Nickel and Dimed

by Joan Holden

Based on the book  Nickel and Dimed:

On (Not) Getting by in America 

by Barbara Ehrenreich.

Directed by Cynthia Levin

Featuring 

     Peggy Friesen, Cheryl Weaver, Lynn King, Jennifer Aguilar, Katie Kalahurka and David Frittts

March 9-April 1, 2007
PREVIEWS March 7th and 8th

Talk Back Performances March 13, 18 and 20

About the Play  Playwright & Author  Director  Cast  Reviews PRESS  Tickets & Times  Special Thanks 

         

In 1998, journalist Barbara Ehrenreich went undercover for Harper's Magazine to see how the other half really lived.  The result was her book, Nickel and Dimed:  On (Not) Getting by in America.  For months she traveled across the country, from one minimum wage job to another, discovering that the lowliest and lowest-paying jobs often require the most effort.  Playwright Joan Holden has skillfully transformed Ehrenreich's account into a humorous and touching tale of the working poor.

Photos by Cynthia Levin

 

Joan Holden (Playwright) was the principal playwright for the Tony Award-winning San Francisco Mime Troupe (which creates plays, not pantomime) from 1970 to 2000 where she wrote or co-wrote almost three dozen “serious farces” about social issues.  Her latest project, Mall-Mart, The Musical, for which she wrote the book, will premiere at the Curious Theatre in Denver, Colorado in April 2007.  Holden is also a translator and adapter of comedies by Ben Johnson, Moliere, Beaumarchais, Dario Fo, and Carlo Goldoni for companies including Berkely Repertory Theatre, Eureka Theatre, and American Conservatory Theater.  She has created shows worldwide, and worked with a group of Israelis, Palestinians, American Jews, and Palestinian-Americans to write the Mime Troupe’s Obie-winning Seeing Double, a call for peaceful compromise in the form of a mistaken-identity farce.  Joan Holden’s honors include Rockefeller and Gerbode Foundation playwriting grants, Bay Area Critic’s Circle and Drama-Logue Awards, San Francisco Working Women’s Festival’s “Working Woman of the Year” Award and, with the Mime Troupe, the San Francisco Media Alliance Golden Gadfly Award

 

Barbara Ehrenreich (Author), as a social activist and feminist, has written on the subjects of healthcare, class, families and sex.  Originally a biologist who earned her Ph.D. from Rockefeller University, Ehrenreich became involved in political activism during the Vietnam War.  She co-wrote her first book, Long March, Short Spring the Student Uprising at Home and Abroad (1969), with her husband, in response to the war.  Ehrenreich has written professionally ever since.  Her articles, reviews, essays and humor have appeared in Time, The New York Times Magazine and The Wall Street Journal, to name only a few.  Among her most well-respected and controversial books are The American Health Empire:  Power, Profits, and Politics (1971), For Her Own Good:  One Hundred Fifty Years of the Expert’s Advice to Women (1978), and The Hearts of Men:  American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment (1983).

 

Cynthia Levin (Director) is in her 28th season with the Unicorn Theatre where she has worked as a director, actor, designer or producer for 200 productions. In addition to managing the Unicorn, she stays busy tending her 3 story Victorian home (and gardens), 2 wonderful dogs and one very mischievous cat.  Most recently she directed The Great American Trailer Park Musical, tick, tick…Boom!, Frozen, I Am My Own Wife, Bug, The Exonerated, Convenience, Take Me Out, BatBoy:  The Musical, The Mineola Twins and The Memory of Water at the Unicorn. At the Coterie Theatre she has directed Frankenstein, Gatherings in Graveyards (I and II), Valley Song and To Kill a Mockingbird and for the graduate program at UMKC she has directed My Mother Said I Never Should.  Some other recent favorites include Proof, Closer, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Wit, Beauty Queen of Leenane, How I learned to Drive, Having Our Say, Quills, Sylvia, Unidentified Human Remains, Angels in America and the world premieres of How His Bride Came to Abraham, Light:Damage, Mercy Killing, Innocent Thoughts and Jack and Jill.  Cynthia is a graduate of Park University where she was additionally awarded an Honorary Doctorate in 2002. She is also a founding board member of the National New Play Network, an organization dedicated to the development and production of new works. She is the 2006 recipient of the Pinnacle Award for Excellence in the Arts from the Johnson County Library Foundation.

Peggy Friesen (Barbara) continues her long association with Cynthia Levin and Unicorn Theatre, having last appeared in Frozen.  Other Unicorn credits over the years include Spinning into Butter, Wit and Aunt Dan and Lemon.  She has appeared in numerous productions at Kansas City Repertory Theatre including Man and Superman, Indian Ink, A Delicate Balance, Richard III, and The House of Blue Leaves.  Other local productions include The Dinner Party and The Little Foxes (American Heartland Theatre) and The Cripple of Inishmaan (Kansas City Actors Theatre).  Regional credits include Ghosts at Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and The Exonerated at the Contemporary American Theatre Company of Columbus, Ohio.  As a film actress, Peggy has had the fortune to work with Ang Lee (Ride With the Devil) Robert Altman (Kansas City) and Stephen Soderberg (King of the Hill).  A classically trained musician, Peggy plays both Concert and Irish Harp in the Brookside home she shares with husband, Royal Scanlon.

 

Cheryl Weaver (Gail) is most excited to work with this talented cast on such important material.  This is production number nine for Cheryl at the Unicorn Theatre.  Previous Unicorn productions include last season's critically acclaimed Frozen, and Spinning into Butter (both with the wonderful Peggy Friesen), Sideman and The Memory of Water  (with terrific David Fritts) Other favorite productions:  Jack and Jill, As Bees In Honey Drown, Closer, and The Mineola Twins. Elsewhere around town, Cheryl received praise for her portrayal of Jessie Mae in the KC Repertory production of The Trip to Bountiful last spring.  Other Rep productions include The Voysey Inheritance, Living Out, and A Christmas Carol.  She has performed at the American Heartland Theatre (Dinner Party, Mousetrap, Play it Again and Sam), The Coterie (Little House on the Prairie and Gathering in Graveyards) The New Theatre (Rumors, Moon Over Buffalo and Social Security) and The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival (Love's Labor's Lost and Measure for Measure)She lives in Lawrence with her husband, Doug, and dog, Frankie. Her son, Ian, is a freshman at KU.  I would like to dedicate this performance to the beautiful Betsy Robbins, my "sister" onstage, and friend always.

 

Lynn King (Carlie) delighted to be back on the Unicorn stage, was last seen in Permanent Collection.  Other Unicorn favorites include Flyin’ West, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Jar the Floor, Betrayal of the Black Jesus and Bee Luther Hatchee.  A Kansas City native and no stranger to local audiences, Lynn has appeared at Theatre for Young America, with In Play Theatre Co., Coterie Theatre, New Theatre Restaurant, KC Repertory Theatre, with Johnson County Community College Theatre Dept. and most recently the UMKC theatre department (her alma mater) in their production of Boseman and Lena.  Lynn was honored with a Best in KC award for acting in 2003.  Lynn is grateful for each blessing, sincerely thanks her family and friends for their continued support.  Special thanks to Cynthia and Dennis.

 

Jennifer Aguilar (Hector) is ECSTATIC, not only to be working, but to be working again at the Unicorn Theatre! It has been almost four years since Jennifer last performed.  Her credits include; Marvin and Mel at The New Theatre; The Laramie Project and Mud, River, Stone at The Unicorn; and Black Butterfly at The Coterie. She has lent her voice to numerous radio and television commercials and will appear in Sea Monsters this fall, an IMAX film. Jennifer is a native Houstonian and graduate of The University of Houston, Texas. She now resides in Overland Park with her husband Steve and lovely daughters, Sofia 7, Gabriela 2, and Tatiana 2.  Special thanks to her Mom and Dad.

 

 

Katie Kalahurka (Joan) is thrilled to have the honor of working at the Unicorn for the very first time. Originally from Kansas City, Katie recently moved to New York City. She holds a BFA in Music Theatre from Illinois Wesleyan University. Some of her favorite regional credits include Oklahoma (Ado Annie), Gypsy (Tessie Tura), Smoke on the Mountain (June), and Nunsense (Amnesia). She would like to thank her friends and family who have, in the past, driven across the country to see her shows. Now they can finally see her at home! Enjoy the show!

 

David Fritts (George) is a Kansas City Actor who is very happy to be back for his 19^th show at the unicorn (he couldn’t believe it either).  Those shows include The Exonerated, Art, The Memory of Water, Side Man, Desert Holiday, Unidentified Human Remains, Angels in America I & II, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Mojo, The Swan, Molly Sweeney and Baltimore Waltz.  Other recent credits include Talley’s Folly and Talley and Son with the Kansas City Actor’s Theatre, Leading Ladies, Driving Miss Daisy and On Golden Pond with the New Theatre and Much Ado About Nothing and Julius Caesar with the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival.

 

Posted Sunday March 11, 2007

The Kansas City Star

THEATER REVIEW | Socio-political satire is a reasonably absorbing couple of hours

A strong sense of the absurd (Click to read)

By Robert Trussell

Posted Thursday March 15, 2007

The Pitch

PAY CHECK

The Unicorn's Nickel and Dimed is too shiny (Click to read)

By Alan Scherstuhl

Posted Saturday March 10, 2007

Kansas City InfoZine

Nickel and Dimed at the unicorn Theatre, Review

By Frank C. Siraguso 

                                                                                            

Bourgeois, left swell takes to the mean streets to work amongst the hoi polloi. (click to read)

Posted Sunday March 11, 2007

The Kansas City Star

STAGE | 'Nickel and Dimed'

Real-Life Currency (Click to read)

Cast cashes in on personal experiences to portray roles in this Unicorn production.

By Robert Trussell

 

Posted Thursday March 8, 2007

KCUR

Nickel and Dimed takes Stage at the Unicorn (Click to listen)

By Steve Walker

 

Posted Wednesday March 7, 2007

The Kansas City Star

TODAY IN KC | Brian McTavish

Minimum Wage, Maximum Theater

With any luck, working for the minimum wage is an experience that begins... (Click to read)

 

Posted Friday February 23, 2007

Kansas City InfoZine  

                                                                                            

Unicorn Joins Debate on Minimum Wage, Nickel and Dimed by Joan Holden (click to read)

Buy Tickets Online! or call 816-531-PLAY x 10

Box Office Hours:

Monday-Friday 10-5pm

Saturday 12-4pm (During the run of the show)

 

 Unicorn Theatre offers $5.00 off for senior citizens and full-time students (with valid I.D.). Group rates are available, and students with valid I.D. can purchase Rush Tickets for $7.00 five minutes before curtain (based on availability)

SPECIAL THANKS
to those who generously donated their time, talents and services to this production:

Underwriting Support provided by

and

  The Mollie and Frank Zoglin and Sons Family Fund for the Arts.

Bungalow Creative

Financial assistance has been provided by Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

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