UP FOR DISCUSSION MUSICALITY: BEFORE THE PLAY


How would you describe the musicality of your life? What music would you utilize to describe your everyday routine?


TIME PERIOD: Caroline, or Change takes place amongst the backdrop of the civil rights movement. Based on other articles and information in this guide, how do you think this time period will affect the story?


CHANGE: Personally, how do you handle change? What kinds of changes have you gone through in your life? What are different kinds of changes an individual may experience?


DURING INTERMISSION MUSICALITY:


Discuss how musical conversations might feel like a different kind of reality. What might conversations in this story be like if they weren’t sung? In your opinion, how do sung conversations add to the story?


THEATRICAL ELEMENTS:


In what ways do the technical elements in the production (lighting, sound, scenic, etc.) help to create a concept for the story? What do you notice about how all of these elements work together to create the world of the play?


RELATIONSHIP: Caroline is at the center of many different relationships—with her children (Emmie, Jack, and Joe), with Rose and Stuart, with Noah, and with all of the appliances. How does Noah and Caroline’s relationship make you feel? Why do you think they have a special bond that might be missing from Emmie and Caroline’s relationship?


TIME PERIOD: The focus of Caroline, or Change is on a very specific area of Louisiana where there was a high Jewish population, many of whom kept a low profile in terms of the civil rights movement. What do you notice about the relationship between Caroline and the Gellmans? How does it speak to relationships amongst different races today?


AFTER THE PLAY


HUMAN AGAIN: In many forms of entertainment, voice is often given to animals and objects to give them human personalities; you can reference the article, “A Singing Washer, Radio, Dryer, Bus, and Moon” on p.16 for more information on anthropomorphism. Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori utilized Caroline’s appliances to give Caroline a way to express her inner thoughts. What makes this way of characterization special to this piece? How do the appliances serve as an extension of Caroline’s character?


METAPHORS:


“Nothing ever happened underground/ in Louisiana/ cause they ain’t no underground/ in Louisiana./ There is only/ underwater” says Caroline at the beginning of the musical. “Why does our house have a basement?/ Underground is underwater” Noah questions at the end of the play. How do these two moments make you feel after seeing the course of the story? Why do these two characters have a connection to the “underground?” What other metaphors did you notice throughout the production?


20 ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY


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