Little Women is a coming of age novel loosely displaying Louisa May Alcott’s childhood in Concord, Massachusetts, depicting the lives of four sisters undergoing the trials and tribulations of life during the Civil War. Since the first publication in 1868 Alcott has written numerous books, including a second volume in response to the popularity of Little Women.
University Theatre provides an opportunity ,.m;.l;.,or audiences to watch this American classic come alive on stage. With students from all backgrounds and majors, none of which being theater, this production provides not only a heart-touching story, but also a showcase of student talent.
The atmosphere surrounding the production upon entry to the theater ignites an automatic sense of the holiday season with a cozy civil war era home adorned with pieces of holly and candlelight. Like so many University Theatre productions, they love their projections, which can either make or break a performance.
Luckily for this production, the projection not only helped with creating various atmospheres, but physically displayed the mood and tone of various scenes throughout the production. Allison Bergman, assistant director of University Theatre and the director for Little Women, claimed the projections were meant to help with the changing locations and time of various scenes, but in such a way that could demonstrate the feelings of the scenes.
Bergman went on to say the biggest challenge was preparing the actors with the period of the production; the language of the Civil War era, the emotions and roles of the women in this time as well as the authentic clothing. Bergman explained to prepare for the production, the cast read Alcott’s novel and began rehearsals in corsets and hoop skirts to develop the appropriate the movements.
After hearing this, it is evident the preparation for this production succeed.
This production takes you through a year of the life of the March family during a time of war and poverty. Characters experience various situations throughout a year all intertwined with their sisterhood and sense of family. The cast effectively creates the characters of Alcott’s novel with great skill and pose.
Leanna T. Hall, a sophomore in mechanical engineering, plays the role of Meg March, the well-mannered oldest sister. Jordan Manning, a senior in communications media, portrays the lead role of Jo March, the second oldest sister and the character based off of Alcott herself. Manning brings the same sense of independent and strong-minded personality to the character as described in the books.
Jordan NeCamp , freshmen in fashion and textile management, plays the second youngest march sister, Beth, who encompasses the kind-heartedness of this character. NeCamp creates a character audiences fall in love with, bringing only heart-ache in the climatic beginning scene of act two. Kathleen Caldwell, freshmen in First Year College, brings the nativity and eagerness of the youngest March sister Amy.
All four actresses create an exciting dynamic to their roles and interactions with other characters. The relationships between these three women create the sense of sisterhood desperately needed for this production. While the performing elements combined with some technical aspects helped to enhance the feeling of the play, others took away from the moment.
Many times the lack of action or sound during transition or pivotal moments of the production took audiences out of the moment actors worked so hard to engage them in. It could benefit the overall production to have a better flow to the production as a whole, rather than the individual moments of the show.
However, these individual moments helped depict the emotions of the family throughout the entire production. The play was merely a string of production snapshots from a moment in the time of these women’s lives. The moments nearly created what looked like illustrations straight from Alcott’s novel. These pictures of emotions and family helped create the overall tone the production attempted to achieve.
Each actress of the four sisters brought some different element to the end product, and as Bergman described the audience is the last piece in that equation. As Jo says in the production, this production is “about all of us, and bout you, sir. It’s a story about you. And a story about me.” This production is truly about our history and about our future.
