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Lisa McCune-This Is A Beautifully Written Play · Lisa & Russell

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  Speaker 1: Steel Magnolias is on at His Majesty's Theater and it's
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  Speaker 1: on until the eighteenth of July, which is this Saturday,
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  Speaker 1: so getting quick. Tickets are available through Steel Magnolia's play
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  Speaker 1: dot com dot au. It stars Lisa mcewne, Hello, Welcome Home, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: Lovely to be Bad, Yes, Now. Steel Magnolia's at its
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  Speaker 1: core is about the strength, resilience and deep emotional bonds
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  Speaker 1: between women in a small Southern community. But I don't
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  Speaker 1: think the South have, you know, sort of a monopoly
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  Speaker 1: on this. I think this is a universal story. We
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  Speaker 1: might just do it over a rose, not a mint jeweler.
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  Speaker 2: But you know what I think, if it wasn't the
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  Speaker 2: morning most of the time, he said, in the morning,
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  Speaker 2: it'd probably be the rose. Yeah. No, it's such a
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  Speaker 2: delightful and a lot of people would know the movie,
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  Speaker 2: which of course had the Hollywood heavyweight female actresses at
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  Speaker 2: the time and really catapulted Julia Roberts to do pretty warm.
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  Speaker 2: But it's actually the play came first, yep, And that's
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  Speaker 2: why I was interested in doing that in the first place.
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  Speaker 2: When I first heard about it, I thought, I don't
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  Speaker 2: know if I want to do a rip off of
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  Speaker 2: a movie in a play, and then they said, no, no,
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  Speaker 2: it's actually the play came first, and it's based on
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  Speaker 2: a true story, so a lot of it. When I
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  Speaker 2: researched it, I kind of went, wow, this is really
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  Speaker 2: a substantial, great, beautifully written.
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  Speaker 3: Piece of it, and it is a great story.
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  Speaker 2: I must have.
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  Speaker 3: When the movie came out, I was I think it
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  Speaker 3: was twenty one at the time, and I through work
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  Speaker 3: I had to go to the radio and I went, oh,
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  Speaker 3: I don't really know that this is going to be
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  Speaker 3: my kind of movie, you know, but I'll go. And
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  Speaker 3: I came out going, wow, it is amazing. That was
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  Speaker 3: an amazing movie.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and those women, I mean the way they shot
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  Speaker 2: that movie too, because you do spend such an intense
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  Speaker 2: amount of time. It's a very funny play, and it
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  Speaker 2: requires a certain dynamic quality about the dialogues, very quick
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  Speaker 2: and funny. Yeah, we know it's heartbreaking toward the end,
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  Speaker 2: but ninety percent is funny, quick dialogue. And so you
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  Speaker 2: do have this really wonderful chemistry that you built up
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  Speaker 2: with the cast and with a really great bunch of women.
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  Speaker 3: Because it is just an amazing Yes, it was an
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  Speaker 3: amazing movie, but It is just an amazing story too,
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  Speaker 3: It really is.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. So the true part of the story, well that's
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  Speaker 2: based on Robert Harling's real life, is the Shelby character
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  Speaker 2: that Julie Roberts played and the story of his mother.
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  Speaker 2: So that part is true, and there's it's amazing and
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  Speaker 2: he just loved a story like this being written by
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  Speaker 2: a man and the observations of a son and brother.
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  Speaker 2: He's a lawyer. I think I read somewhere he's really funny.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, he wrote this piece in ten days. It's
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  Speaker 2: sort of like a love letter to the women that
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  Speaker 2: he loves.
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  Speaker 1: Listening to the still Magnolias and this is where you
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  Speaker 1: come in. You play Molin, Shelby's mother. In the movie,
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  Speaker 1: Sally Field has one of the standout scenes ever shot
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  Speaker 1: on screen. Do we get to see that I'm talking
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  Speaker 1: not really giving anything away to talk about the funeral scene.
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  Speaker 3: But do you get to Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: We go there.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's big, and it's kind of fantastic because
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  Speaker 2: it's such a moment in theater where I'm getting emotional
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  Speaker 2: thinking about it. Yeah, but no, it's a moment that
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  Speaker 2: people identify with and it's not necessarily just the relationship
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  Speaker 2: between a mother and a daughter. But I think just
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  Speaker 2: universally we understand what loss is and to see it
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  Speaker 2: written in such a beautiful way but punctuated with humor,
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  Speaker 2: and I think that that's where the title still Magnolias
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  Speaker 2: comes in, because the strength of people to find light
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  Speaker 2: at the end of a dark tunnel is just glorious.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that that ultimately is what this piece does.
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  Speaker 2: Is it delivers on that.
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  Speaker 1: You're at the beautiful His Majesty's theater. Do you have
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  Speaker 1: any history with his.
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  Speaker 2: Mag well the Madge My only time in stepping on
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  Speaker 2: that stage before was when I was thirteen and I
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  Speaker 2: did like an extra part in Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates.
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  Speaker 3: Or really yep.
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  Speaker 2: And she's a beautiful theater even that's His Majesties. I
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  Speaker 2: think we still call it a she.
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  Speaker 3: As a building.
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  Speaker 2: I think you do outside she on.
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  Speaker 3: It, even though whoever's on the throne changes, Yes, and
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  Speaker 3: it hasn't changed the flu it's fluid. They have cleaned
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  Speaker 3: the carpet, but other than that.
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  Speaker 2: She's absolutely magnificent. And when I got back and saw
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  Speaker 2: the restoration on the exterior and the bewie minutes of glorious.
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  Speaker 2: Thank god it didn't become a car park.
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  Speaker 1: You feel like you're rocking up to the theater when
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  Speaker 1: you arrive outside. You're really doing you, really really do.
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  Speaker 1: Now I must ask you one more thing. We're a
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  Speaker 1: parochial people are Sam Groper's. Does it thrill you to
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  Speaker 1: see how the industry has come along so much in
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  Speaker 1: recent years, with the studios being built, with everything that's
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  Speaker 1: being filmed here. I mean Tracy Mann. I was just
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  Speaker 1: watching her on the weekend in the latest season of
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  Speaker 1: The twelve, which is all filmed in Downside.
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  Speaker 2: She had a great time doing Yeah, she said, she's
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  Speaker 2: been spending a lot of time here. I went out
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  Speaker 2: to whop up to the new Edith Hown and saw
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  Speaker 2: the new building and we were very kindly given a tour,
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  Speaker 2: and it is extraordinary and I think we're going to
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  Speaker 2: see some incredible talent coming out of that building in
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  Speaker 2: the next ten to twenty years. You know, like the facilities,
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  Speaker 2: what they have access to. It's kind of sometimes the
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  Speaker 2: belief too, that people put in saying to students, we
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  Speaker 2: believe in you enough to give you this incredible facility,
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  Speaker 2: gone create.
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  Speaker 3: Invest in you and yeah, and.
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  Speaker 2: I think the difference now is you know, we've turned
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  Speaker 2: people out and made great performers and great composers and
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  Speaker 2: you know, people doing amazing things. But this is giving
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  Speaker 2: a real nod too, true creation. And I think that
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  Speaker 2: that's where the future will be, is that we're going
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  Speaker 2: to be, you know, giving people opportunity and world class ones.
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  Speaker 2: They're bringing people from all over the world to come
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  Speaker 2: and lecture there. And it's just such an amazing facility.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, what has proved itself worthy of that the
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  Speaker 1: best school in the country.
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  Speaker 2: We're very lucky. I was very jealous when I saw that,
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  Speaker 2: and I thought, you know, and it goes beyond just performance.
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  Speaker 2: It's broadcasting its music so much. Thank god the government
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  Speaker 2: has seen and private investment too. We can't thank the
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  Speaker 2: private investors enough who have acknowledged that there's an importance
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  Speaker 2: in our arts, which is terrific.
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  Speaker 1: It is nice watch out all right, Well at His
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  Speaker 1: Majesty's the old girls. It does get confusing.
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  Speaker 3: Lisa McCune still make they both dressed in robes.
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  Speaker 1: It till this Saturday. So get in to get your
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  Speaker 1: tickets through Steel Magnolia's play dot com dot a. You
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  Speaker 1: lovely to have you joined us, thank you,