FERRUM, VA, August 28, 2023 – The Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre (BRDT) and Ferrum College Theatre Arts season opened this past weekend in Sale Theatre with a production of “Steel Magnolias,” directed by Professor Emeritus Rex Stephenson.
The cast of women who gather in a beauty shop throughout the play featured veteran BRDT performers Emily Blankenship-Tucker, Rebecca Crocker ’02, Kristina Stump ’97, and Lana Whited. Newcomer Heather Jefferson played Annelle, and Ferrum College student TJ Baker performed as Shelby, a young woman who suffers from diabetes and kidney failure.
Director and Professor Emeritus Rex Stephenson was excited to be part of this show. “I love this play, and this is the fourth time I’ve done it,” Stephenson said. He also had a personal reason for wanting to tell this story again. “I lost my best friend to kidney failure, and Willette Thompson ’81, who played Clairee in the BRDT’s 2010 production of the play, recently succumbed to this aliment along with sickle cell anemia,” he shared. During rehearsals, Stephenson asked Martha Phillips ’76 to tell the cast about her experience donating a kidney to her cousin.
Professor of English Lana Whited, who played Clairee Belcher, said she decided to be part of this production because director Rex Stephenson invited her. “Even though rehearsal began the week before the fall semester started, I could not turn down the opportunity to work with this talented cast, many of whom have been friends for over 20 years,” Whited said. Her favorite part of participating in the project was the rehearsal process. “I love actually doing the work to create the characterizations and the scenes.”
Whited related to her character because she has had the same hairdresser for over 25 years. “I really enjoyed the first scene of Act II, when Clairee converses in the beauty shop with Truvy and Shelby. It’s clear that they are close despite their age differences, and it really captures the intimacy of beauty salon conversations,” she said.
The performance also drew Ferrum theatre alumni back to campus. Jayme Helms ’02 and Joanna Chopski Schilling ’00, both former Ferrum theatre students, were among those who attended the performance. “It is always to good to return to campus. We loved being a part of the theatre as students, and we are glad the BRDT is back,” said Helms.
The BRDT was founded by Stephenson in 1979 and closed as a summer theatre when he retired in 2012. Although the dinner theatre format was revived with his Mark Twain show on March 15 of this year and his adaptation of “Treasure Island” in April, “Steel Magnolias” marks the return of the Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre name, in collaboration with the theatre arts program and faculty members Rebecca Crocker and Emily Blankenship-Tucker. The lower level of Schoolfield Hall was renovated in April 2023 and renamed The Rex Stephenson Theatre.
The Ferrum College Theatre Arts Department and Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre have a busy season ahead. Click here for more information about their upcoming season.
About the photograph by Dr. Bob Pohlad: actors TJ Baker ’24, Rebecca Crocker ’02, Kristina Stump ’97, and Lana Whited in Truvy’s beauty shop.
Click here for more photos from this production.
Director Rex Stephenson told Professor of English Tina Hanlon months later that this was the best play he had directed – because of the cast, not because of his own work, he said. He had directed more than 150 plays, including at least two past productions of “Steel Magnolias.” He later directed three more plays at the BRDT as well as assisting with other productions and writing “Faith of Our Fathers,” a play with historical songs and hymns, to commemorate the centenary of Schoolfield Hall in 2025. It was unfinished at the time of his death on August 13, 2025. Emily Blankenship-Tucker finished the script and directed a production during Homecoming Weekend, on October 12, 2025.
