6th @ Penn Theatre Presents
 

Hitch Review

Kish Review

Weinberg-Harder Review

August 23 - September 20, 2007

with

Robin Christ Jill Drexler Danielle Rhoads Leigh Scarritt* Susan Stratton Wendy Waddell
Zoe Katz Victoria Tecca Michael Cullen

(619) 688-9210
 

Robin Christ (Mona) is delighted to return to Sixth @ Penn where she was last seen in Iphigenia at Aulis. Previously at Sixth @ Penn: Hecuba, Amelia Earhart: Lost and Found, State of the Art, Oedipus at Colonus and Reckless. Local credits include: Cygnet Theater: Bug, Las Meninas, New Village Arts: Sailor’s Song, NCRT: Romeo and Juliet, Sledgehammer: Phaedra in Delirium, Chrylasis: Rapechild, (sic) and Richard III Diversionary: Brave Smiles, Backyard Productions: Experiment With an Air Pump, Bright Room Called Day, Stone Soup: Tongue of a Bird. For JAC ... miss you...

Jill Drexler (Juanita) is delighted to be working with Ruff once again (last seen together on stage at NCRT's What's Wrong with This Picture.) Other recent favorite roles include Fit To Be Tied at Diversionary (Patte Award, S.D. Critics Award, Billie Award); The Gingerbread Lady, Renaissance Theatre; Buried Child, NCRT; and Furious Blood, Sledgehammer

Leigh Scarritt (Sissy) is pleased to return to what has become her home theater here at 6th @ Penn. Other 6th @ Penn productions in clude Marjorie in The Allergist's Wife, What The Butler Saw, and TROLLS directed by the incomparable Ole Kittleson. Other stage appearances include The Witch in INTO THE WOODS directed by Brian Wells, Audrey in LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS at Starlight Theater, Ms Pennywise in URINETWON, Delores in WORKING directed by Sam Woodhouse, Gothol in RAPUNZEL directed by Delicia Turner Sonnengberg, Eva Peron in EVITA , Val in A CHORUS LINE, Sally in CABARET, and Grandma Who in HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS at The Old Globe Theater. Role come and go, but Leigh's favorite will always be as mother to precious Tiffany Jane.

Leigh is particularly pleased to share the stage with former student Wendy Waddel and current students Zoe Katz, Victoria Tecca, and Michael Cullen. Gee I have been doing this a long time. I gotta go sit down!  *Actors' Equity Member & 6th @ Penn Associate Artist
 

Susan Stratton (Jo) has been working as an actor, director and teacher in the San Diego community for over 20 years. As an actress, Susan has graced the stages of North Coast Rep, The Fritz, Ensemble Arts, Sushi and Octad One. Some of her favorite roles include Cathy in Tales of the Lost Formicans, Kate in Taming of the Shrew and Lucky in 101 Dalmations. Susan holds a B.A. in Drama from San Diego State University and a M.A. in Direction from Central Washington University. Additionally, she studied Shakespeare with Robert Benedetti, Ellen Geer and Wesley VanTassel. Susan has taught theatre in the California public school system for 17 years. She currently is the drama director at Castle Park High School and also teaches acting at Southwestern College.

Wendy Waddell (Stella May) is thrilled to be working on her 4th project with Ruff Yeager! Favorite productions include: Bunbury (Diversionary), Three Sisters, Crimes of the Heart (New Village Arts), The Miser (La Jolla Playhouse), Tongue of a Bird (Stone Soup), Othello (Women’s Rep), and The Best Mistake (Playwrights Project). Wendy received her BFA in theatre from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where she studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute. She is also an accomplished radio and television voiceover artist. For ALL the fabulous women in my life: my teachers, my friends.

Zoe Katz (Young Sissy) is 16 and has just received a National Youth Theatre Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical for her role as "Little Sally" in Urinetown the Musical, directed by Michael Schwartz. She is a member of the girl band, "Stellar" and is one of the new teen hosts for i-SAFE. This summer Zoe appeared in Unconventional for the Actors Alliance Youthfest, directed by Jude Evans, and was honored to play "Rebecca" in Fireflies, directed by Dale Morris. Zoe would like to thank Leigh Scarritt for her continued help and support and to Ruff Yeager for this fantastic opportunity to work with such an amazing cast.

Victoria Tecca (Young Mona) This is Victoria’s debut at 6th @ Penn. Her most recent role was as “Ugly” in Honk. She is a junior at the Bishop’s School. Her vocal coach is Leigh Scarritt and she studies tap, jazz, and ballet with San Diego Metro Dance. She would like to thank Ruff for this opportunity!
 

Michael Cullen (Joe) is thrilled to be returning to 6th @ Penn.  At 6th @ Penn and other local theatres he has enjoyed performing in many of Marianne McDonald's Greek Tragedies.  Michael started performing at four years old and has performed in over 50 film and theatre productions throughout San Diego County.  His favorite stage credits included Cabaret at NCRT, Secret Garden at La Jolla Stage Co.,  and Dracula, The Musical at the La Jolla Playhouse.  Recently, he performed as Sampson with the Coronado Playhouse in Romeo and Juliet.
 

(Understudy)
 

Production Staff

Ruff Yeager (Director) is the Artistic Director of Vox Nova Theatre Company, a collaborative workshop for theatre artists he founded with an emphasis on the playwright and new works for the stage. His San Diego directing credits include Bronze, [sic] (Sledgehammer Theatre); Friends of Dorothy, Bent, Something Cloudy Something Clear (Diversionary Theatre); Closer (Backyard Productions); Stage Directions, A Man of His Word (Playwrights Project). His recent awards include two KPBS Pattes for Outstanding Direction (Bronze) and Outstanding Original Music (Tongue of a Bird), a San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Play (Bronze), and a Playbill Award for Best New Play (Losing Mother). He will direct Medea for Sixth@Penn in the fall in a new translation by Dr. Marianne McDonald and his newest creation, A Christmas Carol: Tiny Tim’s Brand New Musical will be produced by Vox Nova Theatre Company at Sixth@Penn Theatre this holiday season.
 

Cat McEvilly (Stage Manager) is proud to be a part of this show and such a fabulous cast.  This is her umpteenth production at 6th @ Penn with no end in sight.
 

Mitchell Simkovski (Light Designer) Mitchell has been designing lights for 6th @ Penn and other theatres for many years and is please to be back.  He is also 6th @ Penn's Technical Director.  As well as being a husband and father he is also an accountant.
 

Jyothi Doughman (Costume Designer) is a graduate of UCSD with a BA in Theatre Arts. She has been working as a wardrobe supervisor for the past three years at The Old Globe and The San Diego Repertory Theatre working on countless productions and The Old Globe’s Shakespeare Festival. She is thrilled to be a part of this project and to dabble with design again. Her design work consists of: American Renegade Theatre: The Days When Cocaine Was King; Black Kat Theatre: The Living Newspaper & The Dating Game; UCSD: 5th of July & Full Circle.

Annie Hinton (Dialogue Coach)

Nich Fouch (Original Stage Design)

Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean
by Hitch 8/29/07

 I was just taken on the emotional rollercoaster ride of my life. It seems these six lovely ladies, who graduated from high school just two years after me, decided to have a 20- year reunion on September 30, 1975. Those gals really knew how to party. We were all at the five and dime an’ Sissy (Leigh Scarritt) brought the Lone Star. I don’t know who brought the bourbon, but Stella May (Wendy Waddell) was swigging it like it were water. Man, that woman can drink.

Juanita (Jill Drexler) has been running the five and dime ever since her husband passed. Well, truth to tell, she was probably running it before then. She’s that kinda woman. McCarthy, Texas ain’t too big a burg and the women sorta control the goings on. Mona (Robin Crist), with all her psycho-so-matic sicknesses, was her usual cantankerous self even pickin’ on poor Edna Louise (Danielle Rhoads), who ‘pears to be ‘bout four or five months pg. Only Joe was a missin’.

As memories were rekindled, we drifted back ta 1955 and there was young Mona (Victoria Tecca), young Sissy (Zoe Katz), and the girl’s favorite, Joe (Michael Cullen). If you recall, McCarthy, Texas is right close to where Warner Brothers filmed George Steven’s Giant just after the gals and Joe graduated. Well, ya know the story. Mona saw that hunk, Jimmy Dean settin’ on the steps of that old house front and next thing ya knowed just ‘bout the right time later out popped Jimmy Dean II. Scandalous, I tell ya fer a small town.

Anyways in pops this stranger in ta the five and dime. Tall woman, attractive, drivin’ one of them fancy sporty cars with no top. She’s all gussied up in a white pants suit, actin’ sorta aloof-like. Looked familiar in a way, but not quite. Oh my Gawd, it was Joe. He did one of them transgender operations and was made in ta a girl. Now Joe is called Joanne (Susan Stratton). Well, I never heard a such a thing!

Yes, Ed Graczyk’s Come Back to the 5 and Dime Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean does that to you. This cast is just a hair short of fantastic. Thanks to Dialect Coach Annie Hinton, the rural Texas twang rings true. They say that 90% of directing is casting. Mr. Ruff Yeager cast brilliantly. And you can’t fault his direction as the ensemble worked so well it is easy to believe that they’ve known each other for twenty plus years. The younger players, circa 1955, seemed to be the perfect early version of the 1975 folks.

Nick Fouch , along with Ruff Yeager and Dale Morris, produced a great set. I’ve sat on those stools at the soda fountain, had a burger in those old, somewhat tacky booths. The homage to Jimmy Dean framed in a string of Christmas tree lights, a placard of sunglasses, and even the lighted painting of Jesus on the wall were all there. Yeager’s props added a dimension of added reality. His sound design transported us into the time perfectly. The old five and dime hasn’t changed a bit since 1955. Mitchell Simkovski’s lighting easily defined which era we were in, even as the two eras were on the stage at the same time and, occasionally, even in nearly the same space. Costume Designer Jyothi Doughman was right on. The emotional rollercoaster in Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean happens as their stories unfold. Shocking revelations, tragic honesty, and confessions make for an almost heartbreaking and definitely poignant play. Did Joe do the right thing? Will Mona ever be whole again? Will they meet again, in 20 more years? I suggest reserving early, even attending on Thursday or Friday. Wow, what a show!

Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean is a walk back into two time zones, 1975 and 1955; twenty years apart. It’s a time to remember how things were and how things might have been for six individuals birthed in or around McCarthy, Texas. It’s the 20th reunion for these undistinguished Disciples of Jimmy Dean.

If Dean hadn’t died in a terrible head-on accident in his Porsche, would he have been more than a matinee idol? If some of the young members of the James Dean fan club hadn’t lied and then began believing in those lies, would their lives have been different? Ed Graczyk’s play suggests that we all make blundering mistakes, but it’s never too late to change our behavior from a small town rural mentality to urban truth and personal growth.

Director Ruff Yeager manages his players well, especially when he mirrors three actors playing Young Sissy (Zoe Katz), Young Joe (Michael Cullen) and Young Mona (Victoria Tecca) against the mature versions of the same. With dialog kept within the ‘5 & Dime’ the challenge to move the script along was somewhat daunting; however, met equally by cast and director (Assistant Director, Martin Aquilera must take some credit as well). On a side note Katz, Cullen and Tecca are current students of Leigh Scarritt who plays the part of the busty (‘retreads’ confesses the character) Sissy with sassy, underplayed but very real torment.

As one would expect there are revelations about each character; some disciples were flabbergasted about the truths told while others admitted going along with the lies like along joyride in the country without any care to the inaccuracy. As musty recollections from the past are spelled out by the young versions, clarity and forced acceptance allow for a lighter load to be carried into the future by the aging group of adults.

Jill Drexler’s Juanita was right on the money as the righteous widow. Robin Christ’s Mona followed the denial road taken by Juanita although her life was doubly sad with her untiring invention of facts about her son, Jimmy Dean, constantly defining him as less than mentally capable. Susan Stratton played Joe/Joanne with incredible believability, especially since she had to deal with the revelation of fathering a child and then accomplishing a sex change. Wendy Waddell’s Stella May was just what a spoiled, badly dressed, mildly successful, oil drilling West Texas spouse should be. And Danielle Rhoad’s Edna Louise was perfectly dowdy and apologetic.

“Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean” is an imperfect play brought to better life with competent direction and fine performances from all of the ensemble players.

Costume designer dressed the cast in perfect West Texas ‘5 & Dime’ attire, from froppy to well-heeled. And Nick Fouch’s set direction allowed us to walk back into a 50’s diner and feel nostalgia comfortable with the past.

If you are looking for good entertainment by a cadre of female actors (and one young male actor) “Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean” will satisfy your appetite.

(Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean plays through September 30; dial them up at 619-688-9210 for tickets.)
 
 

San Diego Arts "Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" at 6th @ Penn
By George Weinberg-Harter Posted on Aug 25 2007

Considered a flop on Broadway in 1982, "Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" did not prove to be one of Robert Altman’s more popular films either when the director thriftily transferred his original stage production, all-star cast intact, to film (blown up 16mm). Nevertheless, this overwrought Texas gothic melodrama or comedy (which is it?) by the apparently reclusive or just elusive playwright Ed Graczyk (just see if you can come up with any biographical data on the fellow, or even a head shot) seems to possess its guilty pleasures for some. Indeed, Ruff Yeager has directed a snappy little production at the dinky 6th @ Penn Theatre which despite (or perhaps because of) the absurdities of the play’s plot may succeed in happily inducting you, as it did me, into the arcane mysteries of the McCarthy, Texas, James Dean Fan Club, circa 1955-75.

 The four former girls and one former (in a truer sense) boy of the old club have a reunion at the town Woolworth lunch counter where Juanita (Jill Drexler) still serves up, two decades after the movie star of the title shot his last film, "Giant," nearby and went back to Hollywood to perish in a car wreck. Amongst the several lurid revelations of the script (which are all thumpingly telegraphed well in advance of their inevitable confessions), the central dramatic scandal is that prior to his departure James Dean is reputed to have impregnated teenage fan club member Young Mona (Victoria Tecca) with a son who bears his name and is believed to be a moron. (This son is in fact that errant Jimmy Dean, often mentioned but never glimpsed, who is repeatedly bade to "come back" like Little Sheba.) Such at least is the tale which the mature Mona (Robin Christ) twenty years on professes to, and the rest tacitly acquiesce in. The truth proves less strange, but no less obvious.

Director Yeager has wrought much entertainment and charm from this soap-operatic material by engaging an ensemble containing several lively actresses who generate a lot of fun with their Lone Star style quips and quarrels. Jill Drexler’s pious and perpetually pooped Juanita combines her spot-on comic timing with sympathetic genuineness of character. Robin Christ handles Mona’s emotional peaks and crises with delicate believability, and Victoria Tecca imparts touching innocence to the younger incarnation of the same character and her fraught experiences.

Leigh Scarritt  as Sissy and Wendy Waddell as Stella May bring some high hilarity and a touch of the grotesque to the parlous rows of their flamboyant characters. And Susan Stratton maintains as Joanne a magisterial air of mystery even beyond her own foreseeable revelations. The cast is capably rounded out by Danielle Rhoads as Edna Louise, Zoe Katz as Young Sissy, and Michael Cullen as Joe.

Yeager, with the able collaboration of light designer Mitchell Simkovski, integrates the repeated twenty-year flashbacks with clarity and even some poignant loveliness. Nick Fouch’s well detailed set design (with additions by the director and Dale Morris) sensibly concentrates upon the lunch counter area, finessing the dime store aspects. And Jyothi Doughman’s costume designs amusingly enhance some wilder aspects of the characters.

Susan Stratton Copyright©2007 G.Weinberg-Harter For all its cheap thrills and shocks, Graczyk’s script deserves some credit for holding the stage surprisingly well after a quarter of a century. Its sympathetic if sensationalized treatment of such topics as transsexuality and gay-bashing were perhaps a tiny bit in advance of its period and have lent the play a certain continuing spark of timeliness.