ABOUT THE PLAY

Little Women
Based on novels Little Women and Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott
Adapted for the stage by Jordi Mand
Directed by Esther Jun

House Program for Little Women

Grade Recommendation 6+

Content Advisory

This is an intergenerational, family show. It explores some mature themes including death and loss. 

Synopsis

Aspiring writer Jo March and her sisters, Meg, Beth, and Amy, do their best to make ends meet as they navigate the road to adulthood. Struggling to reconcile societal expectations with their own hopes and dreams, the girls are held together by bonds of loyalty and love. They may differ in their ideas of what it means to be a woman, but each of their journeys poses the same universal question: How do you find your own path? 

This production takes place in present day, with 1860s period costumes.

Curriculum Connections

• Global Competencies:
  • Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, Creativity, Learning to Learn/ Self-Awareness
• Grade 6
  • The Arts
  • Language
  • Social Studies
• Grade 7-8
  • The Arts
  • Language
• Grade 9-12
  • The Arts
  • English
• Grades 11-12
  • Social Sciences and Humanities

Themes

• Adaptation and "Classic" Literature
• The Complexity of Sisterhood
• Finding Hope in Difficult Times
• Following Your Authentic Self Through Changing Goals and Desires
• Gender and gender conformity of the period.
• Goodness, Self Sacrifice and the "Greater Good"
• Navigating Growing Up
• Poverty and Socioeconomic Class
• The Power and Joy of Storytelling, Creativity and Theatre
• Reconciling Personal Identity with Societal Expectations
• The Significance of Given and Chosen Families

DISCUSSION AND REFLECTION QUESTIONS

PRE-SHOW QUESTIONS

• What does it mean to be a good person? What makes someone "good"?
• Think of an instance when you felt restricted by others' expectations for you. What advice would you share with someone else in that situation? 
• In your own opinion, what does it mean to be a productive member of society? Is being productive something we should value? Why or why not?
• Can you think of an example of when it might be important to compromise? When should you hold your ground?
• What are some pressures young people face as they move towards adulthood? Where do these pressures come from?
• Intersectionality refers to when multiple social categorizations such as race, class or gender create overlapping impacts on an individual or group. Why is it important to acknowledge these categorizations as interconnected instead of individually?
• What do you believe is the importance of storytelling?
• What are some ways you find balance between doing what you want to do and what you have to do? 

POST-SHOW QUESTIONS

• What core values are illustrated in this play? Choose a character and discuss an example of where we see their values in conflict. 
• How does the play celebrate the differences between the characters?
• What is an example of a historical gender norm we see in the play? Does it still exist today? How has it evolved?
• Louisa May Alcott published Little Women in 1868, yet it continues to be shared and adapted today. 
• What effect did having the play set today and in the 1860s have on your experience? What did you think of seeing "modern girls in hoop skirts"?
• What is the relationship between wants and needs in this play? 
• Put yourself in the characters' shoes and discuss one example of a hard decision that was made. Would you have made the same choice? Why or why not? 

MINDS ON

Objective: This exercise invites students to explore the play's idea of making something from nothing through improvised storytelling. To do so, they are invited to breathe life into an inanimate object.

Materials: Enough bed sheets/tablecloths or similar items for a few groups.  

Directions: 

• Organize the class into small groups of approximately five students and give each group a bed sheet.
• Give students five minutes to brainstorm as many ways as possible they can turn the bed sheet into something else. Examples include a swaddled baby, the sail of a sailboat or a flying carpet.
• Ask students to choose three ideas they like the best, practice enacting them and then create a tableau in order to present each idea. To create tableau, participants will make a still image with their bodies to represent each object idea. The goal of the tableau is for the students to create a frozen image that makes what the sheet now represents as clear as possible, without speech. Give students about five minutes to make these choices and rehearse.
• When the groups are ready to present, have them take turns sharing their tableaux.

 Possible Extension

• Have the students create dynamic transitions between each tableau by finding a way to move the sheet from one representation to the next. (e.g., rolling it out as a red carpet, then picking it up into a hammock, then swinging it as a jump rope). The idea is to introduce movement and transitions into the still images they have already created. Alternately, the tableaux could be replaced with a single short scene that demonstrates the bed sheet being used as something other than a sheet without explicitly saying what that is. 

Debriefing Questions

• How were you able to recognize what the sheet represented? 
• Could you turn any of these ideas into a full scene? Which and why? How would you adapt it?
• How could you use the idea of making something from nothing to create larger-scale theatre?

CONNECTION TO THE ARCHIVES

Kristina Nicoll as Jo and Cassie Fox as Amy in Little Women, 1997. Based on the book by Louisa May Alcott. Adapted by Marisha Chamberlain. Directed by Marti Maraden. Designed by John Pennoyer. Lighting design by Louise Guinand. Photograph by Cylla von Tiedemann. Stratford Festival Archives,GPO.1997.007.0005

Kristina Nicoll as Jo, Fiona Byrne as Meg, Dixie Seatle as Marmee, Claire Jullien as Beth, Joyce Campion as Hannah and Cassie Fox as Amy in Little Women, 1997. Based on the book by Louisa May Alcott. Adapted by Marisha Chamberlain. Directed by Marti Maraden. Designed by John Pennoyer. Lighting design by Louise Guinand. Photograph by Cylla von Tiedemann. Stratford Festival Archives,GPO.1997.007.0006

What does this photograph tell us about the 1997 production's representation of the March family? How does this differ from the family in the 2022 production?

The Stratford Festival's Archives maintains, conserves and protects records about the Festival and makes those materials available to people around the world. Their collection contains material ranging from 1952 right up to the present and includes administrative documents, production records, photographs, design artwork, scores, audio-visual recordings, promotional materials, costumes, props, set decorations and much more. These materials are collected and preserved with the aim of documenting the history of the Festival, preserving the page-to-stage process, and capturing the creative processes involved in numerous other activities that contribute to the Festival each season.

RESOURCES

House Program - Little Women

Trailer - Little Women

Study Guide PDF - Little Women

Library Lectures with Esther Jun and Jordi Mand

The Life of Louisa May Alcott

Why Louise May Alcott's "Little Women" Endures

JO: An Adaptation of Little Women (sort of)

How Louisa May Alcott's Real-life Family inspired "Little Women"

Booking Information: Tickets, Workshop, Chats and Tours

Student Matinées

You may book any available date, but selected student matinée performances for this show are at 2 p.m. on the following dates:

• Friday, September 2nd
• Wednesday, September 7th
• Wednesday, September 14th
• Tuesday, September 20th
• Thursday, September 22nd
• Friday, September 23rd
• Wednesday, September 28th
• Wednesday, October 5th
• Friday, October 14th
• Wednesday, October 19th
• Friday, October 28th

Workshop, Chats and Tours

Pre or Post-Show Workshops, Chats and Tours (virtual, onsite or at your school/centre) can be booked by calling the Box Office at 1.800.567.1600.

TOOLS FOR TEACHERS SPONSORED BY

Tools for teachers include Prologues, Study Guides and Stratford Shorts.       

 PROUD SEASON PARTNERS 

PRODUCTION SUPPORT FOR LITTLE WOMEN IS GENEROUSLY PROVIDED BY THE SCHULICH FOUNDATION. SUPPORT FOR THE CREATION OF LITTLE WOMEN IS GENERAOUSLY PROVIDED BY THE FOERSTER BERNSTEIN NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM.