5 & DIME

Book by Ashley Robinson
Music by Dan Gillespie Sells
Lyrics by Shakina

Based on Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean by Ed Graczyk

Directed by Giovanna Sardelli

Sunday, August 11 @ 3pm

Wednesday, August 14 @ 7pm

Saturday, August 17 @ 8pm

Help shape a premiere musical in the making! It’s 1975 in a ramshackle Texas town, where the fan club of 50s heartthrob James Dean is hosting its 20th reunion. In a dime store alive with jukebox songs and down-home humor, the women share cherished illusions and faded dreams, only to meet a glamourous stranger eager to expose the truths of their sheltered lives. 

The musical is based on the play, and later film, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean by Ed Graczyk. Both the Broadway production and the film were directed by Robert Altman and starred Cher, Sandy Dennis, Kathy Bates, and Karen Black.

CREATIVE TEAM

DAN GILLESPIE SELLS

(Music, he/him) wrote the music for the Olivier Award-nominated stage hit musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie, later adapted into a film by Amazon Prime Video. Sells wrote the songs for the stage adaptation of Brokeback Mountain, seen in the West End in 2023. He is the lead vocalist and frontman for the rock group, The Feeling.

ASHLEY ROBINSON

(Book, he/him) penned the stage adaptation of Brokeback Mountain, wrote the book for Fall of ’94, and book and lyrics for Lockhart. As an actor, he performed in the West End in Merrily We Roll Along, and as the titular role in Floyd Collins, as well as appearing onstage at The Old Globe Theatre, Irish Repertory Theatre, TheaterWorks Hartford, Southwark Playhouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Signature Theatre in Virginia, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Lincoln Center Theater, and Roundabout Theatre Company.

SHAKINA

(Lyrics, she/they) has made trans TV history as a writer/director/performer on NBC’s Quantum Leap, recognized with Critics Choice Awards for both writing and directing, an on NBC’s Connecting... , as the first trans actor to be cast as a series regular on a network sitcom. She can also be seen in Amazon’s GLAAD Award Winning Transparent Musicale Finale, which she helped write and produce, and Hulu’s Difficult People as the iconic trans truther, Lola. Her play Chonburi International Hotel and Butterfly Club premiered on Audible in collaboration with Williamstown Theatre Festival, winning the 2021 Drama League Award for Best Audio Theatre Production. She is the Founding Artistic Director of Musical Theatre Factory, where she helped to develop hundreds of new musicals including the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning A Strange Loop and her own autobiographical glam rock odyssey, Manifest Pussy.

GIOVANNA SARDELLI

(Director, she/her) is TheatreWorks’ artistic director. Her many directing credits at TheatreWorks include the West Coast Premiere of Mrs. Christie and the World Premiere of A Distinct Society in association with Pioneer Theatre Company, as well as Nan and the Lower Body (World Premiere), They Promised Her the Moon, Rajiv Joseph’s Archduke, The Lake Effect (World Premiere), and The North Pool (World Premiere), FINKSSomewhere by Matthew Lopez, and many more. She has directed World Premieres around the country of plays by Rajiv Joseph, Theresa Rebeck, Lynn Rosen, Joe Gilford, Jeff Augustine, Lauren Yee, Zayd Dohrn, Melissa Ross, Lila Rose Kaplan, Matthew Lopez, and Zoe Kazan, among others. Sardelli recently directed “Marvel’s Squirrel Girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show!,” a podcast series by Marvel Entertainment and Sirius XM.

DENNI REBERO, Production Assistant

DENNI REBERO (Production Assistant, they/them) is a young creative and technician working within TheatreWorks. They provide support behind the scenes of TheatreWorks’ productions—from scene carpentry to backstage crew to assistant production and beyond. They began at TheatreWorks in 2022. Having found a fresh passion and a safe space in their college theatre, returning to that world a little down the line felt only natural. They believe it is imperative to make, support, and share art with open minds and open hearts. In their free time, they enjoy drawing, playing music, and taking pictures of their cat.

CAST

RINABETH APOSTOL

RINABETH APOSTOL thoroughly enjoys her time with TheatreWorks - in The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga, Red and numerous New Works Festivals. She has also appeared in many new works onstage at American Conservatory Theater, Actors Theater of Louisville, Seattle Rep, TheatreWorks, CalShakes, The Magic, Arizona Theater Company, East West Players, Skirball Center for the Arts, and Berkeley Rep Ground Floor, among others. 2022-2023 productions: Redwinged Blackbird (world premiere), Fun Home (42nd Street Moon), Monument (world premiere, Magic Theater), Smart People and The Chinese Lady (Capital Stage), South Pacific (Billings Symphony) and Hamlet (Marin Shakes). Offstage, you can hear her on Sirius XM/Marvel’s UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL Podcast as Gretchen Campbell. Upcoming: Bald Sisters and My Home On The Moon. Proud member AEA, SAG-AFTRA. @rbdtwo | rinabeth.com

LAWRENCE-MICHAEL C. ARIAS

LAWRENCE-MICHAEL C. ARIAS  is honored to join this year’s New Works Festival. He was recently seen as “Mushnik” in Theatreworks’ Little Shop of Horrors. He also performed in M. Butterfly (Kurogo), Red (Red Guard), Batboy: The Musical (Roy/Mrs. Taylor, etc. at select performances for James Monroe Iglehart), Jane Eyre The Musical (Robert u/s), and Pacific Overtures [2001](British Admiral/Merchant). He originated the role of ‘Wong’ in Utah Shakespeare Festival’s world premiere of Gold Mountain. Other regional credits: National Asian Artists Project/Prospect Theatre’s staged concert of Gold Mountain (Wong). Other Bay Area credits: Hillbarn Theatre - The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Mitch Mahoney); Los Altos Stage Company - Yellow Face (HYH); Pintello Comedy Theatre - A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Miles Gloriosus); Western Stage - Man of La Mancha (Sancho). Film: Protection Detail (Sonny).

LUCINDA HITCHCOCK CONE

LUCINDA HITCHCOCK CONE: TheatreWorks appearances include Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Tuck Everlasting, Outside Mullingar, Big River, The Clean House, Ragtime, and Cabaret. She appeared in the National Tour of Big River. Recently she appeared in Grand Horizons at San Jose Stage Co. where she also played Linda Loman in Death of a Salesman. Regional credits include productions at Hartford Stage, Arizona Theatre Company, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Geva Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Folger Theatre, ACT, Berkeley Rep., San Jose Rep., Sacramento Music Circus, Capital Stage, B Street Theatre, Aurora Theatre, AMTSJ, Marin Theatre Company, PCPA, and the Coconut Grove Playhouse. Lucinda received four SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle awards, and a Dramalogue award. Lucinda studied Mime with Etienne Decroux.

JACQUELINE DE MURO

JACQUELINE DE MURO has performed with TheatreWorks in A Little Night Music (Mrs Segstrom), Pacific Overtures (Shogun’s Mother), Joy Luck Club (Amah), Kiss of the Spiderwoman (Marta), and Into The Woods (Cinderella’s Mother). Most recently, she appeared in New Conservatory Theatre Center’s Encore. Other favorite local productions include Broadway by the Bay’s The King And I (Lady Thiang) and Thoroughly Modern Millie (Muzzy), Woodminster’s Flower Drum Song (Madame Liang), Palo Alto Players’ City Of Angels (Alaura/Carla) and The Baker’s Wife (Genevieve), Busbarn’s And The World Goes Round and Baby (Pam), 42nd Street Moon’s Grand Night For Singing and By Jupiter (Buria), Ohlone Stage’s Man Of La Mancha (Aldonza), and Foothill Theatre’s South Pacific (Bloody Mary), for which she won a Bay Area Theatre Critics Award.

MICHAEL PATRICK GAFFNEY

MICHAEL PATRICK GAFFNEY has been working as an actor in the Bay Area for the past 25 years and is very honored to be performing this summer with TheatreWorks! Last spring he played the role of the Interlocutor in The Scottsboro Boys with 42nd Street Moon. Other regional theatre companies Michael has worked with include: Center Rep, Shotgun Players, Aurora Theatre Company, San Jose Stage Company, Word for Word, and Contra Costa Musical Theatre. Michael has been a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association since 1997.

EMILY KURODA

EMILY KURODA worked at TheatreWorks (The Language Archive, Calligraphy), South Coast Rep (Tiger Style!, Fast Company, Our Town, Ballad of Yachiyo), New York Theatre Workshop (Endlings), Yale Rep (Today is My Birthday), Pan Asian (Brothers Paranormal), American Repertory Theater (Endlings), Page 73 (Today is My Birthday), Actors Theater of Louisville (we, the invisibles), Huntington Theater (Tiger Style!, Woman Warrior), Artists at Play (Two Mile Hollow), Alliance Theater (Tiger Style!), Sundance Theater Lab (Today is My Birthday, A Cage of Fireflies), East West Players (over 45 productions), Kirk Douglas, Mark Taper Forum, Public Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Seattle Rep, Singapore Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, The Doolittle, LATC, Zephyr, LA Women’s Shakespeare Company, and the Los Angeles Shakespeare Festival.  Selected TV: Mrs. Kim in Gilmore Girls, Baymax, All Rise, The Good Doctor, The Resident, Drop Dead Diva, Sequestered and Amazon’s  The Power.  Recent Films Strange World,  Kimi, Porcupine, Take the 10, Party Boat, Red, Yellow Face and Sensei.  

Program

Sponsored by

venue

Lucie Stern Theatre