By Ever Harris/Carrborean

JagTheatre presents the classic production of Little Women, which takes place during the Civil War and follows the interconnected stories of the four March sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. It includes their transition into womanhood as well as their experience with loss, poverty, sexism and messy affairs of the heart.is to be viewed on Carrboro High School’s very own stage from Nov. 12 to Nov. 15. As a full-length show, the play will be around 2 hours long.

Every night will be a new experience, as these Carrboro High School (CHS) student actors present their own interpretation of complex roles in two casts.

Little Women contains many modem themes that parallel the progressive society we aspire to live in today. Feminism is a key ideal that we see through Jo’s distaste for marriage and promotion of the self-made woman, yet all of the sisters demonstrate varied impacts of discrimination. The many trials Jo faces on her path to becoming a writer, Meg’s programming to be proper, Amy’s ingrained “dependence” on marriage and Beth’s timid nature all show how gender inequalities shaped these individual character arcs.

Louisa May Alcott, the author of the novel upon which the play is based, purposefully integrated her progressive civil/political opinions into her works. In fact, she was known to use her writing as a vessel for activism; many of her personal ideas were represented through Jo’s perspective in Little Women.

Alcott once said, “Women, they have minds, and they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they’ve got ambition, and they’ve got talent, as well as just beauty. I’m so sick of people saying that love is all a woman is fit for.”

Regardless of the fact that the original book version of Little Women came out in I 868, its focus on the discomfort of change as well as the navigation of life at a time where politics had a very personal impact on everyone, makes it timeless.

Aside from the gravity of the content, actors shared that line memorization can be the hardest task of any play. In addition to spending every theatre class period rehearsing/ blocking as a group, cast members have had to spend hours of their own time making sure that when showday arrives, their conversations seem effortless. Some use Quizlet, others do voice recordings of their dialogue and some simply depend on repetition.

The creation of this performance, although greatly supported by directors Brett Stegall and Katie Moorehead, has largely been an effort of students-with consistent work of the actors and production teams (lighting, publicity, costumes, etc.). The November showing will serve as not only a celebration of each theatrical contributor but also a time to recognize a cast of many seniors, hoping to make a final mark on Carrboro High’s stage.

Little Women will be a highly moving spectacle put on by student thespians of all performance backgrounds. They hope to share an inspirational piece on the extraordinary changes and pleasures that come with ordinary life.By Ever Harris/The Carrborean