Patsy Cline's offstage life would be well off the radar of today's TMZ-driven celebrity strata in the eyes of "Always...Patsy Cline" director Bryan Conger.

"She was a good ole' country gal who still had good home values that she was raised with when she was young," he said. "She was a down-to-earth woman and kept herself grounded and she never got caught up in the hype of being a big star."

"Always," running today through Aug. 24, at Valparaiso's Memorial Opera House, tells the story of the relationship between its title character and Louise Seger, a Houston-based fan. Cline's mid 50s and early 60s hits such as "Crazy," "I Fall To Pieces" and "Walkin' After Midnight" made her arguably country music's first female superstar,

The seeds of their friendship were sewn when Seger took Cline in after a performance in her hometown, and through letters and phone calls exchanged between the two up through Cline's death in a plane crash in 1963.

"Always" was penned by American playwright and songsmith Ted Swindley. The musical made its debut in 1990 and has been staged throughout the world.

"Even though (Cline) was a big star, she was really accessible to her fans," Conger said. "I thought that's what makes this an interesting story, because nowadays there's such a wide separation between celebrities and regular people."

For his production, Conger enlisted Mary Kay Steele, from LaPorte, to play Cline and Chesterton's Michelle Craig to portray Seger.

In Conger's eyes, he's landed a pair of superstars in their own right for his production.

"I have to say that I've probably found two of the best actresses in Northwest Indiana to take on the challenge of this play," Conger said. "Casting is a challenge because it requires finding actors who have the stamina onstage to support a show the entire way, and I've absolutely found the right actresses for this one."

Next up for Memorial Theatre Company is a production of the musical "On The Town," scheduled to open at Memorial Opera House Oct. 3.