“Moonlight and Magnolias”
Heartland Community Theatre is inviting the community to its final production of the season, “Moonlight and Magnolias”, written by Ron Hutchinson, running from November 10th – 13th, 2022, at the Heartland Community Theatre Pavilion, 108 North Washington, Clinton. Nightly shows (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) begin at 7:00 p.m., and our close-out performance is a Sunday afternoon matinee at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $12.50 apiece, and can be purchased in advance by calling our Ticket Information line at (660) 351-5288, as well as purchased at the door prior to each performance. On Friday evening (November 11th), we would like to show our appreciation by offering FREE admission to all veterans, for our Veterans’ Day performance.
Our production takes place in 1939 Hollywood, where legendary film producer David O. Selznick, just weeks into filming Gone with the Wind, closes the production down when he realizes the script is in need of a major overhaul, and that the movie’s current director is clueless. He has to replace both the director, as well as the screenplay in five days, in order for production to resume. Selznick calls on Victor Fleming, removing him from the set of The Wizard to Oz to direct, and he hires screenwriter Ben Hecht to revise the script. However there’s one major problem: Hecht has never read the book.
Over the course of five endless, madcap days, the three men, assisted by Selznick’s secretary, Miss Poppenghul, frantically craft one of the most beloved screenplays of all time. As Selznick and Fleming act out the book for Hecht, the phone rings off the hook with calls from the likes of Louis B. Mayer and Vivian Leigh, among others. Hutchinson’s play, which is based on historical events, is written as farce, but the characters deal with serious questions regarding the country’s changing environment during the late 1930’s and Hollywood’s golden age.
The production is being directed by Rob Hills and features (in order of appearance) Joe Trogdon as Ben Hecht, Rob Hills as David O. Selznick, Janet Smith as Miss Poppenghul and David Scott as Victor Fleming.
