'Steel Magnolias' opens Second Street Players’ 2013 season Jan. 25

Second Street Players opens its 2013 season with the hilarious and touching “Steel Magnolias” on Friday, Jan. 25 at the Riverfront Theater, 2 S. Walnut St. in downtown Milford.

The play runs for two weekends with performances Friday to Sunday, Jan. 25 to 27 and Feb. 1 to 3. The Friday and Saturday shows begin at 8 p.m., and the Sunday matinees begin at 3 p.m.

Tickets are $17 and may be reserved online at secondstreetplayers.com or by calling Brown Paper Tickets at 1-800-838-3006.

Robert Harling’s 1987 off-Broadway sensation and subsequent smash film “Steel Magnolias” illustrates how six distinctly different women weather the storms of their lives through the small-town gossip they share at Truvy’s hair salon in Chinquapin, La. The ladies face every event in their lives - whether joyful or heartbreaking - with grace, strength, plenty of humor and always perfectly done hair.

Director Ben Lonski, who recently directed Second Street’s fall production of “The Diary of Anne Frank,” has a cast of true theater veterans playing the six Southern gals. Linda Killion of Lewes plays Truvy, Kristen Boehmer of Dover plays M’Lynn, Tara Megee of Georgetown plays Shelby, Debra Passwaters of Milford plays Annelle, Deanna Duby of Milton plays Ouiser and Tommye Staley of Lincoln plays the wisecracking Clairee who quips, “If you can’t find anything good to say about anybody, come sit by me!”

“Steel Magnolias” is presented through special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service Inc. The production is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.