Garrison Players Arts Center Kicks off 60th Season with Steel Magnolias, September 14-23

DOVER - Season opener Steel Magnolias kicks off Garrison Players Arts Center’s 60th Season. The show will be the first to be produced on GPAC's brand new stage, professionally constructed over the course of the summer thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor. 

Concerned with a close-knit group of southern ladies, Steel Magnolias is hilarious, touching and, in the end, deeply revealing of the strength of true friendship.  Written by Robert Harling, the dramatic comedy is set in a beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are "anybody" come to have their hair done. Helped by her eager new assistant Annelle (Kate Gilbert), the wise-cracking Truvy (Elizabeth Holcomb) dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town's rich curmudgeon Ouiser (Carol Bitov), eccentric millionaire Miss Clairee (Kate Kirkwood), and the local social leader M'Lynn (Debra Martuscello Wiley), whose daughter Shelby (Teddi Kenick-Bailey) is about to marry. Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions, the women discover their underlying strength—and love.

Directed by Danielle Howard, performances at the Garrison Players Arts Center are September 14-16, 21-23, 28-29 at 8:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and 3:00 p.m. on Sundays.  Tickets are $18 for adults and $12 for students (under 18). They can be purchased at the door, by calling 603-750-4ART or at the newly-designed GPAC website, www.garrisonplayers.org. The theater is located on Route 4, at the corner of Roberts Road in Rollinsford.

Garrison Players Arts Center (GPAC) is a nonprofit, volunteer-based community theatre group dedicated to enriching the cultural life of the area by presenting high-quality theatrical performances geared for family audiences. Established in 1953, the players encourage people of all ages to enjoy and participate in the many facets of the performing arts; and to help maintain the Garrison Players Arts Center. For more information about auditions, shows or GPAC, visit the website at www.garrisonplayers.org.