfit. We also had luncheons where we would talk in Southern accents and eat Louisiana foods.”

She worked with Olivia Whicheloe, who played Clairee, “Liv and I found that we would develop each other’s accent and tempo while talking on stage. We would also sit around and say all of our lines and how we thought they would be pronounced.”

Now the drama department’s main focus is on revamping R&J to make it a fresh show for SETC and on the spring musical, “The Sound of Music.”