Comedy/Drama: Steel Magnolias #LiveAtTheLyric July 26-27, August 2-3 at 7:00pm and July 28, August 4, 2024 at 2:00pm

The Ozark Arts Council Presents:
Steel Magnolias
Friday–Saturday, July 26–27, August 2–3, 7:00PM
Sunday, July 28, August 4, 2:00PM

Steel Magnolias will be performed Live at the Lyric (with 2 different casts!) July 26–27, 2024 at 7:00PM, August 2–3, 2024 at 7:00PM, Sunday July 28 at 2:00PM, and Sunday August 4 at 2:00PM. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors (55 and up) and students, and $8 for children (under 12), when purchased in advance; prices are $3 higher if purchased at the door.

The action is set in Truvy’s 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 (who is not sure whether or not she is still married) (Laken Rudelis & Jerry Carter), the outspoken, wise-cracking Truvy (Jane Harrison) dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town’s rich curmudgeon, Ouiser, (“I’m not crazy, I’ve just been in a bad mood for forty years”) (Lisa Johnson & Toinette Madison); an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee (Kelly Goodwin & Ann Lemley), who has a raging sweet tooth; and the local social leader, M’Lynn (Julianna Hamblin & Lisa Bailey), whose daughter, Shelby (the prettiest girl in town) (Katie Davis & Ella Rush), is about to marry a “good ole boy.” Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions, when the play moves towards tragedy, the ladies must rely on the underlying strength—and love—which give the play, and its characters, the special quality to make them truly touching, funny and marvelously amiable company in good times and bad.

Concerned with a group of gossipy southern ladies in a small-town beauty parlor, the play is alternately hilarious and touching—and, in the end, deeply revealing of the strength and purposefulness which underlies the antic banter of its characters.

Chinqapin Parish Cast July 26–28
  • Truvy: Jane Harrison
  • Annelle: Jerry Carter
  • Ouiser: Lisa Johnson
  • Clairee: Ann Lemley
  • M’Lynn: Lisa Bailey
  • Shelby: Ella Rush
Natchitoches Cast August 2–4
  • Truvy: Jane Harrison
  • Annelle: Laken Rudelis
  • Ouiser: Toinette Madison
  • Clairee: Kelly Goodwin
  • M’Lynn: Julianna Hamblin
  • Shelby: Katie Davis

“…suffused with humor and tinged with tragedy.” 

– New York Post

“Harling has given his women sharp, funny dialogue…The play builds to a conclusion that is deeply moving.” 

– New York Daily News

Steel Magnolias will be performed Live at the Lyric (with 2 different casts!) July 26-27, 2024 at 7:00PM, August 2-3, 2024 at 7:00PM, Sunday July 28 at 2:00PM, and Sunday August 4 at 2:00PM. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors (55 and up) and students, and $8 for children (under 12), when purchased in advance; prices are $3 higher if purchased at the door.

 

OAC Ticketing Link

Comedy & Dinner Theatre: Wild Women of Winedale! Twelve Oaks Estate, October 25-26, 2024 at 6:00pm and October 27, 2024 at 1:00pm

The Ozark Arts Council Presents:
The Wild Women of Winedale
Friday–Saturday, October 25–26, 6:00PM
with a full dinner preceding
Sunday, October 27, 1:00PM
with charcuterie, wine, and dessert

Wild Women of Winedale will be performed at Twelve Oaks Estate on October 25 and 26 at 6:00PM, and Sunday October 27 at 1:00PM as a dinner theatre. Tickets are $40 for dinner on Friday and Saturday and $30 on Sunday for chartcuterie, wine, and dessert.

This joyful and exuberant, yet ultimately touching, comedy focuses on three women at crossroads in their lives—the Wild sisters of Winedale, Virginia—Fanny and Willa and their frustratingly quirky sister-in-law Johnnie Faye. This feisty and fun-loving trio has supported and cheered one another through life’s highs and lows through the years, including the early demise of two of their husbands. And they really need each other now, as Fanny experiences a hilariously inappropriate reaction to her 60th birthday, while Willa is so stressed out from her nursing job she resorts to vodka and speed-knitting to cope, and Johnnie Faye, determined to put her year of fraught widowhood behind her, desperately tries to find a man—preferably a man with a house, since hers is somewhere at the bottom of a Florida sinkhole. These women’s lives are further upended by the responsibility of caring for their free-spirited, ailing aunt and the realization that they are drowning under loads of family keepsakes and possessions nobody wants—especially them! With equal doses of hilarity and heart, these extraordinary women come up with delightful and surprisingly unorthodox ways to clear the clutter from their lives, their homes and their relationships so they can move their lives forward. Together they prove it’s never too late to take another one of life’s paths for a grand new adventure. This Jones Hope Wooten comedy is guaranteed to drive you wild with laughter—and motivate you to keep hounding the kids to please take that stack of quilts and Granny’s Christmas china!

Wild Women of Winedale will be performed at Twelve Oaks Estate on October 25 and 26 at 6:00PM, and Sunday October 27 at 1:00PM as a dinner theatre. Tickets are $40 for dinner on Friday and Saturday and $30 on Sunday for chartcuterie, wine, and dessert. Tickets at TheLyric.org.

OAC Ticketing Link

Become a Patron of the Arts!

It’s OAC Membership Time!

It’s time to renew your membership in the Ozark Arts Council (or to become an OAC member for the first time) by visiting Join.TheLyric.org!

History has taught us that the most vibrant societies are produced by giving, not by taking—and the very most vibrant are those that have a thriving and active Arts community! Having such a thriving Arts community has always been a matter of patronage, and it is no different today.

It’s a New Season

In a time when many are still struggling, some may think the Arts a luxury, something only of which those with ‘extra’ time and money on their hands may partake. Often, people feel that it’s too lofty a pursuit for communities that are rooted in farms and factories and retirees. But both history and statistics tell us that these contentions are untrue: the Arts are what help such communities survive!

The very nature of the Arts is to be both welcoming and challenging, to bring you in and to lift you up…and in a time of upheaval and widespread dissatisfaction, isn’t that exactly what you want to encourage and support? The Lyric and the OAC’s Member Organizations provide a place full of experiences that put all of the noise of this world’s discontent aside, a place that welcomes you into a moment where you neither have to be consumed with the woes of the world, real and imagined—or even what you’re going to make for supper, or find on your next day at work. For all of the ‘escapism’ that television promised, it is no match for joining with the rest of your community in a place where all that divides us is set aside and a team of volunteers seeks to be their best selves and to help us, at least for a few hours, to be ours.

This is what membership in the OAC promotes, so please consider becoming part of a community that truly builds community…that welcomes, educates, enjoys, and feasts on those things in our culture that build better people, stronger communities, and the general promotion of love and joy: please join the Ozark Arts Council today!

Below, you can find the perks that come from being an OAC member (with some fun new swag!), but we also want to hear from YOU! What would YOU like to see as a perk from being an OAC member? Email in**@oz**************.org and let our Executive Director know!

Some OAC Membership Perks

  • Early Bird Ticket Sales: For most events, we are able to offer tickets to our members between a few hours and a few days before they go on sale to the general public, so you have a better chance of getting your favorite seat.
  • No Ticketing or Card Fees: We consider your investment in the OAC as what provides us the ability to have ticketing and card processing in the first place, so we give you a code to eliminate fees when you purchase online (and enter the code for you if you purchase them in advance in person or over the phone).
  • Super Popcorn Discount and Collectible Bucket: While we are introducing a new giant-size popcorn for anyone to save on popcorn (and on trips to the concessions stand!) on a per-event basis, we are also introducing a refillable and reusable bucket with our logo and our theme for the year on it. Buy a popcorn for all of the year’s events in advance!
  • Special Merchandise Offers and Discounts: Promotional and event mugs, shirts, window clings (and who knows what else?!) are being developed to help you help the Lyric to thrive and to allow you to remember and celebrate fun times at the Lyric once you return home.
  • Season Passes (and Discounts): All our members have been able to buy Season Passes to productions by the Theatre Company of the Ozarks…and now we’re adding Northark Drama and HHS Theatre productions, as well! Members who join at the $100 level or above also get discounts on season passes, with discounts growing along with membership donations.
  • The Arts Investor Appreciation Pass: Take the lead in providing plays, concerts, or both by making a Membership donation that helps us keep booking artists and paying rights and royalties, and we will provide you free passes that allow you to come and check on your investment.
    • A Theatre Investor ($500) receives a code for two free tickets to every play in our season!
    • A Concert Investor ($750) receives a code for two seats at every concert we produce.
    • An All the Arts Investor ($1,200) receives two tickets for every concert and every play we put on!

Please Note: There may be some events that we do not produce, those that are via a rental arrangement by an outside organization or that are a fundraiser for another nonprofit. We keep these to a bare minimum…and if we can work out a contract with them to get you seated for free, we will do so, and we will let you know in advance. Examples of such events: the recent Buffalo River documentary; the Ozark Rape Crisis Center’s lip sync battle; the Ozarks Dynacom Five Star Talent Contest.