Regeneration Theater’s production of COME BACK TO THE FIVE & DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN, is scoring high marks on everything from Show-Score to OnStageBlog, who mentioned the fine work done by Lynnsey Lewis and Chris Clark. During their dark night, we caught up with select members to meet them before they resume their performance run.  Tickets on sale at https://comeback.brownpapertickets.com/

 

Tell us about yourself as an artist.

Nicole Greevy (Mona): I am an actor and writer.

Barnaby Edwards (Producer): I simply love theatre and the thrill of bringing together a group of artists to do work that says something, or just entertains and audience. Regeneration Theatre gives me the opportunity to do that and while it can be exhausting work, it is very rewarding.

 

 

Why this piece, this subject? Why now?

Barnaby Edwards (Producer): I was talking to a friend in England about the idea behind Regeneration Theatre a couple of years ago and he mentioned how this was a play that would fit our scheme well.       I had not read it in many years, a few months later I picked it up, and it intrigued me. With all the nonsense going on in the world, from governments trying to control people’s bodies and bathroom habits; the wealth divide; healthcare (check out As Is from Regeneration in Feb 2018 for more on that!), homelessness, education, and gun control, it seemed like a perfect fit for the 2017-18 season which has a very political slant as we follow up last June’s successful production of Kennedy’s Children.

 

 

What is the parable or moral of this play? Who do we feel-for?

Kristin Sgarro (Stella May): We feel for everyone. Each one of these characters has a very rich tapestry that lies beneath their surface, and this play in particular deals with many women who are discovering their own version of womanhood. And that’s the lesson we quickly learn: each woman is different, and has her own unique perspective, qualities, physicality, beliefs, morals… To be a woman is not to fulfill some checklist of ideas. A woman is a person—no more, no less.

Nicole Greevy (Mona): I think this play says some very painful, and truthful, things about honesty and not trying to cling onto the past.  I think it also says a lot about what it means to be a woman.  One of the things I love about it is that the audience’s alliances change, I think, over the course of the play.  These characters love each other, but are also incredibly mean to each other at points.  Which, is also a universal truth- that we often hurt most the people we love most.

 

 

What is your opinion of Indie Theater?

Kristin Sgarro (Stella May): I adore independent theatre—not only for the creative visions that type of theatre puts forth, but especially because it has the unique ability to inspire social change and activism. There is less fear in it, and more bravery, more grit. And I believe this about the New York theatre scene at large: the more experimental we can become, the more honest and more explorative we can be, the more we will in turn discover. And when the audience experiences those twists and turns right along with us…well, that’s just the best thing we artists can give our community.