Mary Testa, Shakina, and More Set for 5&DIME Industry Reading

The Queer Ensemble, in association with TheatreWorks Silicon Valley and Broadway and Beyond Theatricals, will present an industry reading of 5&DIME in New York, Monday September 16th. The musical is based upon Ed Graczyk's 1982 Broadway play Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. Set in 1975, it tells the story of a group of high school friends reuniting in West Texas for their James Dean fan club's 20th anniversary. But with the arrival of a mysterious, yet familiar stranger, long-buried secrets and hidden truths are revealed…

About the Creative Team:

Ashley Robinson - Book

Robinson's play adaptation of Brokeback Mountain received its World Premiere on London's West End last year. Annie Proulx says of his adaptation, “Ashley's script is fresh and deeply moving, opening sight lines not visible in the original nor successive treatments.”  Other work in development: Fall of ‘94, written with Joseph Thalken and Ellen Fitzhugh. https://fallof94musical.com Robinson is an Ucross Foundation writing resident. As an actor (selected): London: Floyd Collins (Floyd—Wiltons Music Hall), Casa Valentina (Southwark Playhouse), Merrily We Roll Along (Chocolate Factory/ West End). NY: Capote in the New York premiere of Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory (Irish Rep—2015 Outer Critics Award Nom), A Clockwork Orange (New World Stages). Regional work includes originating the role of Jett Rink in the World Premiere of the musical Giant (Helen Hayes Award nomination, Best Actor), and Tybalt in Jeff Buckley's The Last Goodbye. University of North Carolina School of the Arts. https://ashleyrobinsonofficial.com

Shakina - Lyrics

Shakina has made trans TV history as a writer/director/performer on NBC's Quantum Leap and on NBC's Connecting... 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.

Dan Gillespie Sells - Music

Dan Gillespie Sells is the Ivor Novello award- winning songwriter and front person of pop band The Feeling. His 20 year career has taken him (and his songs) into the worlds of dance, theatre, TV and film. He has composed,arranged, and produced for and with artists as varied as Sophie Ellis Bextor, Rufus Wainwright and Shakka Khan. The Feeling's debut album, ‘Twelve Stops and Home' went triple platinum, whilst their second album, ‘Join with Us' reached the No. 1 spot in the UK Charts. They released their 7th studio album in April 2024. Sells wrote the theme to BBC's ‘Beautiful People' TV show in 2008. Sells' collaboration with The Royal Ballet's Ed Watson and choreographer Javier DeFrutos  ‘3 with D' premiered at London's Coliseum in 2014 and has since been performed at Stuttgart Ballet and The Joyce Theatre New York. Sells was the recipient of the 2015 Stonewall award for Entertainer of the Decade for his work in the LGBT community and the 2007 Ivor Novello Award for Songwriter of the Year. Other awards include Best Composer at The Stage Debut Awards 2017 plus BRIT and Oliver nominations including ‘outstanding achievement in music'. Sells is co-creator and composer of the stage musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie which has had productions opening globally since it debuted in Sheffield then London's West End in 2018. He also scored the movie version for Amazon Studios in 2020. Sells composed the songs for a stage production of Brokeback Mountain which debuted in the West End in 2023. Over the last few years Sells has also scored a series of Charles Dickens adaptations for Audible, exec produced by Sam Mendez.

Giovanna Sardelli - Director

Giovanna Sardelli is TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's 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), FINKS, Somewhere 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 directed “Marvel's Squirrel Girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show!,” a podcast series by Marvel Entertainment and Sirius XM.

Jacob Yates - Music Direction

Jacob Yates is a classically trained Cellist and Music Director. His favorite Broadway/Off Broadway credits include Wicked, Les Misérables, Spring Awakening, Alice By Heart, Hadestown (Tour/Broadway), Only Gold, Rock of Ages, and currently Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club. In addition to his Broadway career, Jacob has toured with Disney's DISNEY PRINCESS The Concert as well as performed all over the world with Broadway and Television Stars. He will also be seen in the upcoming feature film, On A String. Upcoming musical projects include Hard Road, 5 and Dime, and When We Touch. I

Cast

Mary Testa: (Lornetti) Mary is the recipient of the Legend of Off-Broadway Award, Three Tony nominations, two Lucille Lortel nominations, six Drama Desk nominations, two Drama League nominations, two Outer Critic's Circle nominations, an Obie Award, and a special Drama Desk award celebrating Queen of the Mist and 'Three Decades of Outstanding Work.' Broadway: Oklahoma! Wicked, Guys and Dolls, Xanadu, Chicago, 42nd St, Marie Christine, On the Town, Forum, etc. Opera: Anna Nicole/BAM.  Off-Broadway: Oklahoma!, The Portuguese Kid, The Government Inspector, First Daughter Suite, Caucasian Chalk Circle, Queen of the Mist, Love Loss.., A New Brain, See What I Wanna See, etc. Film: Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical, The Mother (short; 3 Best Actress Awards), Big Stone Gap, Eat Pray Love, The Bounty Hunter, etc. Television: The Good Fight, Divorce, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Bull, SMILF, Two Broke Girls, Difficult People, and Whoopi. Featured on fourteen original cast albums, Mary's album with Michael Starobin, Have Faith, is now available.

Shakina: (Joanne) Shakina is a two-time Critics Choice Award winner for her writing and directing on NBC's Quantum Leap. She made TV history in NBC's Connecting...as the first trans actor to be cast as a series regular on a network sitcom, and 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.

Mariand Torres: (Edna Louise) Mariand was recently on Broadway in the musical Lempicka, where she stood by for, and performed, the titular role to great acclaim. She has also been seen on Broadway as Elphaba in Wicked, a role she also played on tour throughout North America, a Fate in Hadestown, and in the original cast of In Transit, Broadway's first acapella musical. Other notable credits include: originating the role of Millie in Alicia Keys' new musical Hell's Kitchen, which played a sold out run at The Public Theater, the Japan world premiere of Prince of Broadway, a retrospective on the career of the legendary Hal Prince, directed by Mr. Prince himself, and the critically acclaimed off Broadway run of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. Regionally she has been seen as Eva Perón in Evita, the Lady of the Lake in Spamalot, and Helen Bechdel in Fun Home, among others.  Mariand has appeared on television in Law & Order SVU and Madam Secretary, and can be heard as a principal vocalist in the Grammy nominated recording of Stephen Schwartz's Snapshots (Broadway Records).

Lauren Marcus: (Mona) Broadway: Be More Chill (Original Cast). Select credits: White Girl in Danger (Second Stage/The Vineyard), Sarah Silverman's The Bedwetter (The Atlantic), Fiddler On The Roof (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Little Shop of Horrors (Pittsburgh Public), The Humans (St. Louis Rep), Company (Barrington Stage), The...Hunter S. Thompson Musical (La Jolla Playhouse). Film/TV: tick, tick…BOOM!, Law and Order: SVU. As a writer, Lauren is a 2021 and 2023 finalist for the Jonathan Larson Grant, a 2022 semifinalist for the O'Neill, and was chosen by New York Stage and Film to develop her original television pilot, Honest Living, with their Filmmakers Workshop. She is currently co-writing the book for a new musical adaptation of Girls Just Want to Have Fun (based on the 1985 Sarah Jessica Parker film) for Lively McCabe Entertainment.

Stephanie Gibson: (Sissy)  Broadway: Cinderella (Step Sister Gabrielle), Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (Cherry Sunday), Addams Family, Spamalot. National Tour: Chorus Line (Judy) NY: Glitter, Goblets & Gatos & GGG2-Electric Boogaloo (Original One Woman Shows-Feinstein's/54 Below), Anyone Can Whistle (Encores!) Regional: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Maggie, Dir Judith Ivey; Baltimore Center Stage), Last of the Red Hot Mamas(Bucks County Playhouse), Crime & Punishment: A Comedy(Old Globe), Murder on the Orient Express (Papermill), Into the Woods (TUTS), Cabaret(Cape Playhouse),Young Frankenstein (MUNY), Guys & Dolls (Arkansas Rep), Rocky Horror Picture Show (Bucks County), Film/TV: “And Just Like That”, “Happy!”, “Law & Order”, “Run the World”, “Andy Warhol Diaries”, “Person of Interest”, “Up All Night”

Lorinda Lisitza: (Stella Mae) Lorinda Lisitza is an award-winning NYC singer/actress originally from Porcupine Plain, Saskatchewan who recently appeared in the world premiere of the new Joe Iconis musical at LaJolla Playhouse based on the life of Hunter S. Thompson. She has been part of the symphonic concert "Music of the Knights" since its world premiere with the Calgary Philharmonic. In New York she has performed Off-Broadway as a member of the Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre where she starred as "Mother Courage" to rave reviews and has appeared in several installments of The York Theatre's "Musicals in Mufti" series. As a vocalist she has been a part of The Town Hall's historic "Broadway by the Year" series and is a founding member of the Joe Iconis Family with whom she regularly performs in cabarets and nightclubs throughout NYC for a devoted cult following. She has won three MAC Awards, a Bistro Award and a Nightlife Award for her work in cabaret and received the prestigious Patrick Lee Independent Theater Blogger Award for her one woman show, Triumphant Baby!, written by Joe Iconis and Robert Maddock. As a singer-songwriter she is half of the award-winning duo, The Ted and Lo Show. Lorinda has appeared on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" and "The Price is Right," plays a mean harmonica and is an avid Texas Hold'em player.

Ellie van Amerongen: (Joe) Ellie (he/him) is an NYC-based actor, musician, and songwriter. Regional theater credits include Pittsburgh CLO, SpeakEasy Stage Company, and Casa Mañana. Ellie is a Thomas Derrah Emerging Artist Award winner and IRNE award nominated for his work in Fun Home at Speakeasy Stage. Boston Conservatory graduate. Find Ellie's latest EP release “Descending,” which documents his first two years taking testosterone, on all streaming platforms. @ellievanam

Additional Creative Team Members:

The Queer Ensemble: The Queer Ensemble is a Theatre Company and collective of artists that have come together to present works centering the queer perspective from playwrights past and present, queer and non, in a series of live performances. We pride ourselves on the fresh, bold, and intelligent takes of the work we present, infusing the vast experiences of our ensemble with a sharp, visionary guest director at the helm of each play's journey. For more information on The Queer Ensemble, please visit TheQueerEnsemble.com.

THEATREWORKS SILICON VALLEY

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, led by Artistic Director Giovanna Sardelli, presents a wide variety of contemporary plays and musicals and revitalizes great works of the past. Founded in 1970 by Robert Kelley, TheatreWorks has grown from a truly original Silicon Valley start-up to become one of the nation's leading professional non-profit theatre companies. TheatreWorks was recently honored as the recipient of the 2019 Regional Theatre Tony Award. TheatreWorks also champions new work, offering artists support and a creative home as they develop new stories for the American theatre. Offstage, TheatreWorks' arts education programs in local schools and arts engagement programs in Silicon Valley neighborhoods uplift its audiences and strengthen community bonds. Onstage and off, TheatreWorks welcomes the mosaic of people that embody the Bay Area and beyond, celebrating the transformative power of theatre to ignite imagination, inspire conversation, and enliven our souls.

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