From its original inception in the books by Louisa May Alcott, “Little Women” has been done and redone countless times, including now at our very own school. Stage manager Geo Mathias, senior, says he is excited for people to see this one. “I think it’s one of our best yet,” he said.
Since COVID, drama has only really performed comedies and Mathias is excited to put on a more dramatic play. “I think a lot of people have had a lot of these more dramatic skills that haven’t been utilized because we’ve been doing more comedies,” Mathias said.
This year the play has a relatively small cast. “It’s been really cool to get such a good feel of all the characters and we’ve been doing a lot of like character work, which has been really fun and an opportunity we don’t normally get,” said Mathias, mentioning that it also allowed them to put more focus into “developing a lot more skills in our actors.”
Overall, Mathias says he is really excited for how it’s shaping up. “I think we have a really awesome group of people we’re working with,” he said.
Junior Amara Ramsey who plays Jo March, and sophomore Adrian Lewinsohn, who plays Mr. March, the doctor, a parrot, and ‘a hideous man,’ are also excited about how the play is coming along. They both love rehearsals. “We just get a bunch of time just to hang out and everyone’s really good friends and it’s really fun just to get to act with each other, because it’s like you’re just messing around like with your closest friends,” said Ramsey.
They say that the play has been progressing well. “Our acting has gotten so much better since the beginning…now we have more emotion, like we’re, a lot of the characters are family members, so our actors are more physical with each other now, like a family would be,” said Ramsey. Personally, Ramsey says she’s “gotten better at learning how to memorize words, and just kind of acting in general, like learning how to be more realistic with actions, with tonal delivery and stuff like that.” Lewinsohn says he’s “learned to just be more open …[and] just more flexible with different roles.”
Still, there have been challenges. “Adjusting to like roles and how to kinda deliver certain lines, especially for me…and getting lines memorized was pretty difficult,” said Lewinsohn. Ramsey added that there’s also been challenges with energy levels. “Sometimes two characters are bouncing energy off of each other, like that’s how it’s written in the script, but one actor won’t have as much energy, so the other one is just getting more energized, but it seems like for nothing.”
Through the challenges, they’re both proud of their fellow actors. Ramsey is proud of how far everyone’s gotten. “I feel that everyone was stressed about memorizing their lines and going off book, but everyone’s been doing a lot better than they thought that they would, at least in my eyes,” Ramsey said. Lewinsohn agrees. “I’m proud of how far people have come and how it’s come together…it’s gotten a lot faster, the run-throughs, which is pretty cool to see,” Lewinsohn said.
Ramsey summarized “Little Women” as a story that revolves around the March sisters, and the March family. “It’s just kind of their story on how they grow up and how they change and how they just kind of adapt to the world. This is during the Civil War so how they like overcome their poverty situation and stuff like that.” Lewinsohn adds: “It’s a lot about finding your place in the world and all the girls are, you know, trying to find who they are and some do it more easily than others. I think it’s very heartwarming and also pretty sad.”
Show dates are Nov.14-16 and Nov. 21-23 at 7 p.m. You can buy tickets online at brownpapertickets.com or in school at the business office.
