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Caroline, or Change

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The Civic Theatre
New Orleans, Louisiana

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Change is Constant.
Civil Rights Then & Now
Inspired by Kushners childhood memories of the civil rights movement in the South, Caroline, or Change was commissioned by the San Francisco Opera in 1998. Kushner jumped at the opportunity under the condition that he be allowed to tell Carolines story through music rather than a straight play. For Kushner, a homosexual in the 20th and 21st century, the struggle for civil rights was a very personal and pressing issue. At the time he wrote Caroline, or Change , homosexuality was at the center of the political spotlight. Dont ask dont tell was only 5 years old, television stars such as Ellen DeGeneres were slowly coming out of the closet, and there was great question as to whether the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (defining marriage as between one man and one woman) would be overturned. The fight for marriage equality is known by many to be the civil rights struggle of our era, and Kushners decision to address the civil rights movement in the 1960s emphasizes the continuing struggles for civil rights of many minorities in America today. The unemployment rate for African Americans has consistently been twice as high as the white unemployment rate for 50 years according to the Economic Policy Institute. Same sex couples still do not have the federal right to marry. Various minorities today are still fighting for equality. In the words of Tony Kushner, If the movements mightiest dreams havent been realized yet, it would be worse than a mistake to predict that they never shall be realized. Through highlighting the protagonists personal struggle with equality, Kushner brings the civil rights movement of the past and the civil rights struggles of the present to a contemporary audience in Caroline, or Change.

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Meet Tony and Jeanine, the dynamic duo behind the musical.
Tony Kushner (Playwright)
Kushner was born in New York City in 1956. Shortly after his birth, Kushner and his parents moved to Lake Charles, Louisiana where Kushner spent the rest of his childhood. Raised in a Jewish family, Kushner did not fit the typical profile of a Lake Charles, Louisiana resident in the 1960s. His father, a clarinetist and conductor, and his mother, a bassoonist, Tony Kushner grew up surrounded by music. His love and passion for music continues to play a prominent role in his life today. In the introduction to Caroline, or Change, Kushner says, Words betray the arduousness of the struggle to express, to interpret, to understand. Music offers up emotion and idea with an organicity and shapeliness and spontaneity that must be what we mean when we say that something possesses grace. Words can be graceful, but music is grace itself. Music is a blessing that enters the soul through the ear. As a Pulitzer Prize winning author, Tony Kushner is best known for his play, Angels in America. His works tend to focus on themes of homosexuality, war, and equality, and act as an inspiration to all who have the privilege of coming in contact with any of his works. In this production at the Civic Theatre, Kushner brings his childhood memories alive in his home state of Louisiana.

Author Biographies

Jeanine Tesori (Composer)

Musical composer Jeanine Tesori made her Broadway debut in 1995 arranging the dance music for a revival of the hit musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Since, she has achieved enormous success, winning an Obie Award, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical for her OffBroadway musical Violet. Tesoris lyrics in Caroline, or Change are only one of her four Tony-nominated scores for Broadway. Her others include her scores for Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Shrek the Musical. Tesori was Kushners first choice as a lyricist. Her passion for the theatre knows no bounds. In her words, I think the really interesting thing about opera and music-theatre is its ephemeral nature. Once you are not there, you are always not there. You always have not been there. You can record it and archive it, but its not the same as being around the campfire for the primal story-telling. So, when people say, You had to be there, they really mean you had to be in the presence of that feeling and that electricity. Its the real deal and happens in real time. A historic venue, the Civic Theatres architecture and renowned acoustics amplify Tesoris heartfelt music.

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The Journey to Equality

When President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it was the first step on a long journey to equality for African Americans. While the Emancipation Proclamation was the first major step towards equality, it only awarded African Americans with one right the right to be free. Over the next several decades, African Americans continued to fight for the most basic rights: the right to be more than three-fifths of a person, the right to vote, the right to be treated as an equal. It wasnt until 1954 that the African Americans fight for equality began to gain traction and attract national attention. Brown V. Board of Education ended segregation in schools and marked the beginning of the civil rights movement. Prominent figures such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. lead movements against the marginalization of African Americans. During the election of 1960, the importance of the Civil Rights movement made the race between Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon one of the most important elections in African American history. While many Southern democrats disliked Kennedy for his outward support for the Civil Rights movement, he won the election with 70% of the African American vote. Optimism was high when Kennedy took office in 1961, but having only won the popular vote by only 0.17%, the new president was hesitant to implement radical change. On August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 African Americans came together to form the largest political rally of the Civil Rights era, the March on Washington. The march culminated in Martin Luther Kings famous I Have A Dream speech and soon after inspired Congress to develop a comprehensive civil rights bill (later named the Civil Rights Act). The act did not pass until shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964, which included: (1) protection against discrimination in voter qualification tests, (2) outlawing discrimination in public accommodations (restaurants, hotels, theaters, etc.), (3) legal ramifications needed to enforce desegregation in schools, (4) withdrawal of federal funds from programs with discriminatory practices, and (5) establishing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This act was a crucial step in achieving the primary goal of the civil rights movement: full legal equality.

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Jews in the Civil Rights Movement
Jews in America played a prominent role in the Civil Rights Movement. In fact, there was not a single ethnic group that contributed more support to the Civil Rights Movement than the Northern Jewish population. The publics opinion of an individuals support for the Civil Rights movement mattered little if any to Jews in the North. Southern Jews, however, faced a much more difficult situation, a tradeoff between traditional southern values and their own. The South is and always has been predominantly Christian. This put Jews in a similar situation to African Americans in that both were minorities. However, Jews had rights that African Americans did not: Jews were not segregated in educational institutions; Jews did not have to take a voter qualification tests; Jews had employment opportunities that African Americans did not. For this reason, especially on the heals of the trauma from World War II, the majority of Southern Jews, fearful of marginalization and their own safety, showed little public support for the movement. The opportunities to publically demonstrate support for the movement were limited, and even these limited opportunities presented a great danger to the individual demonstrators as well as their entire Jewish community.

Timeline

+ Timeline of American Civil Rights

History doesnt repeat itself. But it does rhyme. Mark Twain
1863 President Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation; all slaves are now free 1865 End of the Civil War 1941 U.S. declares war on Japan 1945 World War II ends 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ends segregation in schools marking beginning of the civil rights movement 1957 Martin Luther King Jr., helps found SCLC to work toward African American equality 1960 John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States 1961 The Congress of Racial Equality begins to organize Freedom Rides 1961 Tensions rise in Vietnam; Vice President Johnson pledges support to Diem 1962 Malcolm X becomes a prominent figure in the civil rights movement 1963 More than 200,000 people march in Washington D.C. in the largest civil rights demonstration ever 1963 MLK Jr. gives his I have a Dream speech 1963 President John F. Kennedy assassinated 1964 Freedom Summer begins, encouraging African Americans to register to vote 1964 President Lyndon Johsnon signs the Civil Rights Act 1964 MLK Jr. is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution initiates official American involvement in Vietnam

Discussion Questions

Whats the relevancy of a play revolving around the civil rights movement today? Why do you think Kushner chose to write Caroline, or Change as a musical instead of straight play? How would this be different if it were written as a straight play?

Why is it significant that Kushner makes a connection between Jewish identity and African American identity in the South in the 1960s?
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Glossary
Bupkes
A Yiddish word meaning nothing.

Gelt
Refers to Hannukah coins, often taking the form of chocolate coins wrapped in gold and silver.

Goyim
A Yiddish word, sometimes derogatory, used to describe nonJews.

John F. Kennedy
The 35th President of the United States; served from 1961-1963 during the heart of the Civil Rights Movement; assassinated in 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald.

Lake Charles, LA
Fifth largest city in Louisiana, located 200 miles west of New Orleans; population in 1960 estimated to be approximately 63,000.

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the combination of a opera.