PlayGuide - "Little Women"

JANUARY 16 – FEBRUARY 18, 2024 | QUADRACCI POWERHOUSE

BY

DIRECTED BY

ADAPTED FROM THE NOVEL BY

KATE HAMILL

MARTI LYONS

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT

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JANUARY 16 – FEBRUARY 18, 2024 | QUADRACCI POWERHOUSE Presented by The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

By Kate Hamill

Corporate Sponsor

Directed by Marti Lyons

Adapted from the Novel by Louisa May Alcott

Executive Producers

Associate Producers

Julia & Bladen Burns Sandy & Bill Haack

Katie & Chris Hermann Catherine & Buddy Robinson

Table of Contents About the Play.................................................3 Mark Clements ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Characters......................................................4

Chad Bauman PLAYGUIDE WRITTEN BY

Building on a Classic: Adaptations of Little Women............................6

Lindsey Hoel-Neds

About Louisa May Alcott..................................8

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

CONTENT WRITER PLAYGUIDE EDITED BY

Deanie Vallone LITERARY & NEW PLAY CONSULTANT

Historical Context: The American Civil War.................................9 Living in the North During the War...............10 Women’s Roles in 19th Century America.......11

Lisa Fulton CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER

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Little Women – PlayGuide

About The Play Note from the playwright: —The trap in this play—and all plays have traps—is to try to recreate the novel, or some idea of the novel, or some idea of the archetypes found in the novel. This adaptation is a retelling, and in some ways a conscious explosion of those archetypes. It is not polite. None of the characters are good or bad. They are not always likable—and that’s particularly important for young women, the freedom to not be “likable” at all times—but they are human. They are imperfect people, and it is not a perfect family.

This new adaptation of the classic Louisa May Alcott story by award-winning playwright Kate Hamill follows the March sisters as they come-of-age in Massachusetts during and following the American Civil War. The four sisters–Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy–are all different in their personalities and life goals, but united in their love for each other and the entire March family. The girls are guided on their life journey by their mother, whom they lovingly call Marmee, and their father, who is serving as a chaplain in the Union Army.

The play opens on a scene of Jo telling Beth a story at the latter’s request. The girls are called into breakfast, and we meet the other sisters and the family housekeeper, Hannah. The conversation gives the audience a glimpse into the personalities and priorities of each of the March sisters: Jo’s fierceness and sense of adventure, Meg’s mothering tendencies as the oldest, Beth’s unassuming sweetness, and Amy’s spunk and desire for the finer things.

Marmee arrives home after tending to a sick woman and

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her family, and suggests that they think more charitably about Christmas this year. Most of the girls protest, but a compromise is reached and the sisters are allowed to spend a dollar out at the shops. The four bundle up, grab their hot potato hand warmers, and head out into the New England winter.

As the girls chat outside, they hear music coming from their neighbor Mr. Laurence's house. They listen as Mr. Laurence’s grandson, Laurie, plays a sad tune on the piano, little knowing how much the young man will become part of their lives.

As the play continues and the girls grow, they live through heartbreak, new experiences, joy, tears, death, and ultimately the pleasures and pains of coming-of-age and becoming a woman. Playwright Hamill is able to take this familiar story and breathe into it new life, bringing together these beloved characters on a journey of self-discovery, family, and love.

Rebecca Cort, Katie Peabody, Colleen Madden, Amelio García, and Cy Paolantonio in LIttle Women. Photo by Bronwen Houck.

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Cy Paolantonio

Katie Peabody

Colleen Madden

MEG MARCH The oldest March daughter. Acts as Marmee’s second in the house.

A romantic at heart—likes to dress up and have little luxuries in life.

BETH MARCH The third March. An extremely special person. Very sweet and paralytically shy; had to be removed from school because of her paralyzing social anxieties.

Agoraphobic. Almost incapable of going out in the world; sheltered by her family. Loves deeply and has deep empathy for everyone. Loves the simple things in life—so much that it hurts. Sees much more than anyone realizes. Brave and sensitive; quick to forgive and heal wounds. An observer.

MARMEE MARCH The matriarch of the March family.

A social revolutionary, ahead of her time. Good sense of humor. A warrior; keeps the family together.

Tough. Strong. Intelligent.

AUNT MARCH The most unpleasant old woman imaginable. Has lots of money; privileged. Strong political and personal opinions, which people endure. Judgmental.

Amelio Garcia JO MARCH The second-oldest March. Does not fit comfortably within the parameters of her given gender role. A deep fire within her.

Extremely ambitious and frustrated by the distance between where she is and where she wants to be.

Impatient. Wants to change the world. Very smart and knows it. A mix of insecurity and aspiration.

Boyish and rough-and-tumble.

Sometimes antagonistic. Not the most tolerant of differing viewpoints. Can be quite awkward or abrupt; bad temper when riled. A great sense of humor.

Passionate. Ahead of her time. A warrior. Has a special relationship with Beth.

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Macall Gordon Rebecca Cort AMY MARCH The youngest March. Opinionated and spunky; popular and quite focused on style. Not the most tolerant of differing viewpoints.

Socially intelligent. Sometimes puts on airs. Perhaps a bit spoiled.

A perfect little lady—except for her temper, and her not-so-great command of “vocabiblary.”

HANNAH Irish. The March’s longtime housekeeper, cook, and de facto babysitter. A treasure; a terror; a traditionalist. Takes no nonsense.

Matter-of-fact; she’s the boss of that kitchen, for sure.

MRS. MINGOTT A very rich, stylish woman.

Vanderbilt-esque, condescending, not terribly pleasant; fancies herself charitable.

Little Women – PlayGuide

Characters

*Descriptions excerpted from Little Women play script

Austin Winter

Chiké Johnson

Richard Nguyen Sloriker

THEODORE "LAURIE" LAURENCE A sweet and handsome young man. Sensitive. Funny, charming, and caring. In his fantasies he’s a white knight: riding in to rescue damsels in distress. A natural musician. Wealthy thanks to his inheritance; generous, does not have to think about money. Does not always fit comfortably within the parameters of his given gender role—he doesn’t want to grow up to be a soldier or tedious man of business. Finds a family in the Marches.

MR. LAURENCE Laurie’s grandfather, responsible for Laurie’s upbringing. A wealthy man. A gentleman in the strictest sense. Not comfortable with emotional language; bad at expressing himself. Has a rigid sense of what is appropriate behavior, especially for a man.

Tends towards gruffness or temper.

Probably quite unintentionally frightening. Deeply regretful of incidents in his past, but unable to express it.

JOHN BROOKS Laurie’s sometimes stiff and awkward tutor. A rule follower. A poor man, well educated. Has a very noticeable limp— probably served in the war and was sent home, although may have been disqualified from service altogether. Feels deeply.

ROBERT MARCH Father to the March girls. Never speaks, but his presence looms large. Wounded in the war; never quite recovers. Struggles with his injuries, both emotional and physical.

MR. DASHWOOD A publisher of cheap newspapers and novels. A businessman, working in a man’s world. Fancies himself a realist. Not a nice guy.

Fancies himself a nice guy.

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PARROT Aunt March’s parrot: pure evil. A musty, disgusting bird. Probably an actual demon in parrot form.

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Building Adaptations of on a Classic: Little Women

Background: Still from the 1933 film. Photo credit: IMDb.

Little Women has been considered an American classic for many years, and many adaptations have been made of this tale on the screen, on the stage, and on the page. Kate Hamill’s new adaptation that is gracing our boards this winter is just one of the many retellings of the March family’s beloved story. Some of these adaptations are lost to time, like a 1917 silent film, the 1950 BBC mini-series, or over four dozen radio dramas presented in the 1930s and 1940s. But some, like this stunning new stage play, reside in our hearts and our memories as sparkling examples of a story that resonates over 150 years after it was first published.

On the Screen

1918 - The first American film adaptation of Little Women was released.

1933 - One of the most famous screen adaptations of the book, the 1933 George Cukor directed film starred a young Katharine Hepburn as Jo and was met with critical and commercial success.

1949 - This adaptation used the same script and music as the 1933 version, but was colorized. The film boasted a who’s who of rising stars such as Janet Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor, Margaret O’Brien, and June Allyson.

1969 - A children’s ballet adaptation premiered on CBS. As the hour-long ballet was geared towards a young audience, the adapters took the liberty of having Beth survive at the end of the story.

1970 - One of four BBC mini-series adaptations of the book premiered. The BBC also aired multi-part adaptations in 1950, 1958, and 2017.

Poster from 1949 feature film. Photo credit: PBS.

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Background: Still from the 1994 feature film. Photo credit: IMDb.

1978 - NBC’s mini-series adaptation featured some notable television actors of the era, including Eve Plumb (The Brady Bunch), Susan Dey (The Partridge Family), Meredith Baxter, and oddly enough, William Shatner (Star Trek).

1987 - Japan’s Fuji network aired a 48-episode anime series adaptation of Little Women that then later premiered in the U.S. on HBO. Alcott’s sequel to the book, Jo’s Boys, was also adapted in the early 90s.

1994 - The feature film adaptation that many Gen Xers and Millennials see as the quintessential version hit theaters. The film adaptation by Gillian Anderson starred Susan Sarandon, Winona Ryder, Claire Danes, Samantha Mathis, Kirsten Dunst, and Christian Bale.

2017/2018 - A faithful and well-wrought mini-series adaptation premiered on BBC and then PBS the following year.

2018 - A feature film starring Lea Thompson as Marmee moved the action of the story to the present day.

2019 - Greta Gerwig’s retelling premiered to great critical and commercial acclaim for the adaptation, directing, acting, and production elements. The film starred a cavalcade of young stars including Emma Watson, Saoirse Ronan, Eliza Scanlen, Florence Pugh, and Timothée Chalamet. The matriarchs of the March family were played by the icons Laura Dern (Marmee) and Meryl Streep (Aunt March).

The March sisters in the 2019 feature film. Photo credit: IMDb.

Little Women – PlayGuide

Scene from the 1912 stage adaptation. Photo credit: Wikipedia.

Production photo from the 1998 opera. Photo credit: PBS.

On the Stage

1912 - The first Broadway production of Little Women, an adaptation by journalist and playwright Marian de Forest, premiered in October.

1998 - Composer Mark Adamo adapted Little Women into an opera that focused primarily on Jo’s hesitation to grow up. The opera premiered in Houston and has been performed dozens of times around the country since.

2005 - Little Women premieres as a musical on Broadway starring

On the Page

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Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy: A Modern Graphic Retelling of Little Women by Rey Terciero, illustrations by Bre Indigo (2019) In this modern adaptation, the Marches are a blended family living in Brooklyn. The story centers on more contemporary issues, but also follows the timeless themes of Alcott’s book.

March by Geraldine Brooks (2005) This novel follows the story of Mr. March, the patriarch of the March clan, as he serves as an Army Chaplain during the height of the Civil War. Jo & Laurie by Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz (2020) Set in 1869, Jo has had unexpected success with her first novel and sets off with Laurie on a whirlwind trip to New York.

While he hopes to come home engaged, she has other plans for her life. This book follows the shifting romance between the two as they begin their adult lives.

Meg & Jo by Virginia Kantra (2019) This modern adaptation sees Jo struggling as a food worker trying to make it as a blogger and Meg struggling with her “perfect” suburban life.

The Little Women Letters by Gabrielle Donnelly (2011) This novel imagines descendants of Jo March discovering her letters and reflecting on the relationship between the March sisters.

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Sutton Foster as Jo. While the show only ran for five months, it has become a popular choice for regional and educational theaters and has seen many productions in the ensuing years.

2018 - Kate Hamill's adaptation of Little Women premiered at The Jungle Theater in Minneapolis.

For more titles, visit this list on GoodReads:

www.goodreads.com/list/show/106518.Little_Women_variations So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix by Bethany C. Morrow (2021) The March family is reimagined as a Black family living on Roanoke Island, a haven for recently emancipated people.

The book is inspired by Alcott’s, but takes a different cultural perspective on the time period and themes of the original novel.

Little Women and Werewolves: The Original Version of the Beloved Classic by Porter Grand and Louisa May Alcott (2010) This parody novel works from the premise that in the original unpublished draft of Alcott’s novel, the March girls were not only comingof-age, but also fighting werewolves! *Note: There are so many books inspired by Little Women or Alcott herself that we have only included a selection of titles here.

Photo credit: Amazon.co

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Louisa May Alcott. Photo credit: Getty Images.

Louisa May Alcott About

Louisa May Alcott was born on November 29, 1832 in Germantown, Pennsylvania to parents Bronson and Abby, followers of the popular transcendentalist movement. Her parents believed in the importance of education, so Alcott began reading and writing at an early age. While she was primarily schooled by her parents, she also studied under family friends Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Julia Ward Howe, Margaret Fuller, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Just like in the March family, Alcott had three sisters, with whom she had a close relationship her whole life. The Alcotts sometimes struggled financially, leading Louisa to take on various jobs, including turning to writing as a way to provide additional financial support for her family.

Alcott’s writing career began at an early age, with her first poem published under a pseudonym in 1851. Her first book of short stories was released in 1854. In 1860, she began writing for The Atlantic Monthly. When the Civil War broke out, Alcott served as a nurse at Union Hospital in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, during her time of service, she contracted typhoid fever, becoming gravely ill. Alcott did eventually recover and her letters home were published as Hospital Sketches (1863) which earned her critical recognition for her astute observations and humor.

During the mid-1860s, one of Alcott’s publishers asked her to write a novel for young women. She was not enamored with the idea, writing in her journal: “I don’t enjoy this sort of thing. Never liked girls or knew many, except my sisters; but our queer plays and experiences may prove interesting, though I doubt it.” Regardless, Alcott went with the old adage to “write what you know” and penned Little Women. With the publication of the semi-autobiographical novel in 1868, Alcott began the March family story that would be the most successful series of her career. As was popular at the time, the novel was published as a series of shorter stories, but was eventually compiled into one book. The story of the March sisters was an instant success and inspired Alcott to continue their journeys in Good Wives (1869), Little Men (1871), and Jo’s Boys (1886).

While Alcott is best known for her classic novels, she was a powerful, independent woman and social crusader. Her family served as conductors on the Underground Railroad during her childhood and her own beliefs as an abolitionist were well-known. She was part of the women’s suffrage movement and was the first woman to register to vote in Concord, Massachusetts. She used her pen to advocate for women’s rights and other social causes. Alcott never married or had children, but she did adopt her niece after her sister’s death.

Alcott died in 1888, but her legacy has shone on for almost 200 years since her birth.

After her service as a nurse was completed, Alcott wrote over thirty gothic thriller stories for various publications in the 1860s and early 1870s, albeit anonymously. One of her stories, "V.V., or Plots and Counterplots" has been considered one of the earliest detective stories, preceded only by Poe’s “Murders in the Rue Morgue” from which she derived her protagonist, a parody of Poe’s titular detective, Auguste Dupin. During the mid-1860s, she wrote sensational novels and stories under the pen name A.M. Barnard. She wrote several other books for adult audiences during this time, but none are as well known as her books for younger audiences.

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The Alcott family home. Photo credit: Wikipedia.

Little Women – PlayGuide

Artist depiction of the Battle of Gettysburg. Photo credit: Britannica.

Historical Context:

The American Civil War The American Civil War is a key event in American history and in the world of Little Women. The play takes place during the war, with Mr. March off serving as part of the Union forces.

Central to the conflict of the Civil War was the issue of slavery. The great divide between the Confederacy and the Union was the issue of whether slavery would be legalized in new territories joining the United States as well as growing sentiment towards abolition. While some may claim that the war was about “states' rights” versus federal control, the most pressing issue in the argument for “states' rights” was the right to own other human beings.

The catalyst for the Civil War was an assault on Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay on April 12, 1861. Confederate forces opened fire on the federal stronghold, forcing the lowering of the American flag in surrender. President Lincoln called out the militia in response to this insurrection. After this event, more slave-holding states joined the Confederacy and by the end of 1861 more than a million people were fighting along a line that spanned 1200 miles from Virginia to Missouri.

While battles occurred during 1861, the skirmishes barrelled into all-out war in 1862. The Confederacy gained ground in these early years at battles such as Shiloh, Gaine’s Mills, and Fredericksburg with the Army of Northern Virginia led by General Robert E. Lee. The turning points of the war occurred in 1863 with the battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg as well as the new leadership of General Ulysses S. Grant as the head of all Union forces, taking over in 1864. Union General William Tecumseh Sherman marched to the sea with his troops, burning the city of Atlanta to the ground and causing the South to buckle in their wake. Bloody battles ensued between the two sides until Lee surrendered at Appomattox in April 1865.

During the war, President Lincoln led the Union through the difficult time and in 1863, issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all enslaved people in the United States. Unfortunately, the effects of the Proclamation would not be fully felt until after the end of the war for many enslaved people. In fact, the news of emancipation finally reached enslaved people in Texas on June 19th, 1865, over two-anda-half years after the proclamation and several months after the Confederacy’s surrender.

The Civil War by the Numbers 4 million: Number of enslaved persons in the U.S. in 1860 2.5: Approximate percentage of the American population that died in the Civil War 2.1 million: Number of Northerners mobilized to fight for the Union army 880,000: Number of Southerners mobilized for the Confederacy

50: Estimated percentage of Civil War deaths that occurred in the last two years of the war 650,000-850,000: Number of casualties in the Civil War 40+: Estimated percentage of Civil War dead who were never identified 1 in 5: Average death rate for all Civil War soldiers

Map of the Confederate States of America. Image credit: PBS.

Some Documentaries to Watch The Civil War by Ken Burns (PBS) Reconstruction: America After the Civil War (PBS) Buffalo Soldiers: Fighting on Two Fronts (PBS)

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Union engineers in Petersburg, Virginia, 1864. Photo credit: Vox.

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Private Washington D.C. residence used as an infirmary during the war. Photo credit: U.S. Army Center of Military History.

Historical Context:

The North During the Civil War The war did not have an immediate influence on everyday life in the North, the world of the March sisters. Eventually most people across the country felt the war's impact on family life, the economy, and available resources, but the bulk of the battles only occurred in the southern half of the country. The devastation of the war was concentrated in the South and places such as the Marches' Massachusetts would not have seen the daily horrors of war. Though, sometimes, Confederate cavalry raided into the North to bring the realities of war to the Yankees and hopefully influence Northern morale.

A group of young women sewing a flag at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, 1861. Photo credit: National Parks Service.

While the bulk of the battles in the war were fought in the South, two of the deadliest battles were waged on northern soil. In the late summer of 1862, Confederate troops invaded the North and in September the bloodiest single day in American history occurred at the Battle of Antietam in Maryland. Combined, the two sides lost 22,000 troops in one day. Less than a year later, Confederate troops once again advanced into Union territory, leading to a three-day battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The casualties were the highest of the entire war – about 50,000 from both sides. Residents of the town sheltered in place as the battle raged, and nursed troops of both the blue and the gray once the fighting was done.

The North began the war with several advantages over the South, including more industry, nine out of ten of the largest cities in America, extensive rail lines, a significantly larger population leading to more troops, and much more money.

These advantages only went so far as the toll of war could be felt throughout the country by all. Going to war meant that the North no longer had access to goods from the South such as sugar, tobacco, and cotton. Substitutions were made such

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as wool for cotton and honey for sugar, but in the case of the original products being available, they became incredibly expensive. Taxes were raised and new money was printed to support the war effort; this led to inflation of about 80% in the North during the course of the war.

While the North had more large cities than the South, half of the population still lived on farms in rural areas. Farming life had always been hard work, but during the war, many families saw their patriarchs and other men off to the battlefields.

Women in families took over the farming tasks as well as their established duties in their homes. These new responsibilities extended to women in cities too who often had to take on the mantles of running family businesses.

Women who did not have to take over farms or businesses found ways to support the war effort as well. Sewing circles and other groups to make bandages and clothing for troops were common as were other aid groups that focused on providing food or fundraising. Many single women (like Louisa May Alcott) served as nurses at military hospitals. Life on the home front was not easy for anyone, but those who were there supported the war however they could.

In 1862, the passage of the Homestead Act saw many families heading west to stake their claim on 160 “unclaimed” acres each in the western territories and new states. Of course, these lands were not unoccupied, but were the result of the expulsion of indigenous tribes from their ancestral lands.

During the years of the war, over 2.5 million acres of land were homesteaded.

Homesteader caravan in Kansas. Photo credit: Kansas Historical Society.

While the people of the South saw battles waged on their doorsteps more often than those in the North and cities literally burned to the ground, the war touched all with its presence and changed their lives and our country forever.

Little Women – PlayGuide

The Consecration (1861) by George Cochran Lambdin, a painting depicting a symbolic representation of a woman’s “sacred role” during wartime. Photo credit: Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Historical Context:

Women’s Roles in 19th Century America Jo in Little Women is modeled after the strong, independent feminist Louisa May Alcott; in creating a character like herself, she defied expectations placed on women of her time and created a fictional female archetype for the ages.

Women during the 1800s were the keepers of the home and the hearth and were often relegated to things within “the women’s sphere.” As was the case throughout much of history, women were supposed to focus on the domestic arts of cooking, sewing, raising children, and keeping house.

Women also served as the moral compass for a family, instilling values and standing as a pillar of goodness. Marmee and Mr. March are much like Alcott’s own parents who believed in the importance of education and the limitless potential of their children, regardless of gender.

Without ignoring accomplishments, or casting a slur upon any of the graces which serve to adorn society, we must look deeper for the acquirements which serve to form our ideal of a perfect woman. The companion of man should be able thoroughly to sympathize with him — her intellect should be as well developed as his. We do not believe in the mental inequality of the sexes; we believe that the man and the woman have each a work to do, for which they are specially qualified, and in which they are called to excel. Though the work is not the same, it is equally noble, and demands an equal exercise of capacity.

elections or to own property with their spouse’s consent. As the 1800s wore on, women’s rights became a more prominent topic with the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 and other pushes for women’s suffrage. The progress was slow and the idea of women as the keepers of solely the domestic sphere was strongly ingrained in the consciousness of upper and middle-class white America.

The advent of the Civil War changed everything.

Women were thrust into the public sphere in ways they were not in the earlier parts of the 19th century. As women took over businesses, farms, and the financial life of many families, the “cult of true womanhood” lost some of its hold on the American psyche.

Over 20,000 women worked directly for the Union war effort as laundresses, cooks, matrons, and nurses. While the roles of women still focused strongly on more domestic skills, these roles were taken on outside the home for a “useful and patriotic” purpose. Views of women’s roles may have been slowly changing, but women like Jo March and Louisa May Alcott were still outliers in a world where women were considered “the softer sex.”

Women working in a textile mill, 1800s. Image credit: World History.us.

From Godey's Lady's Book, Vol. LIII, July to December, 1856.

An ideal Victorian woman was pious, pure, submissive, and domestic. Of course, the ideal of a “true woman” only could apply to white women of a certain social class. Women of color, immigrants, and indigenous women were not treated the same or put on pedestals like the mythical ideal. As Sojourner Truth said in her famous speech: "That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere.

Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! AND AIN'T I A WOMAN?" During the 1830s, the first colleges for women were opened in the United States, with the first being Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in Massachusetts, so the idea of educated women would not be foreign to the March sisters. During this time, in some states, women were allowed to vote in school board

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VISITING THE REP

TheRepertory Ticket Office is visiblePatty on the leftJay upon entering theComplex Wells Street doors. The Quadracci Milwaukee Theater’s and Baker Theater is located in the Milwaukee Powerhouse is located Mezzanine andStreets. can be accessed via escalator or elevator.

Center downtown at the corneron ofthe Wells and Water The building was formerly the home of the Electric Railway and Light Company.

The Ticket Office is visible on the left upon entering the Wells Street doors. The Quadracci Powerhouse is located on the first level.

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