UW News

January 26, 2011

Past and present together: ‘Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean at Meany Studio Theater

UW News

Drama students Marissa Lichwick, left, and Kayla Lian play the same character in 'Jimmy Dean.'

Drama students Marissa Lichwick, left, and Kayla Lian play the same character in "Jimmy Dean."

The School of Dramas next production, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, boasts a nearly all-female cast and a female guest director, Susan Finque.

“Its a great project for the talented women actors in the current Professional Actor Training Program,” Finque said of Jimmy Dean. “[It has] complex and multi-dimensional female characters, each with her own secret and moment of breakthrough and catharsis.”

The play begins previews on Sunday, Jan. 31, and will run through Feb. 13 in the Meany Studio Theatre.

There is only one male character in the play, and there are two versions — present and past — of two of the women. Marissa Lichwick (past) and Kayla Lian (present) are one of those duos — both taking on the complicated character of Mona.

Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean is set in the small town of McCarthy, Texas in 1975. Members of the Disciples of James Dean are gathering in the local five and dime for a reunion on the 20th anniversary of their heros death. Mona, who was an extra in the James Dean movie Giant and claims her son was fathered by Dean, is looking forward to the reunion.

“But it ends up being a reunion where an unexpected person arrives and secrets are revealed,” Lian said. “Its not what Mona expected or hoped for, but it ends in something where every character has to reveal truth, has to let go of her mask.”

Since Lian and Lichwick are playing the same character, they worked together to make sure there is continuity in their performances. Aside from the fact that both are petite, they dont look much alike, so they established characteristic gestures for Mona. One, for example, is that she frequently touches her chest — which is related to the fact that she has asthma. She also hugs the store owner in a particular way — turning her cheek to the side on the womans shoulder.

The two worked up a particular laugh for Mona, based on an old video they saw of Marilyn Monroe while they were researching the 1950s, when Mona appears in Giant.

“Its this really great interview where shes completely aloof and has this very distinct laugh,” Lian said.

“We thought it was how Mona might perform a laugh, as opposed to laughing,” Lichwick said. “In what Im doing Im trying to show Mona developing the movements that will later become her go-to gestures.”

Lian said the role was a challenging one for her because she is on stage for the entire play, even when Lichwick is acting out scenes from Monas past.

“In most plays I have scenes,” Lian said. “I go offstage and prepare and go back on, but this is like a two-hour scene. Its also hard seeing Marissa act out memories from the past while I stay in the present. There are a lot of things going on and its hard to keep track of them sometimes.”

For Lichwick, Monas journey from innocence to experience is difficult. “I come in with a joie de vivre, but then slowly navigate to darker places,” she said. “Emotionally, its been challenging. I compare Mona to Blanche DuBois (a famous character from A Streetcar Named Desire).”

Lian agreed. “She can be related to Blanche in this desperate need to uphold an image, the lies shes told over and over so that she can maintain the reality that shes set up, and in her disillusionment.”

Both women said theyve enjoyed the nearly all-female cast of Jimmy Dean.

“Its been a very nurturing environment,” Lian said. “I thought it might get really girly, but its just been very solid.”

And though the play was written by a man, Ed Graczyk, they both feel that hes captured the essence of the characters.

“I feel the arc of the characters is complete,” Lichwick said. “Their emotional life is complete, the complexity is well nuanced.”

Finque, the director, calls Jimmy Dean “perfectly structured in its storytelling, arresting in a carefully crafted balance of comedy and tragedy, with multiple plots entwined, secrets revealed, and change made possible… it ultimately sings the triumphant song of self-reliance and personal courage in the face of lies and denial. This is a play about truth and the courage needed to tell it.”

Tickets for Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean are $10 for previews, $17 on Friday and Saturday and $15 all other performances. There is a discount for students, seniors, UW employees and alumni association members. Tickets are available at the Arts Ticket Office, 206-543-4880. Further information is available online.