Mount Greylock Students Bring Emotional Story to Stage
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Since it premiered off-Broadway in 1987, Robert Harling's "Steel Magnolias" has proven to be as resilient as the characters it portrays and the autoimmune disease survivors who identify with the story it tells.
After star-studded 1989 motion picture, a Broadway production in 2005, a TV film remake in 2012 and countless regional productions over the last few decades, the tale of fellowship and heartache in the American South will be told in North County on Friday, Sept. 13, by a group of Mount Greylock Regional School students.
Sophomore Mai Dekel is the ringleader of the six-person cast that will bring the show to life for one night only, but don't call her the show's director.
"I'm kind of running it," Dekel said recently. "I've been the organizer of it. I've been giving everyone their off-book dates. I've been going to all the costuming stuff. But it's definitely more collaborative. We've been giving feedback to each other.
"We're doing any titles like director or anything. We're just calling it ‘Steel Magnolias,' and we're performing it."
Dekel does take credit for the idea to do the play, an inspiration she had after viewing the 1989 Julia Roberts version.
She felt a special connection to the story. Dekel in 2020 was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, a condition she shares with the character portrayed by Roberts and the sister of playwright Harling, who inspired him to write the play.
"It was an emotional experience," Dekel said of her first time seeing the film. "When I first saw it, I went in kind of blind to the plot.
"Right off the bat, in the first scene when [Shelby] has a low blood sugar in the salon – that's a powerful and relatable scene for anyone with Type 1."
It was not long before Dekel was able to relate the characters in the play to friends from Mount Gryelock's theater program.
"I came up with the idea maybe in the late spring, I think," she said. "I ran it by a couple of my friends to see if they'd be interested. They responded very positively. I already had a cast in mind."
But in the months that followed, with a rehearsal schedule that worked around cast members' family vacation schedules, the project developed from the collective minds of the actors, Dekel said.
"It's been such a collaborative process," she said. "It's been great to work with all of them. They've been so enthusiastic to come up with new ways to interpret scenes.
"It's been rewarding to see everyone do that. I see the characters and read the play one way, but they come with their own takes on the characters."
In addition to drawing inspiration from the film version of "Steel Magnolias" Dekel was spurred by last fall's Mount Greylock student production of Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest." That show was a fund-raiser for The Trevor Project, a nod to the playwright's life in 19th century London.
This month's show will, likewise, double as a fund-raiser for Breakthrough T1D, the organization formerly known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and, more recently, JDRF.
"There have been so many advances [in Type 1 diabetes]," Dekel said. "They're working nonstop on cures and more technological advancements. It's wonderful to be able to reach out to people to donate. Whatever we can give back to them will be amazing."
The student-led production of "Steel Magnolias" is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 13. To buy tickets or donate, visit its fund-raising page here.
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