Alumni Return to Immaculate Heart Stage for “Caroline, or Change”
“Caroline, or Change,” the theatrical production at Immaculate Heart High School shut down by the pandemic in March 2020, will get its moment on the Immaculate Heart stage thanks to IHHS alumni!
Alumni from the last 10 years will join members of the original cast for this Broadway musical, which tells the story of Caroline Thibodeaux, a Black maid whose world in 1963 Louisiana ripples with change. The play’s themes, centered around Thibodeaux’s personal battles with racism and classism against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, resonated strongly with the original cast and continue to inspire the cast and crew of this “Reunion Show.”
“The cast felt very connected to Caroline’s struggle,” director and IHHS drama teacher Heather Chesley said. “We kept thinking we would reopen in two weeks, two months, and we could share this very important story. Now, our cast and alumni will return to present this story that ignites discussion and empathy.”
Recent alumna Khafira Freeman, Class of 2020, will return to the stage as Caroline, the role she prepared to play before the original production was cancelled.
“I’m delighted to portray Caroline on the same stage where I first discovered my love for acting,” Freeman, now a student at New York University’s TISCH School of Performing Arts, said. “This story raises awareness of class and racial divides and is beyond important to tell, no matter the setting.”
Quinlan Fitzgerald, Class of 2011, is among the alumni joining Freeman onstage. Fitzgerald, who acted in the Portland theater scene after graduating from UC Santa Barbara and is now working with the social impact agency Propper Daley in Los Angeles, is excited to return to Immaculate Heart to play Rose Gellman, the new wife and stepmother of the family for whom Caroline works.
“Theater has been gone for more than a year, and that’s been so hard for so many,” Fitzgerald said. “I can’t think of a better way to connect to that community for the first time post-2020 than with a show at IH. I’m very grateful to be able to spend some time on the campus that really sparked my love for acting, and I’m excited to learn from the current women of great heart and right conscience.”
The show opens on Thursday, July 29, and offers evening shows at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, July 31, with a matinee performance at 2 p.m. on Sunday, August 1. Tickets are available at www.immaculateheart.org/ReunionShow.
About Immaculate Heart
Founded in 1906, Immaculate Heart High School & Middle School educates and empowers young women in sixth through 12th grades from its central location in the Los Feliz foothills near Griffith Park. The school has a long and distinguished history, with more than 10,000 graduates. Today’s student body of more than 700 young women is both geographically and ethnically diverse, drawing on students from throughout Los Angeles County. Last year, virtually 100 percent of Immaculate Heart graduates matriculated to colleges, including the most prestigious schools in the country.
