I have a special place in my heart for this show. It’s a little secret, but I suggested to Irene that we add this show to our season. I had seen it a few weeks before it closed on Broadway, and I have to say the most memorable moment of that trip to New York was the drag queen yelling at me a block away from Penn Station that her Prada bag was real and that her boyfriend was sexier than mine! Long story.
But I saved my playbill because there was something about the show that I loved, I just couldn’t put my finger on what it was that turned me off. But it all made sense when I suggested this show to Irene. I looked at her and I said, “The show is amazing. The casting was really bad. If we can find the person that Caroline was written for, we’ll have a hit.” My psychic powers have never been more correct. Once we got the rights, casting began and no one thought of anyone else to portray Caroline than our favorite chanteuse, E. Faye Butler! And the artistic ball kept rolling. And at the same time, our world changed! And the beautiful sounds and lyrics of the play gave birth to an entire new meaning and purpose of the show! I was beyond excited!!!!
I could hear rehearsals slightly through the ceiling and I would see the actors strolling around the building, all of them excited to put on this production. The director, David Schweizer, one of my favorite people on the planet (mostly because he directed the music video for Tina Turner’s hit What’s Love Got to Do With It?), kept talking to me about how the rehearsal hall had this incredible feeling every day. The kind of feeling that we were producing something of incredible importance to every soul that would come to see it. The kind of feeling that hearts would be stirred and spirits would be lifted. The kind of feeling that we in the world of theater pray for: That our audience has some sort of euphoric experience in their seats, no matter what that experience would be.
The first time I saw our production was the final rehearsal in the 5th floor rehearsal hall. For anyone who hasn’t seen it, it is clean white space with taped floors to simulate the stage and props similar to those used in the production. It’s an imagination box, as I affectionately call it. You have to use your child’s eye to see all of the things that your adult’s mind can’t. And the running joke is that every show that I see in this very private part of the rehearsal process MAKES ME CRY.
I could hear rehearsals slightly through the ceiling and I would see the actors strolling around the building, all of them excited to put on this production. The director, David Schweizer, one of my favorite people on the planet (mostly because he directed the music video for Tina Turner’s hit What’s Love Got to Do With It?), kept talking to me about how the rehearsal hall had this incredible feeling every day. The kind of feeling that we were producing something of incredible importance to every soul that would come to see it. The kind of feeling that hearts would be stirred and spirits would be lifted. The kind of feeling that we in the world of theater pray for: That our audience has some sort of euphoric experience in their seats, no matter what that experience would be.
The first time I saw our production was the final rehearsal in the 5th floor rehearsal hall. For anyone who hasn’t seen it, it is clean white space with taped floors to simulate the stage and props similar to those used in the production. It’s an imagination box, as I affectionately call it. You have to use your child’s eye to see all of the things that your adult’s mind can’t. And the running joke is that every show that I see in this very private part of the rehearsal process MAKES ME CRY.
Er . . . I wasn’t prepared for that moment, in front of a room full of people that I work with, but I just couldn’t keep it together. That last moment between Caroline and Noah . . . it just killed me. It was much like the world we were experiencing for real at that time after the election, reconciling the old and the new, voting for change and watching it actually happen, making peace with our past and moving on to our future . . . all of it was quite overwhelming.
Moving on . . . the show opened and boy did it open! Every piece of what this play is was more than we could have dreamed of. I’m sitting upstairs writing this at 9:30pm while a group of friends are downstairs watching one of the final shows. Proud, you know?
I think I’ll watch every show right down to the last one. Cuz, when it’s gone, our production is GONE. And I feel privileged and honored that our production has been so engaging. And it’s given me a renewed love of our audience and our community because there are two very strong moments that I try to catch any night that I’m working late: The first is the moment after E. Faye sings Lot’s Wife. There’s this moment of clear silence and for anyone who hasn’t seen the show the silence is unexpected. But I love to stand in the back at that moment and listen to all of the people who are crying, try to pull it together. It happens every night and, eh hm . . . you know who you are! My other favorite moment is listening to the conversations people have as they leave The Pearlstone Theater. Words like, “I’m exhausted that was so good” or “speechless, amazing, precious, best show of the season, best show ever, so proud of CENTERSTAGE for producing this show”.... I could go on but you know what I mean. Theater . . . it can change you. Thanks Tony Kushner, for sharing your story at such an appropriate time!
I think I’ll watch every show right down to the last one. Cuz, when it’s gone, our production is GONE. And I feel privileged and honored that our production has been so engaging. And it’s given me a renewed love of our audience and our community because there are two very strong moments that I try to catch any night that I’m working late: The first is the moment after E. Faye sings Lot’s Wife. There’s this moment of clear silence and for anyone who hasn’t seen the show the silence is unexpected. But I love to stand in the back at that moment and listen to all of the people who are crying, try to pull it together. It happens every night and, eh hm . . . you know who you are! My other favorite moment is listening to the conversations people have as they leave The Pearlstone Theater. Words like, “I’m exhausted that was so good” or “speechless, amazing, precious, best show of the season, best show ever, so proud of CENTERSTAGE for producing this show”.... I could go on but you know what I mean. Theater . . . it can change you. Thanks Tony Kushner, for sharing your story at such an appropriate time!
~Charisse
****
Caroline, or Change runs through this Sunday in the Pearlstone Theater.
Photos, top to bottom: E. Faye Butler with Bradley Bowers as Noah; and with Matthew Demetrides as Noah, and Milton Craig Nealy.
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