Bruce Tinker - WKTV Journal

Lisa Butler, who plays Caroline Thibodeaux, and Jessica Dole, who plays Rose Gellman, talk about the upcoming production of "Caroline, or Change." — Lisa Butler, who plays Caroline Thibodeaux, and Jessica Dole, who plays Rose Gellman, talk about the upcoming production of “Caroline, or Change.”

Lisa Butler understands the trials of being a single parent. She’s been there, working two to three jobs to make ends meet. And she understands the frustration of not even having the time to figure a way out of the situation.

So Butler can relate to the difficult choice facing Caroline Thibodeaux, the character she portrays in the upcoming production of “Caroline, or Change” opening Friday, June 3, at Grand Rapids Civic Theatre. She feels Caroline’s delight of being able to provide her children with meat versus stuffing it so full of bread that it becomes “meat-flavored bread” even if it means getting treated “less than a person” to get the money to buy that meat.

“There is a song that Caroline sings, one of the longer ones that runs several pages in the script,” said Butler. “It goes through about every level of pain, anger and confusion she is feeling and a few days ago, it suddenly just hit me, and I just started to cry.”

Grand Rapids Civic Theatre Artistic Director Bruce Tinker said while he realizes not everyone may be moved the way Butler was, he does hope the powerful musical will have an impact on those who see it, creating a dialog for change.

Grand Rapids Civic Theatre Artistic Director Bruce Tinker and Grand Rapids Urban League CEO and President Joe Jones talk about the production "Caroline, or Change." — Grand Rapids Civic Theatre Artistic Director Bruce Tinker and Grand Rapids Urban League CEO and President Joe Jones talk about the production “Caroline, or Change.”

The production, which is almost entirely relayed through music, combines spirituals, blues, Motown, classical music and Jewish klezmer and folk music with each character represented by a certain type of music. Written by Tony Kushner with music by Jeanine Tesori (“Shrek the Musical”), the story is set in 1963 and centers around Caroline, a black maid, who works for a Jewish family, the Gellmans, in their basement doing the laundry for $30 a week. Unable to afford to give her a raise, the stepmother Rose tells Caroline that she can have the money she finds in the pockets mostly to teach her stepson Noah a lesson about money.

“We have this concept that if something is no good to us or has no value that we just give it to someone who is less fortunate,” Tinker said. “How does that make the person receiving it feel?”

When the lesson goes awry and the ownership of a $20 bill comes into question, the relationship between Caroline and Noah is forever changed.

“Change is hard for everyone,” said Joe Jones, president and CEO of the Grand Rapids Urban League, which is an artistic sponsor for the “Caroline” production. Coincidentally, Butler happens to serve as the Grand Rapids Urban League Director for Center for Health and Wellness.

“It is hard in that it upsets what you know is,” Jones said, adding that everything is changing around Caroline as president John F. Kennedy is assassinated and the non-violent protests organized by Martin Luther King. “The younger generation does not throughly understand that at that time there were repercussions of speaking out or speaking out loud.”

For Caroline, standing by her words would mean losing the income she needs to support her family so she makes the heart wrenching decision to return to the dehumanizing work as a maid.

The musical, Tinker said, was nominated for several 2004 Tony Awards but was somewhat overshadowed by “Wicked” and “Avenue Q.” It did win a Tony for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music. “However that year it showed that Broadway could succeed on a grand scale with ‘Wicked,’ on a non-human comedic scale with ‘Avenue Q’ and on a very dramatic scale with ‘Caroline,’” Tinker said.

“Caroline, or Change” runs June 3 – 19 at Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, 30 N. Division Ave. Tickets are $18 – $34. For tickets or more information, visit www.GRCT.org or call 616-222-6650.

The cast of the current production of "Sister Act," rehearse. "Sister Act" runs through Feb. 26 - March 20. — The cast of Grand Rapids Civic Theatre’s current production of “Sister Act,” rehearse. “Sister Act” runs through Feb. 26 – March 20.

Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

With a mixture of returning favorites and Grand Rapids Civic Theatre premieres, Civic Theatre offers a season focused on the theme of equality with its 2016 – 2017 lineup.

“We kind of go through the selection process, put together the season and a theme just comes from there,” said Civic Theatre Artistic Director Bruce Tinker.

This year’s lineup ranges from David Lindsay-Abaire’s 2011 Tony Award-winning play “Good People,” about the disparages in class and social economics to the powerful musical “Ragtime,” a look at the equality of justice under the law.

“It’s our 91st season and I really love all of the selections,” Tinker said. “There a lot of first-time productions along with some returning like ‘Ragtime,’ which is one of my favorite musicals. The music is just gorgeous.”

Tinker, who directed Civic’s 2004 production of “Ragtime,” said he looks forward to reacquainting himself with the musical that delves into the hopes, dreams and struggles of the immigrants settling in America in the early 20th Century. The show runs Feb. 24 – March 19.

The season starts with “Good People,” Sept. 9 – 25, a look at class, poverty, wealth and privilege as Lindsay-Abaire contrasts the life of a single mother living paycheck-to-paycheck against her ex-boyfriend who successfully gets out of the neighborhood and becomes a prominent doctor.

“This is an incredibly timely piece,” Tinker said. “Lindsay-Abaire doesn’t write about heroes or villains. He writes about people. No one is great or awful, they are just human trying to make the right choices for them and their family amidst high pressure stakes.”

Civic Theatre then goes big in November with its premiere production of “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.” “It was one of those things we had to wait for the right timing,” Tinker said of the company having never staged a production before. “It’s a great show for celebrating the holidays.” “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast,” which also contains an underlying message of acceptance, runs Nov. 18 – Dec. 18.

Dedicated to featuring a classic in every season, the Civic Theatre’s reading committee discovered the company had never done the 1930s comedy “The Philadelphia Story,” which became a 1940s film starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. This screwball love-triangle comedy, which became the fomula for many other romantic comedies, follows Tracy Lord as she prepares for her second marriage and the antics of her ex-husband who tries to remind her of love lost. The show runs Jan. 13 – 29.

Another classic Civic has never produced is “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” the story of starry-eyed Millie Dillmount of Salina, Kansas, who has come to New York City to make her dream come true. “This is one that we always have just had to have the right mix and this year it just happened,” Tinker said. “We looked at the spring and thought, we need something fun and this show is it. Plus with all the graduations going on [during June], this show is a celebration of new beginnings and independence. It really just fits.”

The two family productions, both based on books, are “Holes,” Oct. 21 – 30 and “Fancy Nancy,” April 21 – 30.

Even the 2017 summer children’s repertory productions contain the theme of equality as the lineup includes the popular fantasy “The Neverending Story,” July 29 – Aug. 6, and “Hairspray Jr.,” July 28 – Aug. 5. “With ‘Hairspray, Jr.,’ even though it is set in the sixties, it offers not only a message of equality, but is about accepting who you are, mind and heart, over what you look like.

“Be who you are as everyone loves who you are as oppose to a certain type of person.”

For information about the upcoming season or for ticket pricing, visit www.grct.org o call 616-222-6650.