Premiering next week, new web comedy series "Wage Slaves" takes a hilarious, bittersweet look at life in a Portland coffee shop where "the pay is meager, the humiliation plentiful, and the customers are always wrong." The show also makes a case for how the web could be a new frontier in Portland's entertainment scene.

Trailer: "Wage Slaves"

"The genesis of the show was a desire to figure out how you're supposed to get by when your dreams just won't come true," says creator Chris A. Bolton. "Every bar, restaurant, and coffee shop in Portland has a musician who never signed that record deal, a writer who never published that bestselling novel, a model who never got her break. I wanted to look at how to live the life you never wanted."

"Wage Slaves" is the first web series for the cast and crew, and was "definitely a seat-of-the-pants endeavor," says Bolton. The first season was filmed in the summer of 2008, mostly in Bolton's Southeast Portland apartment, "converted into a house converted into a coffee shop." With Bolton on handicam, a sound mixer, a boom operator or two and equipment loaned by Cooper's Coffee, they sweated through hot work lights, shut windows and temperatures into and past the nineties. The show was edited on a MacBook with Final Cut Express, with the first season's six episodes running about 15 minutes each.

In the series, main character Mitch, played by Morgan Lee, is fresh out of school with a masters degree in creative writing, ready to take the literary world by storm. But for now, he's a barista at the fictional Rose City Coffeehouse. His aloof assistant manager Stacy (Lara Kobrin) has a life that's a "pile-up of bad decisions," and coworker Alicia (Melissa Kaiser) is a struggling actress determined to be happy, even if she's not. Dirk, played by Leif Norby, delights in the pain and torment of others as a disgruntled musician.

Much of the material for the series was collected from real-life experiences of workers at Portland's coffee shops and bars. While Bolton won't reveal which parts are true, "they're probably all the ones you think are made up."

"I love taking vivid characters played by strong actors, bashing them into each other, and watching sparks emerge," Bolton says. "What excites me most is that I'm finally doing something I love. I spent many years submitting screenplays to producers, agents, and contests, hoping for that big break that would allow me to do the things I've always wanted. Finally, I got tired of waiting."

Bolton's currently writing the second season, and hopes to get additional financing to start filming in the fall with better equipment and more crew. Season two may be online as early as the end of the year.

"It feels great just to make something I truly love, that really matters to me, and put it online for people to see."

"Wage Slaves" premieres Tuesday, July 21 at WageSlaveSeries.com. Learn more about the cast and crew on their website.