The American Play

For a sense of where our country’s headed next, watch the prescient plays and films of Tony Kushner. Caroline, or Change (2003), features a subplot about Confederate monument removal in South Louisiana. In Angels in America (1991), Kushner’s fictionalized Roy Cohn says truth doesn’t matter—it’s what you make people believe. Homebody/Kabul, written before September 11 and in rehearsal when the Towers fell, has a character warn: “The Taliban is coming to New York.” Dr. Laura Hope, chair of Loyola University Department of Theatre Arts and Dance, was in the audience at that play’s first preview and described the sharp, collective gasp. “The sites were still on fire,” said Hope, of Ground Zero. “There were still fires burning.”

It’s this startling foresight that draws Hope to Kushner’s oeuvre, as a spectator and a director. “He’s a playwright who is incredibly versed in history, philosophy, and theology,” said Hope, who is directing an upcoming run of Caroline, or Change at the Westwego Performing Arts Theatre, a collaboration between Loyola and the Jefferson Performing Arts Society. “He’s writing about what it means to be an American.”

“In some sense, it’s a coincidence,” said Kushner in a recent interview. “But part of my job as a playwright is to determine the things that are important to me … and what matters to me also matters to a lot of other people.”

As a college freshman in the mid-’70s, wondering whether he should be a playwright, Kushner challenged himself to write down twelve ideas for scripts. “One was about an African American maid in Louisiana. And she was also president of the United States.” Of those twelve scribbles, only the titular maid Caroline lasted beyond a passing thought over the years.

“But part of my job as a playwright is to determine the things that are important to me … and what matters to me also matters to a lot of other people.”

The play is set in Kushner’s hometown, Lake Charles, in 1963—opening on the very day of Kennedy’s assassination—and finds its main conflict in the tensions between the Gellmans, a Jewish family, and their maid. Kushner is Jewish; he was seven when Kennedy was shot; and his parents had a maid, Maudie Lee Davis. But unlike eight-year-old Noah Gellman, Kushner did not lose his mother—though she did have breast cancer—and he and his siblings have stayed connected to Maudie, “who’s still very much alive.” The crux of the play, when Noah’s stepmother tells him that Caroline may keep any loose change he leaves in his dirty clothes, arose from something Kushner’s mother said—"'Maudie’s not here to pick up your clothes. If Maudie finds any money in your clothes, she can keep it.’ That’s a strange position for one adult to put another in,” said Kushner.

This small moment didn’t upheave the Kushner household, but it did stick with the eventual playwright. “I used things I remembered, as well as some things that I think happened, but maybe didn’t,” said Kushner. Like Caroline, Maudie could seem fierce. She did not giggle, like other maids he sometimes saw. “She never seemed particularly happy,” he said.

”’Maudie’s not here to pick up your clothes. If Maudie finds any money in your clothes, she can keep it.’ That’s a strange position for one adult to put another in,” said Kushner.

On stage, Caroline is deeply felt and raw. Maudie didn’t smile, but Caroline screams in her showstopping solo, “Lot’s Wife.” The same shrewdness from Kushner that foresaw the monuments being toppled gives Caroline a life far beyond, far within what Noah sees: Caroline ironing, not smiling, and smoking cigarettes in his family’s basement . (Alone on stage, she bellows: “Take Caroline away cause I can’t be her/take her away cause I can’t afford her/Tear out my heart/strangle my soul.”)

On stage, Caroline is deeply felt and raw. Maudie didn’t smile, but Caroline screams in her showstopping solo, “Lot’s Wife.”

The depth which Kushner gives Caroline is not just reserved for characters based on beloved family friends. “Kushner’s plays are a master class in empathy,” said Hope. In rehearsals for Caroline, she’d come away with some new understanding after each performance. “‘We’ve had our first tears from Dr. Hope!’ they’d say. Every time I see it, I’m moved emotionally and intellectually by another part,” she added. “That teaches me something about myself and about others. It hopefully makes me a better person, to have understanding of other’s perspectives that aren’t my experience.”

“Kushner’s plays are a master class in empathy,” said Hope.

Kushner eschews villains, for the most part (”I’d say Roy Cohn is definitely a villain”); he’d prefer to get in the character’s head and reason out their actions. “It’s more interesting when two people really believe they’re in the right—you can understand a bit of what they’re trying to do and they’re in good faith.”

Casting such rich roles was difficult, particularly because the musical is through-composed, meaning Kushner’s dialogue is almost entirely sung to the compositions of Jeanine Tesori. The play careens through Motown, blues, gospel, and even klezmer in its runtime. “It’s like the Olympics for actors,” said Hope. She cast collaboratively with the show’s musical director Dr. Donna Clavijo. Hope recalled New Orleans actress and singer Troi Bechet leaving both women stunned after she sang for (and secured) the role of Caroline. “If I’m really honest with myself, when I closed my eyes, it was always Troi I saw and heard as Caroline,” said Hope. “Donna looked at me [after Bechet’s audition] and said, ‘Yeah, that’s it. You’re right.’”

Kushner gives his characters lives and minds and then lets their struggles play out, achingly but to some resolution. “If you trust the characters, arguments and conflicts will deliver some form of truth,” said Kushner.

"If I knew ahead of time of what I wanted to convince you to do, I’d end up yelling at you," he added. "Most people who go to the theatre know racism is bad, homophobia is bad.” The playwright is more preacher than prophet, as Kushner understands it. “Great faith is great doubt. I’m asking the same questions you’re asking. I’m as confused by the ineffable nature of God as you are. Let’s hold hands, move through the dark, and see where exploration takes us. Let’s all go forward to see what we find.”

“Caroline, or Change” will run at the Westwego Performing Arts Theatre from October 27—November 5. Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm; Sunday at 2 pm. $15–$50 at jpas.org. On November 2, at Louis J. Roussel Performance Hall at Loyola, Tony Kushner will discuss his work with American Theatre’s founding editor Jim O’Quinn at 7:30 pm in a free, public event. presents.loyno.edu to reserve seats.