Center Stage Conservatory: Nickel and Dimed

The month of June brought "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America" to the Center Stage Conservatory Lower Level Studio. the show ran June 7-23 with shows on Friday and Saturday nights as well as Sunday afternoons.

The play, based on the novel by Barbara Eherenreich, follows a woman on her journeys through life among the working poor. the woman, the novel's author, sets out on these journeys to see what life is really like for those working jobs such as store clerks, waitresses, and housecleaners.

Carin Heidelbach portrays Barbara realistcally and brings these journeys to life in an incredibly engaging manner. Even when other actresses purposely break the fourth wall, the audience can see her as Barbara. Her portrayal is raw and accurate.

The supporting cast assists in this realism. The set, too, brings a real feel to the stories. the set is simple, with walls covered in newspaper advertisements and handmade signs to represent the places where Barbara works. wood boxes are used to create the rest of each set for each of the businesses. they are rearranged for each scene. A boy with a sign marks each scene change as another boy plays the saxophone. Scene changes continue the feel of the play through all three acts.

Barbara begins as a waitress in Key West, Florida where she earns $2.15 per hour, plus tips. She finds that she must take on a second job in order to make her rent of $600 per month. Eventually, she leaves both jobs and flees the area so close to her real home. She heads to Maine where she struggles working as a housecleaner among a group of women working for a franchise of a major corporation. Ultimately, Barbara speaks her mind to the point that she not only walks away from her job, but loses the companionship of her fellow housecleaners in the process.

The final act takes us to Minnesota where Barbara takes a job at a corporate "big box store" carefully portrayed in the play as "Mal Mart." There she makes $7 per hour. She struggles to find housing, but finds a friend in a fellow Mal Mart employee.

All of the journeys teach something about life among the working poor. Personal relationships were a huge part. Struggling to make ends meet affected all of the families, even those where a spouse worked a "good" job. The play gets across a very real look at life among the working poor and alternates between making the audience roll with laughter and cry.

The supporting cast all put on amazing performances, but two actors especially stood out. Elda M. Coleman (who did an outstanding job earlier this year in the same theatre's production of "The Vagina Monologues") did an especially good job as the seasoned waitress who guided Barbara through her first low-paying job. Kyle Duval portrayed four very different characters and it was difficult to see that the same actor portrayed each of the characters. His portrayal of "George," an Eastern European immigrant, required minimal talking but superb acting. In stark contrast, he also brought to life the character of Ted who ran the franchise of the corporate cleaning business where Barbara worked in Maine. Ted had a great deal to say with a sort of cockiness that was necessary to show the difference between franchise owner and franchise employee.

Center Stage Conservatory puts on more unique shows and does its part to support the arts in the Modesto area. Their youth program helps promote arts education among area youth. They take their mission beyond the arts, though, as well. For example, their production of "The Vagina Monologues" benefited Haven Women's Center in Modesto. Upcoming productions include "Seven Day Play Festival" August 16-18, "References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot" September 6-22, and "The Mystery of Irma Vep" October 18-November 3. For more information on the Center Stage Conservatory, visit their website at centerstagemodesto.com.