Extra: Meet Caroline, or Change's shining star

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So many of us dream big.  After all, dreams are what propel us forward.

Greta Oglesby knew that as a little girl growing up in Chicago. Her dream was crystal clear.  "As far back as I can remember, I wanted to be an accountant," Greta said with a smile.

Yep. That's right. Guthrie's shining star this Spring dreamt huge, of ledger books and spread sheets. She wanted it so bad that once she got it she nearly overlooked not her dream, but, her calling.

"I'm in the office flipping thru the Chicago Sun Times one day and there is a tiny little notice for the theatre company," Greta said.

Greta knew she could sing and she knew nothing about acting. So, when she just waltzed onto a tiny stage for an even tinier part finally, a star was born.

It's been 16 years since Greta began her life onstage. She started in Chicago and came to Minneapolis when her husband was named pastor of a local church.

Thank God, literally, that happened because now, she is on Minneapolis' main stage playing a role that is seemingly written only for her. Caroline Thibodeaux in Tony Kushner's Caroline, or Change.

"There is nothing like being in a production like Caroline, or Change that really is this profound and is this life changing for people," Greta said of her role in the show.

Caroline's story is one, simply of change. Set in Louisiana, 1963, the day Kennedy is shot Caroline is a maid for a Jewish family.  A bitter, defeated woman, whose courage is dormant and, ironically, she is still the hero of the little boy at the house she cleans, Noah Gellman.

This show has made an impact, to say the least.  Audiences have been spellbound by Caroline, or Greta's, performance.

"This is like ministry for me because theatre can be absolutely life changing," Greta said.

Perhaps because Caroline's role is one, each of us knows intimately.  She's been beaten down by life and life's circumstances and the audience watches that happen.

Caroline is mean, tired, angry, heartbroken and everything in between for the entire show.  "It is such a marathon of a role," says Greta.

A role with a supporting cast second to none.  Noah Coon plays Noah Gellman.  "I like being in front of an audience a lot," Coon says.

Noah is a Fargo native and has been acting since the ripe old age of six.  His dream was the stage, and he got there, before he even got to 10-years-old.

And then there is the little guy, from Coon Rapids, Julius Andrews IV.  He plays the youngest son of Caroline.  He knows the show is fun, and he knows the topics are heavy only by seeing his own mother's face at the most trying times in the production.

"Even when my mom comes she cries every time and she has seen it like 50 million times," Andrews said.

It is in Greta's final performance of the show that audience members jaws begin to drop.  Greta, takes Caroline right into every audience member's core.

"I have to be totally immersed in her or it doesn't work for me," Greta said of the role.

In that final song Greta pours out anger, defeat, hope, despair and desire.  Finally, a beaten down Caroline is begging to not again be beaten by something else, something called change.

It's an every-man story in that way.  All of us face change, at some point in our lives. And we do not always do it gracefully.

Greta's performance of Caroline reminds us that the human spirit can change, even, when it seems impossible.

Just ask Greta, who dreamt of those spreadsheets so much it came true. That was her dream.  But then it changed, and we are all, luckier for it.

Click here to go to the Guthrie Theatre page for Caroline showtimes.

By Jana Shortal, KARE 11 News   Read Jana's Blog

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