Productions

Nickel and Dimed: on (NOT) Getting By in America

Playwright and director, Deb Royals-Mizerk directs Joan Holden's theatrical adaptation of social critic Barbara Ehrenreich's best selling book, Nickel and Dimed.

Nickel and Dimed "…helps us make sense of the looking glass land that exists alongside our own, one that we interact with everyday but which so few of us really take the time to see." —Anchorage Press

Millions of Americans work for poverty level wages, work two jobs, and support themselves and their families on less than $8.00 per hour. Contrary to popular belief, laziness has nothing to do with their inability to improve the circumstances of their lives.

The Justice Theater Projects invites you to re-examine some of your own assumptions about American life by attending the North Carolina theatrical premier of Nickel and Dimed.

Nickel and Dimed is the story of the working poor who just barely scrape by cleaning houses, waiting tables, and re-stocking shelves across America.

The play chronicles the real-life journey of Barbara Ehrenreich who spends several months working different low wage jobs and trying to make ends meet on what she earns.

Is it possible to pay rent, get gas, afford child care, or even buy food and clothes on less than $8.00 per hour?

Come find your own answer by joining us for the provocative, terribly real and delightfully funny Nickel and Dimed!

By Barbara Ehrenreich. Adapted by Joan Holden. Directed by Deb Royals-Mizerk.

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Press

Nickel and Dimed Dramatizes Life: Tuesday, November 23

When author and social commentator Barbara Ehrenreich decided to look at the rising tide of poor people in America, she realized that the best way to understand what was so troubling about the situation was to experience it first-hand. So she set a few basic rules for herself and then, leaving her upscale Florida neighborhood and rather confused boyfriend behind her, she set off for places where she would be unrecognized and set about learning what "minimum wage" really meant. The result, which was supposed to be merely a Harper's Magazine article, developed into a full-scale non-fiction book, which spent two years on The New York Times best-seller list.
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