Little Women About the Show
"Little Women" by Kate Hamill; adapted from the novel by Louisa May Alcott
Produced by Maggie Cooper
Directed by Jim Arter
LITTLE WOMEN is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Dramatists Play Service.
LITTLE WOMEN was commissioned and originally produced by the Jungle Theater (Sarah Rasmussen, Artistic Director), Minneapolis, MN. New York City premiere at Primary Stages (Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director; Shane D. Hudson, Executive Director; Casey Childs, Founder), June 2019. Developed at the Colorado New Play Festival, Steamboat Springs, June 2018.
"Little Women" Act I
It is December 1861 near Concord, Massachusetts. The American Civil War has begun and proved more harrowing than first imagined. For the March household of six women with Marmee, her four daughters and their maid, Hannah, the war has brought hardships. Across the way lives the wealthy Mr. Lawrence, his grandson Laurie and their tutor, Brooks. Those who are young strive to understand who they are as they grow into adults.
"Little Women" Act II
It is August 1863 and nearly two years have passed since the battles of Antietam, Vicksburg and Gettysburg. Childhood days have dissipated and being an adult has its complications.
About the Author & Playwright "Little Women"
Louisa May Alcott
Author of "Little Women"
Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 29, 1832. She and her three sisters, Anna, Elizabeth and May, were educated by their father, philosopher and teacher Bronson Alcott and raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May. Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and Concord, Massachusetts, where her days were enriched by visits to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s library, excursions into nature with Henry David Thoreau and theatricals in the barn at “Hillside” (now Hawthorne’s “Wayside”).
Like her character Jo March in "Little Women," young Louisa was a tomboy. “No boy could be my friend till I had beaten him in a race,” she claimed, “and no girl if she refused to climb trees, leap fences.” Writing was an early passion. She had a rich imagination and her stories often became melodramas that she and her sisters performed for friends. Louisa preferred to play the “lurid” parts in these plays — the villains, ghosts, bandits and disdainful queens.
At age 15, troubled by the poverty that plagued her family, she vowed: “I will do something by and by. Don’t care what — teach, sew, act, write, anything to help the family; and I’ll be rich and famous and happy before I die, see if I won’t!” Confronting a society that offered little opportunity to women seeking employment, Louisa determined, “I will make a battering-ram of my head and make my way through this rough and tumble world.” Whether as a teacher, seamstress, governess or household servant, she did any work she could find.
Her career as an author began with poetry and short stories published in popular magazines. In 1854, at age 22, her first book "Flower Fables" was published. A milestone along her literary path was "Hospital Sketches" (1863), based on letters she wrote home while serving as a nurse in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War.
When Louisa was 35, her Boston publisher, Thomas Niles, asked her to write “a book for girls.” "Little Women" was written at Orchard House from May to July 1868. The novel, based on Louisa and her sisters’ coming of age, is set in Civil War-era New England. Jo March was among the first American juvenile heroines to act from her own individuality — a living, breathing person rather than the idealized stereotype common in children’s fiction at the time.
In all, Alcott published more than 30 books and collections of stories. She died March 6, 1888, just two days after her father and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.
Kate Hamill
Actress/Playwright
Kate Hamill is an actor and playwright and was named The Wall Street Journal’s Playwright of the Year in 2017. Her play "Sense and Sensibility," in which she originated the role of Marianne, won the 2016 Off-Broadway Alliance Award, was nominated for a Drama League Award and ran for more than 265 performances off-Broadway. Other plays include "Vanity Fair," where she originated the role of Becky Sharp at the Pearl Theatre (Off-Broadway Alliance Award nominee, 2017) and "Pride and Prejudice," where she originated the role of Lizzy Bennet at Primary Stages and Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (Off-Broadway Alliance Award nominee).
Hamill's work has been produced off-Broadway and at major theaters across the country, including A.R.T., Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Guthrie, Seattle Rep, Dallas Theater Center, PlayMakers Rep and Folger Theatre, where "Sense and Sensibility" received eight Helen Hayes Award nominations and won for best production. Additional productions have been staged at the Arvada Center and beyond, with upcoming productions at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., A.C.T., Trinity Rep, Portland Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Kansas City Rep and Dorset Theatre Festival. Upcoming world premieres include "Little Women" at the Jungle Theater and Primary Stages and "Mansfield Park" at Northlight Theatre.
Hamill is currently developing new adaptations of "The Odyssey" and "The Scarlet Letter," along with several original works including "Prostitute Play," "In the Mines" and "Love Poem." She was also named one of the top 20 most-produced playwrights in the country.