Bangkok Community Theatre holds regular weekday evening online play readings at 7:30pm. Each week we choose a new script and share it with the participants in advance. Then we get together and read the play aloud on zoom, regularly switching up the roles so that everyone gets a chance to read, if they wish. Some BCT friends don’t want to read; they just like to listen. That’s okay, too.
These play readings are open to anyone who wants to join age 16+! Just email: RSVP@bangkokcommunitytheatre.com to get the link. It’s free and a great way to meet some other people who enjoy live theatre and to practice your performing skills as well.. Please join us; tell your friends.
On Tuesday, April 27, 2021 at 7:30pm (7:15 sign in), please join us to read Ed Graczyk’s 70’s hit “Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean”
ABOUT THE PLAY
“Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean” is a 1976 play by Ed Graczyk, originally performed at the Players’ Theater in Columbus, Ohio. Despite the interpretation of the name in the title, it refers to the legendary “Rebel Without a Cause”, James Dean, as opposed to Jimmy Dean, the country-western singer who had a hit in 1961 with Big Bad John. The play, in fact, revolves around a James Dean fan club that reunites at a Texas five-and-dime store.
In 1982, filmmaker Robert Altman directed both a Broadway version at the Martin Beck Theater[2] and a film adaptation of the same name. Altman’s version of the play was not well-received with critics at the time.[3]:89
Synopsis
In “Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean,” an all-female fan club called the Disciples of James Dean meets at a Woolworths five-and-dime branch in McCarthy, Texas.The group reunites in 1975 to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of Dean’s death. (In 1955, the actor was filming Giant in Marfa, not far from where the store stands.)