Friendship is at the heart of the story in “Always ... Patsy Cline,” so for longtime friends Kira Lace Hawkins and Jennifer Dow to play the two roles in the Wagon Wheel production of the jukebox musical is a special treat for both of them.

And one that they’ve had the joy in doing before.The show is based on a true story about Cline’s friendship with a fan from Houston named Louise Seger, who befriended the music artist in a Texas honky-tonk in 1961. Their letters continued back and forth until Cline’s tragic death in an airplane crash.
Dow said, “For me, personally, this is my fourth time playing Louise. I did it here in 2011 with a different actress playing Patsy Cline, and then I did it at another theater in Wisconsin prior to that. And then Kira and I got to do this during the Covid year of 2020 when we had to shut down entirely. We felt like we could still offer entertainment to our community in the tent outside.”
While Dow and Hawkins performed the show under the tent in 2020, the band was not on the stage like they will be for this summer season’s shows. The band was in the rehearsal hall and the music was piped out to the tent in the parking lot.
“It’s so interesting. I think, especially now that I’ve had the experience of moving our show on to the Wagon Wheel stage, which, of course, I know so well and Jen knows so well, I can now unequivocally say the tent was kind of a truncated version of what we were capable of,” Hawkins said. “It was so fulfilling to be able to do anything during that summer, and I was so thrilled to have this musicians to work with, to be able to work with Jen. (Artistic Director) Scott (Michaels) pulled off an amazing set underneath that tent, literally all by himself with Matthews’ help at that point.”
She said the tent production was amazing for what it was, but now that they get to remount “Always ... Patsy Cline” on the Wagon Wheel stage, “it feels like we’re finally getting to perform this thing that we’ve been rehearsing for three years.”
Dow said the biggest missing element for the tent production was having the band on the stage with them. The band is a whole other character in the show, she said.
“They are very much integral into the story because, obviously, we’re celebrating Patsy Cline’s music and the peddle steel guitar player - which you don’t get to hear very often - Gary has played it our last three times, this will be the third time for him. In fact, I think he did it even before that with Carrie McNulty years and years ago,” she said.

Hawkins said the band provides an awesome energy that makes it feel like a concert for the whole show.One of the challenges in taking on a music legend like Cline is that her voice is so unique and beloved, she said.
“I would say, especially, maybe there are three stand-out songs in this show, ‘Walking After Midnight,’ ‘I Fall to Pieces’ and ‘Crazy,’ that have kind of permeated pop culture and probably are considered timeless songs. So to try to emulate her or honor her voice is definitely a huge challenge and just trying to allow the audience to have the experience of feeling like they’re in a room with Patsy Cline. Of course, you can’t really fully get there, but I definitely try to do the work to make sure that I was as close as possible and, at least, just honoring the style and honoring her isms that are so pervasive throughout her music,” Hawkins said.
She said it’s really endearing, through Dow’s character, that the audience gets to see the human side of Cline and how personable she was with her fans and how much care she had with humans generally.
“I think it just speaks to her character and this show really brings that out for sure,” Hawkins stated.
Dow said Cline has numerous pen pals and the character she plays, Louise Steger, is an actual person.
“I’ve read some articles about her, and Ted Swindley obviously interviewed her when making the show. I’m sure it’s very much more dramatized than the actual Louise Seger, but I don’t know as I’ve never gotten to meet her,” Dow said.
She said Swindley did a great job in integrating Cline’s music into the storyline.
“A large chunk of the show is kind of like a day in the life of when Louise actually gets to meet and see Patsy at a concert of hers, and she brings her back to her house and they talk all through the night and she ends up staying the night because it’s so late,” Dow said. “So, it’s kind of a day in the life of a fan and the relationship she created with Patsy in such a short amount of time and the impact it made on Louise; and how her passing and her having such a short life impacted Louise as a superfan. I think that kind of resonated across the country when Patsy passed.”
Hawkins said the show also speaks to a nostalgia for the era of the 1950s and 1960s when it was almost considered “safe” for singers and fans to form friendships.
“I can’t imagine a superstar staying over at an unknown person’s house overnight. That would not happen today,” Hawkins said. “So there’s something so beautiful about the simplicity of just human nature, human to human, relating to each other. Yes, she had a No. 1 hit on the radio, but she was just a girl who happened to be in Texas and who was ready to accept the help of a stranger. There’s something so simple and beautiful about that.”
Hawkins and Dow first worked together in 2008, so this year is their 15th anniversary of working together off and on.
“It’s a total treat,” Hawkins said of working with her friend on a show about friends. “I don’t know what other industry you might be in where you get to be co-workers and then also create art together that other people can enjoy. It’s a huge privilege. And to see and be surprised by Jen every night because of her talent, it’s a huge privilege to continue to learn about each other as performers and to create art together.”
Dow echoed Hawkins’ sentiment.
“Because we’ve known each other for so long and we have a close relationship, there is an innate trust that we have on stage with each other that makes it more enjoyable, makes it a much more fun ride. Less nerves, less pressure. The minute we get to share a scene together for the first time in a show, it’s like any jitters you might have when you’re performing kind of melt away for me the minute I get to interact with Kira,” Dow stated. “I trust her wholeheartedly and I admire her talent a ton as well.”
The Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts production of “Always ... Patsy Cline” is Aug. 10-19. Tickets are available by calling 574-267-8041, at the box office or online at wagonwheelcenter.org.