As a vocalist and trumpet player in a local dance band with a mandatory headgear policy, Catherine Capellaro regularly wears a shifting wardrobe of hats and wigs. That's appropriate, because in the rest of her life, she wears many hats too.

Best known as half of the creative duo behind the local hit musical Walmartopia, Capellaro works as the managing editor of the left-leaning national magazine Rethinking Schools. In addition, she and her husband and musical collaborator are also the parents of 7-year-old twin boys whose experiences at Lapham Elementary School are giving her an education of her own about the joys and challenges of public education.

She balances her time between the Milwaukee office of Rethinking Schools and her home off Williamson Street. In Madison, she often works at Michelangelo's Coffee House on State Street - editing manuscripts, meeting with writers, even handing out checks.

"It's less chaotic here than at home," she laughed, finishing a cup of tea. She said that she and her husband, Andrew Rohn, are sometimes accused by friends of not being able to share. "They say that's why we have two of everything - the boys, and two cats and two dogs."

Catherine Capellaro works for Rethinking Schools at Michelangelo's Coffee Shop on State Street Tuesday.

Photo by Michelle Stocker/The Capital Times Catherine Capellaro with her husband, Andrew Rohn, and her their twin boys, Leo (left) and Julian, pose with their Walmartopia gear before a recent rehearsal at St. Steven's Lutheran Church in Madison.

Capellaro, 40, was formerly an associate editor at The Progressive and has been managing editor at Rethinking Schools since spring 2002. She is the lone non-educator among the magazine's editors.

"A lot of education publications are aimed at administrators," she said. "While I'm making a strong effort to learn more about educational theory, I believe our primary mission is to try to reach teachers, and help them tap into their capacities as creative thinkers. We want to raise questions, stimulate discussion.

"I think we need to see more activism at the individual level, not less. I'm all for it when kids do their homework about an issue and then address the school board."

Rethinking Schools Ltd. is a nonprofit publisher that focuses on issues of equity and justice, and advocates for the reform of public schools, especially urban schools (see sidebar). It publishes a quarterly magazine, and many other books and print resources aimed at teachers.

Capellaro is ambitious for Rethinking Schools (see www.rethinkingschools.org), and hopes to expand its reach.

"You could think of us as the Amway of social justice education. I'd like every teacher to have some exposure to this way of thinking about education. It's a real antidote, I think, to the No Child Left Behind model of education, with its emphasis on standardization and high-stakes testing," she said.

One of the many problems of the No Child law, she adds, is that it puts a premium on an education that produces conformist students, perfect cogs to fit into the machinery of a global economy.

When Capellaro begins talking about the demands of a corporate culture, it becomes clear that there is some crossover between her life as a Rethinking Schools editor and her life as half of the dynamic duo behind the musical "Walmartopia," which she co-wrote with her husband.

"Walmartopia," a sharp and witty sendup of the biggest of the big box players, was a smash hit in Madison, with sold-out performances each time it was presented here. Next month, Capellaro, Rohn and a cast of 30 (plus their twin boys and assorted relatives) head to the musical's New York City off-Broadway debut in what's being billed as "Walmartopia's" World Domination tour (see sidebar).

"It's not a coincidence that the Walton family gives huge amounts of money to anything that encourages the privatization of education," she said. "From their perspective, the proper role of the schools is to create a hyper-capitalist worker. You know, the AP (advanced placement) students become the executives, and everyone else is a worker bee or a consumer."

In a scene from Walmartopia, the heroine looks out the window on the State Street of the future, when Wal-Mart has taken over the world. She asks about the children in school uniforms and is told they attend something called Schoolmart. This being a musical, this is the opportunity for the children to burst into a song, where they warble, "Schoolmart teaches us to shop. How to stock and sweep and mop."

As for Leo and Julian, the sons of Capellaro and Rohn, they've been raised on music, musicals and social justice issues. Before Walmartopia, the couple created a musical called Temp Slave, which played successfully in San Francisco as well as Madison and is based on their own work experiences in New York and elsewhere.

Capellaro, who grew up in New Glarus, had her first experience on the stage playing the lead in her high school production of Hello, Dolly! under the direction of Larry Daehn, a former high school music director with a practically mythic reputation. Rohn, who was born in Vermont and grew up in Portland, Ore., comes from a family of artists with deep theatrical roots.

The couple met while working on a Broom Street Theater production in 1992 and previously performed together in a well-known local band, the Merkins.

Just to avoid any possibility of boredom, they continue to play in several local bands, including the dance band VO5, and the Madgadders, performing music that Capellaro describes as raucous family rock 'n' roll.

"It's music for kids that adults don't mind listening to," she said.

She says she's relieved that some of Walmartopia's messages that skewer contemporary consumer culture may have been internalized by her kids.

"You know, there is this giant industry devoted to getting the very youngest kids to want to buy products. It's so persuasive, it's kind of scary. But last week Julian said a great thing. He thanked me after he decided to buy one toy instead of another with really flashy packaging.

"He said, 'Mom, I think the box almost had me hypnotized. But thanks for helping me. I think I got the better thing, and I'm going to like it a lot longer.'

"Now that," she said with a laugh, "is real progress."