Rodney Harrington and his wife Jan’s recent trip to Colorado involved lots of great sightseeing and wonderful experiences. It also included one crazy, amazing coincidence involving the play and movie that Natchitoches has become so inextricably linked with: Steel Magnolias.
Read Rodney’s recounting of their adventure:
We had stopped in at the beautiful town of Frisco, Colorado just to look around and, as we often do, we stopped by the Visitor Center to ask about the points of interest. There was a very nice and helpful lady there. After hearing our accents, she of course asked where we were from.
Well, I went into my Chamber of Commerce mode and when I told her about Natchitoches, I told her that we were the oldest town in the Louisiana Purchase, one of the most beautiful little towns in the state, and as we often do when we are trying to describe our town to someone who has never heard of it, I said, “One of our main claims to fame is that it is where the movie ‘Steel Magnolias’ was filmed.”
All of a sudden the lady’s mouth dropped and she got this shocked look on her face and replied, “You are not going to believe this, the play Steel Magnolias is being presented in the little theater in our town,” and she pointed to a poster on the wall which, sure enough, touted the presentation of the play, by playwright, Robert Harling, at the Theatre Silco nearby.
We then shared a few stories about the filming of the movie in our town, the fact we were extras in the film, etc.
As it turned out, Jan and I were staying at Breckenridge which was nearby and we looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders and said, “If they have any tickets available, we’ll go!” I immediately pulled it up on my phone and saw there were, in fact, a few tickets available and went ahead and bought a couple. We thanked the nice lady, and went on about our sightseeing in Frisco.
Later on that afternoon, an unknown, out-of-state phone number popped up on my phone and, against my better judgment, I answered it and the lady said, “Rodney? This is Amanda. I am Director of Marketing at ….” I immediately hung up, thinking it was one of those marketing calls we all get. The phone rang again immediately from the same number and I hung up again.
A few minutes later, I had a long voice mail from Amanda, who, as it turns out, was the Marketing Director for Theatre Silco. It seems that the nice lady at the Visitor Center had called the theater and excitedly told them about Jan and I being in town, our connection to Steel Magnolias, and the fact that we were going to be coming to the play.
I then called Amanda back and she breathlessly told me how excited they were to have someone from Natchitoches coming to the play, someone who actually knows Robert (I call him “Bobby”) Harling, was involved with the movie, etc. etc. She then asked if we would mind giving a brief interview after this performance and we replied that we would be happy to. When we arrived at the beautiful little theater, we were treated like celebrities. They were genuinely excited for us to be there and again asked if we would stay afterwards for a brief interview. Again, we agreed. We had expected the play to be a somewhat amateurish community theater presentation, but we ended up being pleasantly surprised.
First of all, the set in the intimate little 300-seat theater was very professionally done and we were absolutely blown away by the quality of the acting.
As it turned out, the cast was made up all professional actors who makes their living acting in plays around the country their accents were impeccable and not “over the top” as we sometimes see when people from other parts of the country are trying to put on a Southern dialect.
During the play, Jan and I marveled at how they sounded like and could actually be from Natchitoches
and we even discussed how several members of the cast reminded us of folks back home.
As agreed, we did do a brief video interview after the show with one of their marketing guys. He was super excited, especially when we told a couple of stories from the shooting of the movie.
Afterwards, we went back to the theater where the actresses were having a question and answer session with members of the audience, while all sitting together on the stage.
At some point, we stood up and told them who we were and that I had gone to school with Bobby Harling and also with his sister, Susan who the Shelby character was based upon, and how we were involved with the shooting of the movie, etc., etc.
Well, they were absolutely blown away. They couldn’t believe it! They started peppering us with questions and we showered them with compliments about how genuine their performances were and how they nailed the accent and they were very appreciative about that.
We also told them that, yes we do have a Piggly Wiggly, and it is located in the Dixie Plaza Shopping Center, there is a nearby town called Dry Prong and, yes we do have an amazing Christmas Festival and, yes all of those things that have been mentioned in the play.
They just couldn’t get enough. They just kept asking about Natchitoches, the Harlings and about the filming of the movie in our town and what it was like and finally, we told them, “Well, if you want to know more about Natchitoches, you just need to come visit us. Come during the Christmas Festival and we’ll show you a good time. We promise!” They loved that.
Finally, as we were about to leave they asked, “Would y’all mind taking a picture with us?” We laughed and said, “We were going to ask you for one!” That whole experience ended up being one of the highlights of our Colorado trip, and just another reminder of how Steel Magnolias continues to be part of the DNA of our city and community.
Thank you Bobby!
