Little Women Review

By Alex Johnson

 

On November 14th and 15th, Middle School Theater produced Marisha Chamberlain's adaptation of Little Women. I went to see it on that Friday night, the first actual performance of the show. The set was amazing and the acting was fantastic. The set was created to display the interior of a house complete with a fully functional loft on the left of the stage that served as Joe's attic. There was a door that served as the enterance and exit to the house. Three towers depicting trees in either fall or spring stood to the right of the stage and represented the outside.

The storyline was a condensed version of the novel's plot line, which is to be expected from an adaptation. What made it intriguing was the fact that the whole play took place in one house. Usually with plays scene changes are necessary to accommodate the character's actions and to fully show the storyline. Little Women lends itself to a one scene play, which had its upsides and downsides. The lack of scene changes cut down on the transistion times and allowed the set to be more elaborate. But it also meant that everything happened in one scene, which made the play a little stagnant. Without the change in scenery, there was almost no change on stage to show all the different events that the March sisters went through other than taking off Christmas decorations and turning the towers from bare trees to blooming trees.

The actresses and actors themselves were fabulous. The casting of the characters was perfect. I believed that Natalie Cist was really a kind mother of four daughters, that Amy Palmer was a dainty little girl with a streak of vanity, and that Charlotte Moore would never ever even consider marrying a man and becoming a housewife. They worked hard, and their hard work paid off. Another aspect that impressed me was the amount of other student involvement. From tech to props to costumes to piano recordings to helping out on stage, many other high school students helped to make his play happen. They were the behind-the-scenes people that deserve more credit than they usually get. Thank you to Mr. Greco and everyone else involved in the play for making this such an enjoyable show.

 

Coming Soon:

Christmas Concert on December 18th. Support your peers by watching them perform all the pieces that they have been working on since the start of the year!