UA Play “Nickel and Dimed” Looks at Low-Wage Existence

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama Women’s Resource Center and Women Involved in Learning and Leading are sponsoring a staged reading of the play “Nickel and Dimed” based on the acclaimed novel by Barbara Ehrenreich, “Nickel and Dimed on (Not) Getting by in America,” on Wednesday, Nov. 28 in the Ferguson Center Theater at 6 p.m.

Ehrenreich’s book has become well known in university classrooms and book clubs across the country as a way to foster understanding of the life of the working class. The staged reading of “Nickel and Dimed” will give students and other members of the UA community an opportunity to see the difficulties of surviving on low-wage employment income.

Ehrenreich, a journalist who went “undercover” to work as a waitress, a hotel maid, a cleaning woman, a nursing home aide and a Wal-Mart sales clerk for the book, challenges the notion of “unskilled” labor. Written as an exposé, Ehrenreich attempts to combat the “too lazy to work” and “a job will defeat poverty” ideals espoused in some political rhetoric. Suggesting problems with the argument, Ehrenreich highlights many of the difficulties people have working jobs that pay low wages through witty dialogue and situation descriptions.

This performance is one of the WILL service projects developed in conjunction with the WRC and the department of women’s studies. All members of the campus and community are invited to participate. For more information call the WRC at 205/348-5040.