JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN Next Up for ACT 1 at Darkhorse Theater

Melissa Williams, longtime Nashville theater veteran, directs the final show of ACT 1's 2015-16 season - Ed Graczyk's Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean - running at Darkhorse Theater May 6-21.

"In a small town dime store in West Texas, the "Disciples of James Dean" gather for their 20threunion. Now middle-aged women, they were teenagers when Dean filmed Giant two decades earlier in nearby Marfa. One of them, an extra in the film, has a child whom she says was conceived with Dean during the shoot. The ladies' congenial reminiscences mingle with flashbacks to their youth; then the arrival of a stunning but familiar stranger sets off a series of confrontations that smash their delusions and expose bitter disappointments," according to a press release from ACT 1.

Williams has pulled together a versatile cast to tell a story that's really about change: How some experience it, and some ignore the concept altogether. Her cast includes Adele Akin (a veteran of an earlier Circle Players production of the play) as Juanita, Memory Strong as Mona, Laurel Baker Harrison as Sissy, Anastasia Zavaro as Joanne, Kathleen Jaffe as Stella May, Molly Breen asEdna, William Welch as Joe, Kristin Bunge Parsons as Mona (Then) and Jenni Marie Chemay Cadaret as Sissy (Then.

Show dates are May 6-21, at the Darkhorse Theater, 4610 Charlotte Avenue. Curtain for Thursday-Saturday shows is at 7:30 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 5:30 p.m. The house opens a half hour prior to curtain. Tickets are $15 each, and can be purchased at the door, or at www.tickets.act1online.com.

During the run of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, ACT 1 will continue its ACT 1 One Act Wednesdays on May 11 and 18 with Caroline Harding's Two Sisters, directed by Doug C. Allen, with Megan Blevins as Anya, Cat Arnold as Sonia and Matt Smith playing violin as Krepikov; Erin Davidson's Legs, directed by Madeleine Hicks, with Steve Parnell as Dr. Foote, Andrea Crowe as Mrs. Smart, Kelsey Blackwell as Cara, and Chelsea Bell as Nurse Combs.; and Edward Albee's The Zoo Story, directed by Dave McGinnis, with David Bayer as Jerry and Patrick Goedicke as Peter.

Tickets are $5 cash at the door, and ACT 1 One Act Wednesday playbills will allow audience members to get $5 off a regular priced showing of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.