Wesley United Methodist Church, through its Wesley Dinner Theater, will present the classic play “Steel Magnolias” at 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

The church’s youth director, Nicki Cerne, said the youth are producing this production to raise money for a global mission trip they hope to take next summer.

“We want to either go to Europe or South America, depending on how much money we get,” Cerne said. “We have been working on raising money for a year.”

“Steel Magnolias” is a comedy/drama that walks the audience through the lives and relationships of six women in Louisiana, Cerne said.

“I decided to go with ‘Steel Magnolias’ because I could find actresses, but I couldn’t find any actors to do it,” she said. “Men work more and I couldn’t get any to commit to the rehearsals. This was the only script I could find that only calls for women.”

The mood of the evening is designed to take its audience to the setting of the production in the South.

“We are having a salad, chicken fried steak, fried okra, homemade mashed potatoes and gravy and for dessert we’ll have apple cobbler,” Cerne said.

The dinner theater will cost $20 per person with the meal included.

A special “dessert and salad only” presentation is scheduled at 2:30 p.m. Sept. 23 for $15.