The Guthrie Theater, in Minneapolis, presents Caroline, or Change, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner’s deeply personal story, featuring music by three-time Tony Award-nominated composer Jeanine Tesori (Shrek the Musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie).   Guthrie director/choreographer Marcela Lorca leads a cast of Broadway veterans and Twin Cities theater mainstays, featuring Greta Oglesby as Caroline Thibodeaux. The first of three productions presented as part of the Guthrie’s Kushner Celebration, the acclaimed musical about race, civil rights and coming of age in the South continues through June 21 on the Wurtele Thrust Stage.

Greta Oglesby (Caroline Thibodeaux) and T. Mychael Rambo (The Dryer) in the Guthrie Theater production of CAROLINE, OR CHANGE, book and lyrics by Tony Kushner, music by Jeanine Tesori. Directed by Marcela Lorca, set design by Richard Hoover, costume design by Candice Donnelly, lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger. April 18 – June 21, 2009 on the Wurtele Thrust Stage at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.  2009 © Michal Daniel

Drawn from Kushner’s own childhood, this award-winning musical, set against the backdrop of Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 1963, centers on the relationship between Caroline, a divorced, middle-aged African American maid, and Noah Gellman (played in alternating performances by Fargo, N.D., resident Noah Coon and Rosemount native Ryan McDowell Poehler), the son of the Jewish family for whom she works. As Caroline comes to terms with racial turmoil and the end of segregation, and Noah deals with the death of his mother and his father’s remarriage, the pair struggle to find a place for their friendship.

Jamecia Bennett (The Washing Machine), Felicia Boswell, Aurelia Williams and Lynnea Doublette (The Radio) and Greta Oglesby (Caroline Thibodeaux) in the Guthrie Theater production of CAROLINE, OR CHANGE, book and lyrics by Tony Kushner, music by Jeanine Tesori. Directed by Marcela Lorca, set design by Richard Hoover, costume design by Candice Donnelly, lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger. April 18 – June 21, 2009 on the Wurtele Thrust Stage at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. 2009 © Michal Daniel

The musical opens with Caroline in the very hot basement. Surprisingly, the washing machine opens and out comes a swishing, singing calypso washing machine! The steam dryer also opens - with a large man, dressed in red and black, with a smooth steamy voice. The radio comes alive through three lovely dancing singers. The musical flows with emotion and challenges, between Caroline, the family she works for, and her very own family. The racial and class distinctions of the times are ever-present and, as cultural currents, flow through the entire production.  The singing is incredible, especially from Caroline. Her voice is just magnificent! One particular song had the audience in tears. She's such an incredible actress that viewers feel as if they are LIVING this with her, in her thoughts and life. The Wurtele Thrust Stage is a perfect setting for this, as the audience is wrapped around the stage and feels a part of the action. The setting is very creative- with a gorgeous singing moon up in the sky, a deep hot basement (16 feet underground), a simple bayou house, and more. Kushner's brilliance shines through as the characters struggle with issues both large and small.

Julie Reiber (Rose Stopnick Gellman) and Noah Coon (Noah Gellman) in the Guthrie Theater production of CAROLINE, OR CHANGE, book and lyrics by Tony Kushner, music by Jeanine Tesori. Directed by Marcela Lorca, set design by Richard Hoover, costume design by Candice Donnelly, lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger. April 18 – June 21, 2009 on the Wurtele Thrust Stage at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.
2009 © Michal Daniel

This almost entirely sung musical takes place between the months of November and December in Lake Charles, Louisiana in 1963. As the play begins, Caroline is sitting in the basement of her employers, the Gellmans, doing laundry. She sings that she is living underwater in this basement, since Louisiana is below sea level. The brand new washing machine tries to console her, while the song on the radio shares her woes. Noah, the son of the household enters the basement and tells the audience that he thinks of Caroline as the President of the United States, since she runs everything in his household.

Aimee K. Bryant (The Moon), Zadir King (Joe Thibodeaux), Nikki Renée Daniels (Emmie Thibodeaux), Jackson M. Hurst (Jackie Thibodeaux) and Noah Coon (Noah Gellman) in the Guthrie Theater production of CAROLINE, OR CHANGE, book and lyrics by Tony Kushner, music by Jeanine Tesori. Directed by Marcela Lorca, set design by Richard Hoover, costume design by Candice Donnelly, lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger. April 18 – June 21, 2009 on the Wurtele Thrust Stage at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. 2009 © Michal Daniel

Tony Kushner (book and lyrics), Greta Oglesby (Caroline Thibodeaux), Jamecia Bennett (The Washing Machine) and Marcela Lorca (director) during the opening night curtain call for the Guthrie Theater production of CAROLINE, OR CHANGE, book and lyrics by Tony Kushner, music by Jeanine Tesori. Directed by Marcela Lorca, set design by Richard Hoover, costume design by Candice Donnelly, lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger. April 18 – June 21, 2009 on the Wurtele Thrust Stage at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. 2009 © Michal Daniel

Caroline spends her days working in the solitude of a hot basement, where she shares her thoughts, sorrows and deep hopes with the appliances – The Washing Machine (R&B recording artist Jamecia Bennett), The Dryer (powerhouse baritone and Twin Cities jazz scene mainstay T. Mychael Rambo) and The Radio (the Supremes-like group of Felicia Boswell, Lynnea Doublette and Aurelia Williams) – as well as The Moon (Twin Cities musical theater regular Aimee K. Bryant), inanimate objects which come to life and give voice to Caroline’s inner turmoil.

Jamecia Bennett (The Washing Machine), Aurelia Williams, Lynnea Doublette and Felicia Boswell (The Radio) and Greta Oglesby (Caroline Thibodeaux) in the Guthrie Theater production of CAROLINE, OR CHANGE, book and lyrics by Tony Kushner, music by Jeanine Tesori. Directed by Marcela Lorca, set design by Richard Hoover, costume design by Candice Donnelly, lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger. April 18 – June 21, 2009 on the Wurtele Thrust Stage at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.
2009 © Michal Daniel

With the nation reeling from the burgeoning civil rights movement, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the war in Vietnam, the tide of change begins to affect Caroline’s life, as the beautiful music portrays her personal struggle to move forward. Having already embraced the changing society, her friend Dotty Moffett (local jazz vocalist and Twin Cities theater regular Regina Marie Williams) pushes Caroline to use her inner strength to do the same.
As Chanukah approaches in the Gellman household, Noah’s stepmother Rose (Julie Reiber, standby for Elphaba in the Broadway and Los Angeles casts of Wicked) enlists Caroline’s help in a plan to teach Noah a lesson about leaving change in his pants pocket, telling her to take the change she finds in his pockets at laundry time. When Noah leaves a twenty-dollar bill in his pocket, Caroline is faced with the decision between maintaining her friendship with the boy and using the money to help her own children, Emmie (Nikki Renee Daniels from Broadway’s Les Miserable, Aida), Jackie (in alternating performances by Versell Ford IV and Jackson M. Hurst) and Joe (in alternating performances by Julius Andrews IV and Zadir King).

Kenny Morris (Mr. Stopnick), Julie Reiber (Rose Stopnick Gellman), Ryan McDowell Poehler (Noah Gellman), Michelle Barber (Grandma Gellman), Bradley Greenwald (Stuart Gellman) and Peter Thomson (Grandpa Gellman) in the Guthrie Theater production of CAROLINE, OR CHANGE, book and lyrics by Tony Kushner, music by Jeanine Tesori. Directed by Marcela Lorca, set design by Richard Hoover, costume design by Candice Donnelly, lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger. April 18 – June 21, 2009 on the Wurtele Thrust Stage at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.
2009 © Michal Daniel

Jackson M. Hurst (Jackie Thibodeaux), Nikki Renée Daniels (Emmie Thibodeaux) and Zadir King (Joe Thibodeaux) in the Guthrie Theater production of CAROLINE, OR CHANGE, book and lyrics by Tony Kushner, music by Jeanine Tesori. Directed by Marcela Lorca, set design by Richard Hoover, costume design by Candice Donnelly, lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger. April 18 – June 21, 2009 on the Wurtele Thrust Stage at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.
2009 © Michal Daniel

A virtuosic score blends blues, gospel, klezmer and traditional Jewish melodies to create a breathtaking medium for Kushner’s provocative and personal story, which also features Chanhassen Dinner Theatres regular Michelle Barber as Grandma Gellman, the multi-talented Ivey Award-winning actor/singer Bradley Greenwald as Stuart Gellman, Guthrie regular Peter Thomson as Grandpa Gellman and Broadway veteran Kenny Morris (Hairspray, Les Miserables, Jacques Brel…) as Mr. Stopnick, Rose’s father.

We loved Caroline, or Change. As with all Guthrie shows, we had lots to talk about afterwards (for days, afterwards), and have recommended it to everyone we know that lives or is traveling to Minnesota before the show ends. It's definitely worth a trip!

Throughout the libretto, Kushner uses the word change in various ways – to refer to Noah’s pocket change, the changes in the moon, the changes in Rose’s life, Caroline’s increasing unwillingness to surrender her anger and change her attitude, and to the sweeping social changes reflected not only by Kennedy’s assassination, but by the vandalizing of the courthouse statue of the Confederate soldier – a symbol of white dominance in the south – that winds up, headless, wrapped in a Confederate flag in the bayou.
James Fisher, The Theater of Tony Kushner: Living Past Hope, 2002

The only politics that can survive an encounter with this world, and still speak convincingly of freedom and justice and democracy, is a politics that can encompass both the harmonics and the dissonance. The frazzle, the rubbed raw, the unresolved, the fragile and the fiery and the dangerous.
Tony Kushner, Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness, Essays, A Play, Two Poems and A Prayer, 1995

First workshopped at New York’s Public Theater in May 1999, Caroline, or Change opened there Off-Broadway in 2003. The successful Broadway transfer in May 2004 was rewarded with critical acclaim and several Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical, followed by a subsequent London production at the National Theatre which received the Olivier Award for Best Musical. This production marks the first time a full-length play by Kushner will be produced on the Guthrie stage.

Noah Coon (Noah Gellman) and Greta Oglesby (Caroline Thibodeaux) in the Guthrie Theater production of CAROLINE, OR CHANGE, book and lyrics by Tony Kushner, music by Jeanine Tesori. Directed by Marcela Lorca, set design by Richard Hoover, costume design by Candice Donnelly, lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger. April 18 – June 21, 2009 on the Wurtele Thrust Stage at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.
2009 © Michal Daniel

In addition to director/choreographer Marcela Lorca, the artistic staff for Caroline, or Change includes Andrew Cooke (Musical Director/Conductor), Richard Hoover (Set Designer), Candice Donnelly (Costume Designer), Mary Louise Geiger (Lighting Designer), Scott W. Edwards (Sound Designer), Jo Holcomb (Dramaturgy), Lucinda Holshue (Voice and Dialect Coach), Russell W. Johnson (Production Stage Manager), Jason Clusman (Assistant Stage Manager), Elizabeth R. MacNally (Assistant Stage Manager) and Marcus Quiniones (Assistant Director/Assistant Choreographer).

About the Guthrie
The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is an American center for theater performance, production, education and professional training. The Guthrie is dedicated to producing the great works of dramatic literature, developing the work of contemporary playwrights and cultivating the next generation of theater artists. Led by Director Joe Dowling since 1995, the Guthrie opened its new three-theater home on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis in June 2006.

The Guthrie is located at 818 South 2nd Street (at Chicago Avenue), in downtown Minneapolis. To purchase tickets or season subscriptions call the Guthrie Box Office at 612.377.2224 or toll-free 877.44.STAGE. For more information, or to purchase tickets online, visit www.guthrietheater.org.

Guthrie Theater Mississippi River View

The Kushner Celebration is made possible through the generosity of David and Shari Boehnen, The Bush Foundation, The Curtis L. Carlson Family Foundation, John & Sage Cowles, David & Vicky Cox, Fran & Barb Davis, Susan Engel & Arthur Eisenberg, William and Penny George and The George Family Foundation, Polly Grose, Kathy and Allen Lenzmeier, Mendon F. Schutt Family Fund of the Minneapolis Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, Wendy Nelson, Louise Otten, the Ruth Easton Fund, The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Frances and Frank Wilkinson, and David A. Wilson and Michael J. Peterman.

The Guthrie’s production of Caroline, or Change is sponsored by Ameriprise Financial, with additional support provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and SUPERVALU.

CAROLINE, OR CHANGE
BOOK AND LYRICS BY TONY KUSHNER
MUSIC BY JEANINE TESORI
DIRECTED BY MARCELA LORCA
First preview: April 18, 2009 7:30 p.m.
Opening Night: April 24, 2009 7:30 p.m.
Closing: June 21, 2009 7 p.m.
Location: Guthrie Theater
818 South 2nd Street
Minneapolis, MN 55415
TICKETS: Single tickets priced at $24 - $60

Tickets may be purchased online at www.guthrietheater.org.
Guthrie Box Office: 612.377.2224 or 877.44.STAGE
Box Office hours: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. (performance days)
11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (non-performance days)
Group Sales: 612.225.6244 or 877.225.6211
Performance Schedule: Tuesday through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.
Sundays at 7 p.m.
Matinees on selected Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 1 p.m.

Open Captioned Performance
Friday, Jun 19 at 7:30 p.m.

Post-Play Discussion
Sunday, June 7 (1 p.m.)

Caroline, or Change and Guthrie Theater information provided by the Guthrie Theater.

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