Cast members of Theatre Baton Rouge’s ‘Little Women’ are, clockwise from front left, Sammie Vaughn as Amy; Milo Howell as Jo; Mabry Spinks as Marmee; Katie Brigman as Meg; and Emery McCandless as Beth.
One can’t help wondering if Louisa May Alcott had access to a crystal ball when writing “Little Women.”
Her classic autobiographical novel reflected the attitudes of the day when it was published in the mid-1800s, yet it seems her young women would be experiencing some of the same issues in 2023.
For there are always choices to be made when it comes to love and marriage vs. independence. Alcott’s main character, Jo March, proved in the end that women could have it all, even in the 19th century.
Jo will not only live out this story but joins the audience as the narrator in looking back in retrospect when Theatre Baton Rouge opens “Little Women” on Friday in its Studio Theatre.
The show is a production of the theater’s Young Actors Program, meaning its entire cast and crew are made up of students from elementary to high school age.
Theater Baton Rouge’s managing artistic director Jenny Ballard is co-directing the 19-member cast with Caty Steward.
Adler Rice, left, is Laurie, and Milo Howell is Jo in Theatre Baton Rouge’s ‘Little Women.’
“‘Little Women’ is one of my personal favorite books, and I’ve been pushing this play for a really long time within the Young Actors Program,” Ballard said. “And thanks to, uh, Greta Gerwig’s excellent 2019 movie, we felt like it was a really good time to tell the story to this generation that kind of was rabid about that movie, because it’s excellent and it tells the story in a completely different way. So, everyone really got behind it and was excited about doing this show and agreed that it was the right time.”
Theatre Baton Rouge is performing an adaptation by Thomas Hischak, who has added an adult version of Jo March to narrate the story of the March sisters with her younger self included.
This means there will be two Jo Marches on the stage, the one living life among her sisters played by Milo Howell, and the narrator Jo played by Molly Bush.
“The narrator is written in the script as Josephine the Narrator or Author,” said Bush, a 17-year-old junior at University High School. “She’s about 40, and she’s amazing. I think there are a lot of things that Jo, as she’s older, brings into more contemporary times. We’ve talked in rehearsal about keeping Jo the narrator contemporary in comparison to other characters. It’s in her nature to be very ahead of her time.”
Front row from left, Emery McCandless is Beth and Sammie Vaughn is Amy; and, back row, Adler Rice is Laurie, Katie Brigman is Meg, Milo Howell is Jo and Mabry Spinks is Marmee in Theatre Baton Rouge’s ‘Little Women.’
“Little Women” is a coming-of-age novel originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. Both the book and play follow the lives of Jo March and her three sisters: Meg, played by 18-year-old Baton Rouge Magnet High School senior Katie Brigman; Beth, played by 14-year-old University High School eighth grader Emery McCandless; and Amy, played by 17-year-old Central High School junior Sammie Vaughn.
Their mother, Marmee, played by 16-year-old University View Academy junior Mabry Spinks, is the girls’ foundation. Rounding out the main characters is Laurie, played by 18-year-old Catholic High School senior Adler Rice.
Laurie is one of a few male characters in “Little Women,” but his is a key role that potentially could divide the sisters’ allegiance to one another. Rice is careful not to allow Laurie to steal the spotlight from the acting ensembles’ female leads.
Milo Howell, left, is Jo and Adler Rice plays Laurie in Theatre Baton Rouge’s ‘Little Women.’
“When I saw that Theatre Baton Rouge would be doing ‘Little Women,’ I was thrilled, because I know personally, as a guy who’s been around the acting world, I’ve noticed a lot of roles and a lot of shows revolve around some male character,” Rice said. “And it’s disappointing to see really talented co-stars and actresses who have been almost snubbed just by the way the shows and acting world works. So, when I saw that Theater Baton Rouge was doing this, I was thrilled because it focuses on the plights, the struggles, the strengths and the growth of women that are often overlooked.”
The story has been said to address three major of these plights: domesticity, work and true love, all of which are interdependent yet necessary to the achievement of Jo’s individual identity.
The production poster for Theatre Baton Rouge’s ‘Little Women’
“I think that when producing a coming-of-age tale such as this, it’s always really important and we have the right cast,” Ballard said. “We had the right young women in the Young Actors Program to tell this story.”
Leave a Reply