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A FRESH LOOK
Look to FRESH PRODUCE for new works, new looks at old works, and, most importantly, an ever-widening range of voices that speak to the Midwestern experience. "Concert Reading?" What's That?
Using lecterns, a stage-directions narrator, and no technical elements, these readings focus entirely on the story and the actors--literally, the play's voices. |
ALWAYS FREE!
These concert readings, developed by artists from around the Midwest, are just as professional and compelling, but slightly more economical than our major productions. Therefore, in the interest of making live theatre more accessible, these concerts will have NO admission charges. DON'T MISS THESE! |
SynopsisMiddle-aged, middle-class Barbara goes undercover to experience life as a low-wage service worker. She attempts living in different cities working as a waitress, motel maid, house cleaner, and more. What she learns is that it is even harder than she anticipated and one job alone won’t pay the bills. Nickel and Dimed by Joan Holden is a comedic take on the award-winning book of the same title by political activist Barbara Ehrenreich.
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ONLINE
SAT. January 30 | 7:30pm SUN. January 31 | 2:00pm* *Talk back with cast & company to follow ALWAYS FREE! |
The Company
DIRECTING Simpson College: Silent Sky, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, These Shining Lives, Noises Off. ACTING Stage West: Vanya, Sonya, Masha, and Spike and Dancing at Lughnasa. Des Moines Playhouse: Little Woman, Sabrina Fair. DIALECT/VOICE COACH TheatreMidwest: The Friendly Hour. Des Moines Playhouse: A Streetcar Named Desire, Metamorphosis and Dinner with Friends. Stage West: Cock. VOICEOVER Hummel's Nissan, Well Fargo, John Deere, EMC, Mediacom, GMAC, Dupont. PROFESSIONAL Simpson College: Assistant Professor of Theatre, Head of Theatre Department Recruitment and Educational Outreach Program. EDUCATION University of Nebraska-Lincoln: MFA - Acting.
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CAST
Barbara --- Nadine Schmidt Narrator --- Erin Tracy Ensemble Actor --- Siobhan Bremer Ensemble Actor --- Brandon Herring Ensemble Actor --- Meghan Leckband Ensemble Actor --- Princess Winters Ensemble Actor --- Andrea Leguizamon Ensemble Actor --- Gillian Randall PRODUCTION CREW Director --- Ann Woldt Stage Manager --- Katie Buchholz Dramaturg --- Eliz Tomaras Interim TMW Production Manager --- Katie Buchholz Interim TMW Business Manager --- Eliz Tomaras Vertical Divider
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Nadine Purvis Schmidt (Barbara)
THEATRE: TheatreSquared: Superior Donuts. Bare Bodkins Theatre Company: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, The Winter’s Tale, Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest. Cleveland Shakespeare Festival: As You Like It, Henry IV. Land Stewardship Project: Look Who’s Knockin’. BUSINESS Southwest Minnesota State University: Professor of Theatre, Director, Producer, Theatre Program Coordinator. EDUCATION: MFA in Acting, University of Arkansas 
Brandon Herring (Ensemble Actor)
(George, Boyfriend, Pete, Ted, Howard, Man +) ACTING - Hampstead Stage Company: Alice in Wonderland, Hansel and Gretel. Okoboji Summer Theatre: Happily Ever After: A Wedding Comedy. North Dakota Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing, Unrehearsed Shakespeare: Macbeth. Prairie Repertory Theatre: The Little Mermaid, The Fox on the Fairway. Starry Night Repertory Theatre: All in the Timing. Western Illinois University: Richard II, Arcadia, Stupid F***ing Bird, Unreharsed Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing, Proof, The Drowsy Chaperone, One Man, Two Guvnors, Sense and Sensibility, November. BUSINESS: Assistant Drama Director - Hoover High School. EDUCATION: MFA Acting - Western Illinois University. BA Theatre Arts - Simpson College. 
Gillian Randall (Ensemble Actor)
(Joan, Holly, Teen, Server 2 +) THEATRE: Twin Cities - WAR Theatre (Company Member): Beat. (Minnesota Fringe Festival). Lakeshore Players: One Man, Two Guvnors. Shakespeare and Company: Henry IV pt I, Much Ado About Nothing. House of Mercy Podcast Series - in production. Chicago - Oak Park Festival Theatre: Taming of the Shrew. Iowa - Theatre Simpson: Noises Off, Pericles, Memory of Water, Lysistrata Jones the Musical. Des Moines Young Artist: Stop Kiss. Ingersol Dinner Theatre. 
Eliz Tomaras (Dramaturg)
STAGE MANAGEMENT - Theatre Simpson: A Year With Frog and Toad, The Servant of Two Masters, Fall From Grace (Festival of Short Plays 2011) DESIGN - - Theatre Simpson: Back Story, Betrayal, Women Beware Women, Festival of Short Plays 2012. ACTING - - Theatre Simpson: Henry 5, Peer Gynt |
Siobhan Bremer (Ensemble Actor)
(Gail, Winn Dixie Manager, Social Worker, Marge +) ACTING - Black Hills Playhouse: Steel Magnolias, The Best Man, Shrek the Musical. (SD) South Dakota Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (SD). Paul Bunyan Playhouse: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Leaving Iowa (MN). Commonweal Theatre: John Gabriel Borkman (MN). Guthrie Theater: The Sunshine Boys (MN). Steel Beam Theatre: Don’t Drink the Water (IL). Old Log Theatre: Jack and the Beanstalk (MN). Festival Theatre: Little Women (WI). Northern Lights Playhouse: The Mousetrap, Oklahoma! (MN), Theatre in the Round: Appointment with Death (MN). ONLINE CONCERT READINGS - Beyond Boundaries: Wind in the Willows (UK). BUSINESS-Associate Professor of Theatre, University of Minnesota Morris. EDUCATION- Minnesota State University, Mankato, MFA Acting. DIRECTING: ACADEMIC University of Minnesota Morris: Alone, Together (ONLINE), Hunting and Gathering, Eleemosynary, Step on a Crack, A Midnight Dreary, Twelfth Night, God of Carnage, Anything Goes, Sophie and the Adventures of Ice Island, Of Mice and Men, A Lie of the Mind, Crimes of the Heart, The Dark Castle, Blithe Spirit, The Hobbit, Sylvia, Medea. Winona State University: Love Song. 
Princess Winters (Ensemble Actor)
(Carlie, Nita, Phil, Nanny, Melissa +) ACTING - 20+ years of stage roles including: Come Back Little Sheba, The Addams Family The Musical. FILM DEFT PRODUCTIONS: Knee High, Domicile. DIRECTING/PRODUCING V-DAY: A Global Movement to End Violence: The Vagina Monologues. 
Erin Tracy (Narrator)
AUDIENCE SERVICES TheatreMidwest: The Friendly Hour; Simpson College: Box Office Manager, House Manager, Audience Services (Undergraduate Assistant.) THEATRE DESIGN Theatre Simpson: Eurydice, Festival of Short Plays, A Year With Frog and Toad; ACTING/DIRECTING Theatre Simpson: Spring Awakening, Necessary Targets, Henry 5, The American Dream, Pride and Prejudice; Carroll Community Theatre: Steel Magnolias, Wizard of Oz, Annie, Peter Pan (Director); Kuemper Catholic High School: Speech Coach, Assistant Musical Director. GRAPHIC/AD DESIGNER The Graphic Edge, Carroll Daily Times Herald, Kingman Row Entertainment, Carroll Library, Donna Reed Foundation, |
Andrea Leguizamon (Ensemble Actor)
(Hector, Maddy, Woman +) ACTING: Aguijon Theater: Exquisita Agonía . Colectivo el pozo: The Building, The Bell tower. Repertorio Latino: The maids, The balcony. FILM: Sin máscaras, Accident pimp, Camazotz. SCHOOL: Attending Stella Adler Conservatory. 
Meghan Leckband (Ensemble Actor)
(Editor, Kim, Cashier, Rich Woman, Customer +) STAGE MANAGEMENT Stage West The Norwegians; LIGHTING DESIGN TheatreMidwest: Brilliant Traces; Simpson College: The Marriage of Figaro, Betrayal; Des Moines Social Club: Fat Pig. ACTING Winterset Stage: The Quiet Man of Kerry; Simpson College: The Glass Menagerie; Spencer Community Theatre: Little Shop of Horrors. BUSINESS Cadence Academy Preschool. AWARDS 2020 Terri Lynn Lokoff National Childcare Teacher Award Winner. EDUCATION Simpson College: BA Theatre and Communications; Upper Iowa University: BA Early Childhood Education and Special Ed 
Katie Buchholz (Stage Manager)
THEATRE PERFORMANCE Theatre Simpson: University, Festival of Short Plays 2011, The Learned Ladies. THEATRE MANAGEMENT Des Moines Performing Arts: Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King (Merchandiser); Theatre Simpson: Festival of Short Plays 2013 & 2012 (Box Office Manager), Alice’s Trip, The Glass Menagerie (House Manager). MULTIMEDIA Iowa Watch: Multimedia Director (Senior Project); Simpson Student Media: Director of Digital Content; Iowa Momentum: Communications Intern. BRAND AMBASSADOR/OTHER Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival: 2020 Bacon Queen; ACTION Talent Group. BUSINESS Businessolver - Interim Supervisor Member Services. EDUCATION BA Multimedia Journalism |
The Playwright
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Joan Holden was principal playwright for the Tony Award-winning San Francisco Mime Troupe from 1967 to 2000 - creating, as author or head writer, a satire a year for the Troupe’s annual summer season in the parks. A select list includes: L’AMANT MILITAIRE; THE INDEPENDENT FEMALE, OR A MAN HAS HIS PRIDE; THE DRAGON LADY’S REVENGE; FALSE PROMISES; THE HOTEL UNIVERSE; the FACTWINO trilogy; 1985; THE MOZAMGOLA CAPER; AMERICANS, OR LAST TANGO IN HUAHUATENANGO; STEELTOWN; RIPPED VAN WINKLE; SEEING DOUBLE; BACK TO NORMAL; SOCIAL WORK; OFFSHORE; and CITY FOR SALE. NICKEL AND DIMED, Holden’s stage adaptation of Barbara Ehrenreich’s best-selling book, was commissioned by the Intiman Theatre in 2002 and has also been produced by a dozen theaters, including the Mark Taper Forum, Trinity Repertory Co., and the Guthrie Theatre, and by the Uppsala Staateater (Sweden). Since the 1980s, Holden has enjoyed a parallel career as a translator and adaptor of comedies, notably THE ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST for the Eureka Theater, THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO and THE POPE AND THE WITCH for the American Conservatory Theater, and VOLPONE and THE ALCHEMIST for the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. With director Dan Chumley, she has created shows in collaboration with artists in Israel, the Philippines, Nepal, and Hong Kong. In 1998 she led a team of Jews and Arabs—Israeli, American, and Palestinian—writing the Troupe’s Obie-winning SEEING DOUBLE, an argument for a two-state solution in the form of a mistaken-identity farce. Holden has served on peer panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Arts Council, and wrote the final report for the 1994 San Francisco Cultural Affairs Task Force, which created the city's Cultural Equity Endowment. She has been honored with Bay Area Critics’ Circle, Dramalogue, Los Angeles Critics’ Circle awards; playwriting grants from the Rockefeller and Gerbode Foundations; the San Francisco Working Women’s Festival Working Woman of the Year award; and, with the Troupe, the San Francisco Media Alliance Golden Gadfly Award.
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Nickel & Dimed was based on the book of the same name by Barbara Ehrenreich.
Barbara Ehrenreich is an American author and political activist who describes herself as "a myth buster by trade" and has been called "a veteran muckraker" by The New Yorker. During the 1980s and early 1990s she was a prominent figure in the Democratic Socialists of America. She is a widely read and award-winning columnist and essayist, and author of 21 books. Ehrenreich is perhaps best known for her 2001 book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. A memoir of Ehrenreich's three-month experiment surviving on minimum wage as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart clerk, it was described by Newsweek magazine as "jarring" and "full of riveting grit," and by The New Yorker as an "exposé" putting "human flesh on the bones of such abstractions as 'living wage' and 'affordable housing'." She has served as visiting professor at the University of Missouri at Columbia and at Sangamon State University in Springfield, Illinois. She was also a writer-in-residence at the Ohio State University. |
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