For Elmhurst actor Kate Troc, performing in Greenman Theatre’s “Nickel and Dimed” — a harrowing docudrama about surviving on minum wage — isn’t really about pretend.
As a seventh grader, Troc was working the graveyard shift at a Dunkin’ Donuts near Midway Airport, which she admits was “totally illegal” but also urgently necessary. In Joan Holden’s adaptation of Barbara Ehrenreich’s 1996 book “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America” the characters are in similar straits; working for pennies and a sick day away from homelessness or hunger.
GreenMan opens the production, directed by Jack Smith, on Nov. 11. Troc plays Ehrenreich, depicting the investigative reporter’s brutal year of working minimum wage jobs in 1996.
“The whole play resonates with me,” says Troc. “I started working in seventh grade and never stopped. I left home in my teens. I was a young single mom. I know exactly what it’s like to have to choose between staying home and making sure your child is safe and having to go to work so you can feed your child.”
Ehrenreich’s book is a page turner, her interviews disturbing. There’s the woman who simply cannot afford childcare, and has to lock her young children in a closet — with mattresses, blankets, food and water — while she goes to work at her third job as a nightshift cleaning lady. There’s the “personality tests” employers use to screen employees and that often freeze out anybody who doesn’t have a high-level education. And there’s the relentless wheel that results from having to work so many hours a week that you just don’t have the time or the energy or the means to apply to school, study for a GED or explore avenues that might lead to something better.
As the production’s director, Smith also had a strong reaction to the play.
“It’s changed how I perceive people,” he says, “I used to not leave money for the housekeepers at hotels. Now I always do. When I’m tipping, I round up now. I’m more patient than I used to be when I think I’m not getting my food fast enough.”
Like Troc, Smith has had his share of minimum wage jobs, although he stresses his experience was nothing like those in “Nickel and Dimed.”
“I never had the experience of working for minimum wage and having to use that money to pay for shelter or to keep myself fed,” he says, “I would bet that most people in are audience haven’t either. But I want people to see how others live, others who aren’t in their same situations. I want us all to have a little more humanity for each other. This isn’t a political issue, it’s not about being red or blue. It’s a people situation. If you can relate, you can maybe help fix it.”
Troc’s situation has changed since her days working for minimum wage or less as a beautician, overnight donut maker, retail saleswoman and any other gig she could secure in between caring for her daughter. Her daughter is now 17. Troc was just downsized, after years in a well-paying corporate career that involved traveling the globe to ensure the stores of a well-known clothing company were running smoothly. “This is the first time I can remember that I haven’t been working,” she says. “It’s weird. But I can afford to take a little break right now, so I’m going to.”
GreenMan Theatre presents, ‘Nickel and Dimed’
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When: Nov. 11-20
Where: First United Methodist Church, 232 S. York, Elmhurst
Tickets: $17; $15 for seniors and students
Contact: 630-464-2646; Greenmantheatre.org