Run away!
That’s what some directors want to do when faced with staging a musical version of a popular classic.
The thought also occurred to Susannah Rose Woods, artistic director for Whidbey Children’s Theater, when someone floated the idea of producing “Little Women, The Broadway Musical.”
But Woods said once she read the script and heard the music for the play, she let go of her previous attachment to the novel and let herself feel the story in a new way; more intensely because of the music that accompanies the familiar hills and valleys of the story.
“I think music has the capacity to create a deeper, emotional landscape.
I think I feel the story more,” Woods said.
The show opens with the Third Street Players at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17 and runs through Dec. 4 on the Martha Murphy Mainstage in Langley.
Based on Louisa May Alcott’s classic 1869 semi-autobiographical novel, it focuses on the four March sisters — brassy, tomboy-like, aspiring writer Jo, romantic Meg, pretentious Amy, and kind-hearted Beth. The girls live with their mother, the beloved Marmee, at home in Concord, Mass., while the family patriarch is away serving as a Union Army chaplain during the Civil War.
The musical is strung together with vignettes and songs in which the character’s lives unfold, and with the melodramatic short stories Jo writes in her attic studio and stages with her sisters.
Casting was important, and with this adult and young adult cast Woods said she found musical actors who have reached beyond her expectations.
“I looked for the same qualities I always do: a sense of wonder, professionalism, a willingness to play, to be real, to be silly, to show up and really be present; to have trust and chemistry,” she said.
“At the end of the day, every play needs that. ‘Little Women’ is no more or less difficult to cast than Hamlet or King Lear, especially in that the characters are well-loved, well-known.”
The play goes through a condensed version of Alcott’s whirlwind novel in which the characters experience all of the life, love, death, births, weddings, art and writing of the original story.
Her method, she said, is to give the actors the foundation of the history and the place, and then create a good atmosphere for the intense ride.
“Mostly I try and create a soft safety net for all the actors, so they can take risks and go deeper. And I wanted the actors to be as authentic in their story telling as possible,” Woods said.
Her ideas for design came out of a desire to recreate the feelings of “home.”
“I wanted it to feel like a well lived in home. A place of comfort, of love,” Woods said. “With the costumes,
I wanted a sense of real clothes on real people, not costumes. I’ve been blessed to have an incredible creative team.”
The production features many familiar teens and alumni in the roles of the March family with Elizabeth Grant as Jo, Ahna Dunn-Wilder as Meg, Allison Kennedy as Beth, Athena Michaelides as Amy, Ambria Prosch as Marmee and Jill Johnson as Aunt March. The gentlemen of the cast include Ken Martinez, Cameron Gray, Matt Bell and Kent Junge.
Vocal direction is by Linda McLean, assisted by Bell; costumes are by Val Johnson and lighting is by Rod Stewart; the stage manager is Michelle Durr; Sarafina Durr is the technical assistant; Lillie Walsh is production assistant; and Gray created the poster.
This production is made possible thanks to Walking Woman Productions and the Morris Family Foundation.
The show runs at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and at 2 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 4 at 222 Anthes Ave. in Langley.
Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $8 for students.
For tickets, call 221-2282. Special price family shows cost $8 at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19 and at 2 p.m. Sunday Nov. 27. Go to www.WCTonline.com.
