Four year ago, rehearsals had just begun for "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat" when word came that the drummer's 5-year-old daughter had been diagnosed with leukemia.

The news devastated the cast and crew at Sheridan Lutheran Church.

"Within days that little girl became a rallying cry for the production," said director Matthew Works. "Her face and name were burned into our hearts as we daily went about making it the most memorable show we could."

That year - 2005 - all proceeds from the show went to defray the medical costs facing Kerstin Leaf and her family.

So why, just four years later, is Sheridan Lutheran once again making "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat" its dinner theater production?

The musical is one of the most successful collaborations between Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, Works said.

It is also a timeless, biblically based parable about following your dreams and believing in God, even when bad things happen, he said.

So this year, when Joseph seems to lose all hope of salvation, a small voice will sing out from the choir: "Hey Joseph, you're not beaten yet."

Those words will be sung by Kerstin Leaf, who is now 9 and has been cancer free for the past three years.

"I believe in redemption and in a God who loves us most dearly," Works said. "I believe that we, each of us, have a responsibility to acknowledge God's touch in our lives and to celebrate it when when we can.

"What better opportunity than to bring Joseph ... back, only this time with the child whose plight so touched the last performance, singing those powerful words."

The musical will be performed Thursday, Friday, Nov. 14 and Nov. 19-21 at the church.

Sheridan Lutheran began its yearly dinner theater benefit in 2004. Since then it has raised money for various organizations, including City Impact and the church-sponsored Barnabus Project.

This year's show features the largest cast ever to take the Sheridan stage - 47 performers and a 13-piece orchestra. Dinner is provided by Noodles & Co. The Lincoln Juggling Club will provide dinner-time entertainment.

Proceeds from the show will go to the Lincoln Food Bank BackPack Program, which provided backpacks filled with nutritious and easy-to-prepare foods to low-income elementary students for meals on weekends and during school breaks.

Sheridan Lutheran Church sponsors backpacks for 135 children at Holmes and Arnold elementary schools.

The BackPack Program, started in 2004-05 with 50 students at Clinton Elementary, now serves more than 2,000 students in 22 Lincoln Public Schools, four Lincoln Catholic schools and 12 rural communities in Southeast Nebraska.

Despite the program's rapid growth, the need is much greater, according to the Food Bank. There are 5,584 LPS elementary students enrolled in the free lunch program, and 8,741 Lancaster County children under age 18 below the poverty line, according to 2006 Census reports.

For more information on the BackPack Program, call the Food Bank at 466-8170 or visit www.lincolnfood bank.org.

Reach Erin Andersen at 473-7217 or eandersen@journalstar.com.