A '9 to 5' love letter

For Luis Alfonso Castro, directing “9 to 5” at Las Cruces Community Theatre was never just about putting on a musical.

The production had lived in his head for years before rehearsals ever began — before the auditions, before the music filled the theater, before his sister stood under the lights singing Judy Bernly’s emotional anthem, “Get Out and Stay Out.” Long before all of that, Castro already knew why he wanted to tell this story.

“It’s really I wanted to do it as a love letter to all the strong women in my life,” he said. “Because they’ve done so much for me. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here. And I wouldn’t be who I am today.”

The musical adaptation of the beloved 1980 film follows three women navigating sexism, survival and self-worth inside a toxic office culture. But for Castro, the emotional center of the story has always been Judy, the nervous newcomer who slowly discovers her own strength after years of defining herself through other people. He saw someone familiar in her. His mother, Ann Marie Vasquez.

And now, in this production, Judy is being played by his sister, Bianca Marie Castro. That connection gives the show a weight that extends far beyond community theater.

“The reason Judy Bernley is such an important character in my life is because it reminds me of the struggles that my mom went through,” Castro said. “If Bianca could ever play Judy, I feel like allowing my mom to see the growth that that character made could maybe just heal her a little bit and show her, ‘You did this. We saw you do this. And we’re so proud of you.’”

Castro remembers watching his mother spend much of her life carrying responsibilities for everyone around her. She became a mother at 18. She worked. She provided. She moved from one role to another — daughter, wife, mother, caregiver — often without space to discover who she was outside those identities.

That is what makes Judy resonate so deeply with him.

“She went straight from being a daughter and a granddaughter to being a girlfriend, to being a mom, to being a wife,” Castro said. “She never really got the time to live her life and figure out who she was. And I feel like that is what Judy is.”

The parallels are impossible for Bianca to ignore as she steps into the role.

At first, theater itself terrified her. Her older brother fell in love with performing long before she did. She would watch him onstage while convincing herself she could never do the same thing. But it was different with singing. That was a safe space for her.

“I have been singing since I was about two years old,” Bianca said. “The singing part was always like, yes, I can do that. But when it came to the acting part, I was like, ‘Oh no, I don’t think I can do that.’”

Even when she first auditioned at the community theater, she said her brother practically dragged her through the door. Then something changed. Show after show, she kept returning.

Part of that evolution came when she stopped thinking about performing as simply entertainment and started finding pieces of herself inside the characters she played. She remembers feeling that shift during “Sister Act,” while portraying Mary Roberts and singing “The Life I Never Led” during a period when her own life was changing dramatically.

“It was the first time where I was like, I’m really having that connection with this character,” she said. “So now I want to play the characters that have a strong meaning for me.”

Judy became one of those characters long before this production existed.

Bianca said she had been singing “Get Out and Stay Out” since high school, drawn to the emotional release buried inside the song. Now she has to perform it in front of an audience, and in front of her mother. That changes the stakes.

“It’s harder for me,” Bianca admitted. “Not only do I want to touch my mom’s heart with this performance, I want to touch all the other women that have been going through the same thing.”

She thinks about women who stayed too long. Women who left but still carry guilt. Women who never learned how to see themselves outside the people they spent years taking care of.

“I want to leave that mark on them,” she said. “Like, ‘Hey, you guys did that.’”

Ann Marie Vasquez listens quietly as her children describe seeing her story reflected in Judy’s journey. She remains visibly uncomfortable centering herself in the conversation.

“I’m very private about everything,” she said softly. “But yeah, they did see.”

Mostly, she talks about her children. About Luis spending months listening to the soundtrack and mentally building scenes before rehearsals even begin. About Bianca discovering confidence on stage she once doubted she possessed. About watching them transform into entirely different people once the lights come up.

“The spotlight hit her, and I said, ‘Girl, you belong up there,’” she said of Bianca.

Luis laughs when his mother describes the way theater occupies his brain constantly. But the emotional honesty she describes is exactly what he pushes for inside rehearsal rooms. For him, musical theater is not about impressive vocals alone. It is about emotional truth.

“I want people to feel something,” he said. “I want you to go on these journeys with these characters and really feel how they’re feeling.”

That is part of why he believes the stage version of “9 to 5” hits differently than the film. The movie leans heavily into comedy and caricature, he said. The musical slows down enough to let audiences understand the emotional lives underneath the jokes — not just Judy, but Violet and Doralee too.

“You don’t view them as caricatures anymore,” Castro said. “You view them as real people in the show.”

He sees that emotional grounding in his cast, especially in the chemistry between the three women at the center of the story. He deliberately searched for performers who could feel like genuine friends from the moment auditions began.

Because ultimately, the story is not about one woman alone. It is about women finding strength together. That, more than anything else, is what he hopes audiences carry with them when the lights come up.

“I want you to experience just the power of people coming together,” he said. “They realize they don’t have to live like that anymore. They come together and make something beautiful.”

Somewhere inside that story is a son honoring his mother. A daughter trying to do justice to the women she has watched fight their way forward.

And a family discovering that a musical comedy they once loved has become something much more personal — a reflection of the life they lived together long before the curtain ever rose.

The LCCT production of Dolly Parton's “9 to 5 the Musical” opens on May 29. It closes June 14. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays. Cast: VIOLET NEWSTEAD: Victoria Gier DORALEE RHODES: Peyton Womble JUDY BERNLY: Bianca Marie Castro FRANKLIN HART, JR: Samuel Smith ROZ KEITH: Janet Beatty-Cold JOE WRIGHT: Christian G. Nieves DWAYNE RHODES: Mikey Tongko JOSH NEWSTEAD: Simon Biad MISSY HART: Kate Conrad DICK BERNLY: Christopher Quezada BOB ENRIGHT: Edward Leyva RUSSELL TINSWORTHY: Bob Alvarez MARIA: Laura Roper KATHY: Zeta Shearill MARGARET: Nora Brown DETECTIVE: Benjamin Bever DOCTOR: Matthew Power CANDY STRIPER: Kacie Bauer INTERN: Calie Rivas NURSES: Charlie Bever and Penny Bever NEW EMPLOYEE: Destiny Rios or Astoria Carson MALE ENSEMBLE: Bob Alvarez, Benjamin Bever, Simon Biad, Edward Leyva, Matthew Power and Mikey Tongko FEMALE ENSEMBLE: Kacie Bauer, Charlie Bever, Penny Bever, Nora Brown, Kate Conrad, Calie Rivas, Laura Roper and Zeta Shearill