Moonlight and Magnolias
Featured Actor…

Missy Slaymaker-Hanlon

This actress is by far the most talented and beautiful woman on the stage. Okay, yes, she is also the only woman on the stage in TheatreWorks’ production of Moonlight and Magnolias, but Missy Slaymaker-Hanlon is a veteran thespian who turns out an incredible comic performance with her frantic entrances and exits that has audiences howling.

Ms. Slaymaker-Hanlon plays the only fictional role in Moonlight and Magnolias (although some might debate that) as David O. Selznick’s harried yet “in control” secretary, Miss Poppenghul.

“I was thrilled to get the role of Miss Poppenghul – an undemanding role in terms of number of lines and time on stage, but I get so much in reward!” Ms. Slaymaker-Hanlon said. “I love the small parts. I’ve made a career of them. ‘Acting is reacting’ is one of the method acting school’s finest taglines, and my students have heard me say it a million times. I'm always proud to be living proof of that lesson. Poppenghul is all about reaction.”

One can gather from her statement that Ms. Slaymaker-Hanlon is a teacher, and an outstanding one at that. She is a part-time music and creative dramatics instructor, directing the Youth Musical Theater Workshop at the Ridgefield Theater Barn where she also serves on the board of directors. She is also the former Theatre Department Director of the All for Arts Center in Bedford Hills, NY and currently is the Head Drama Specialist at Camp Mohawk, in White Plains, NY.

Born in Arkansas and raised in California, Ms. Slaymaker-Hanlon has spent the last 17 years on local stages in CT and NY. She accomplishes this in between producing and directing children’s theatre and her other full-time jobs: mother to her six-year-old son, Spencer, and wife to her husband, George (also a teacher and a musician). Like her character of Miss Poppnenghul, she is a master of juggling many tasks at once and coming out looking great.

Ms. Slaymaker-Hanlon first appeared on the TheatreWorks stage back in 1991 when it was known as “The Little Theatre of New Milford” in an original production of Frankenstein. Some of her other TheatreWorks credits include a male/female role as Ned and Ruthie Taylor in Bat Boy: The Musical, Texas in Cabaret, Ramona in Little Me, Maria in Compleat Female Stage Beauty, and one of the only non-puppet characters in the nearly all-puppet production of Ghost of a Chance (2005). A funny turn of fate as Ms. Slaymaker-Hanlon is a well-versed puppeteer. Go figure?

“I'm driven to perform on stage because it's the only place my personality seems normal,” Ms. Slaymaker-Hanlon said. “I actually alarm people in real life. I recently approached a produce manager in a supermarket and he looked at me, then peered around as if searching for a hidden camera or microphone. What’s scarier than an extremely sunny, loud, blonde woman coming at you in the grocery store commenting on the rising price of bananas?”

Can’t answer that one. But there is certainly nothing funnier than seeing this “sunny, loud, blonde” actress coming at you on stage with a load of bananas (and peanuts) the size of a Mack truck. Her director, Sonnie Osborne, and her male cast-mates agree: Having Missy on stage is a blessing.

Please join Ms. Slaymaker-Hanlon and her cohorts for one final romp into the factual/fictional world of Moonlight and Magnolias this weekend by ordering your tickets by clicking here.