The Miss Firecracker Contest
By Beth Henley
October 2–18, 2026
Thursday & Friday, 7 p.m.
Saturday, 2 & 7 p.m.
Sunday, 3 p.m.
From the author of Crimes of the Heart, The Miss Firecracker Contest is a Southern Gothic comedy for which Henley is best known. Its heroine, Carnelle, is an irrepressible young woman who thinks that winning the local beauty contest will restore her soiled reputation and make her “somebody” in her small Mississippi community. The family and friends who help her along the way are a dysfunctional bunch who tackle life in their own peculiar ways. A former beauty queen cousin, Elain, comes to offer advice and to run away from her husband and children. Elain’s brother, Delmount, has come home from the mental institution to sell the family home and provide Carnelle another way out. Wandering into the chaos is Carnelle’s seamstress, sweet and strange Popeye, who falls in love with Delmount. The general conclusion these characters reach is this:, even if the real you is not the fulfillment of your hopes, you will be more at peace if you learn to define and accept your own self.
Black Box Theatre
GENERAL PUBLIC: $25
SENIOR CITIZEN/ALUMNI: $20
STUDENTS: $10
SHU STUDENT: $5
FACULTY/STAFF: FREE WITH SHU ID
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