Fairy lights strung across soft brown trees; sparse, light-beige furniture; a light blue-green background with a standing door; everything awash in warm yellow light. The set of Northlight Theatre’s “Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women” was beautiful.
The play “Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women,” written by Lauren Gunderson and directed by Georgette Verdin, is an adaptation of the classic novel “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott. This adaptation had yet to be performed before Nov. 29th, the opening night of the performance at Skokie’s Northlight Theatre.
In an ironic twist of fate, the production seemed to be subconsciously tied to the spirit of “Little Women” from the beginning. “Our first preview, without anyone’s knowledge, was planned and took place on Louisa’s birthday,” said actor Tyler Meredith, who played the roles of Jo March and Louisa May Alcott.
Meredith, a longtime fan of “Little Women,” was delighted to play Jo. “It’s one of my favorite books. I’ve probably reread it the most out of any books in my life.”
One way this adaptation stood out was its embrace of the comedic side of “Little Women,” a story that originally focused on the emotional rollercoaster that is teenage girls’ adolescence. The choice was a surprise at first—and took some getting used to. Nevertheless, the play’s humorous style brought out new sides of each of the characters. Beth (Demetra Dee) was much more expressive, compared to the quiet and reserved March sister viewers are used to. Meg’s (Janyce Caraballo) vanity appeared sillier, and John Brooke’s (Erik Hellman) calm attitude became full of great comedic timing and deadpan humor. While an unconventional choice, over the breadth of the production it became clear that embracing comedy was an excellent choice. It enhanced each character and brought them to life.
“I was expecting to see a more dramatic tone as I had experienced in the book and movie, but I ended up really loving the comedic angle this production took,” said Talia Bahar, a senior at ETHS. “This version specifically placed a lot of emphasis on how this is a story about the realistic lives of young women, which includes a lot of silliness.”
Embracing comedy, and therein the realism of these characters, also strengthened the more serious scenes in the play.
“I think it was super helpful in the more dramatic moments to have levity like that, like in the big breakup scene with Laurie. The fact that he is making a joke out of it just fuels my anger. It fuels my hurt,” Meredith explained, referring to her performance as Jo.
However, the most prominent way this adaptation differs from the original novel is by including both Jo and Louisa May Alcott herself as characters. While Alcott heavily based Jo off of herself, Alcott is not an actual character in the novel. Except, in “Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women,” Louisa begins and ends each act with spirited commentary on herself, her characters, family, and fans.
Meredith, who played both the roles of Jo and Louisa, said, “The hardest thing was finding the moments of Louisa and the differences between her and Jo, which aren’t many, but they’re definitely there.”
As a longtime lover of “Little Women” myself, the most exciting part of watching this adaptation was hearing the numerous references to the original novel and Alcott’s real life. A surprisingly vast majority of the script were either direct quotes from the book or from Alcott. It was fascinating to watch how the actors conflated those lines with their own acting, casting new implications on those quotes. Case in point, “Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women” is possibly the first adaptation of the novel to hint at Jo and Alcott’s widely theorized queerness.
For Meredith, who identifies as queer, that implication was one of the most exciting parts about performing in this adaptation of “Little Women.”
“Reading the books, I saw myself so much in [Jo],” Meredith said. “There’s so much language in the play that is not only taken directly from the book, like [Jo’s] first lines about being a boy and wanting to be a boy, but there’s also Louisa’s own language, about paddling your own canoe, about never marrying.”
Considering the uptick of anti-LGBTQ+ laws and sentiment across the U.S., it’s an unexpected time for Jo March to make her gay debut. Despite that, Meredith argues that now may actually be an excellent time for this type of “Little Women” adaptation. “I felt so lucky to be in a room with that many women and queer people. In the current political climate, to be able to come into a room and lose yourself in a story that feels comforting and nostalgic and is so funny—it’s just so important.”
During the run of “Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women,” Northlight Theatre excitedly announced the success of their Next Act Campaign, which aimed to raise enough money for the theatre to relocate to downtown Evanston. Specifically, the theatre will be located in the empty lot by the corner of Church St. and Oak Ave.
“The 2025-2026 season is expected to be the final season in our current home at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, with an anticipated opening of our new home in Fall 2026,” Northlight Theatre wrote on their website.
The news is extremely exciting for lovers of theatre—especially Evanstonian ones. Bahar, a longtime fan of musical theatre productions and ETHS theatrical performances, is looking forward to Northlight’s relocation. “I think it’s great to see a local theater like this be able to grow into having its own space when it’s been housed in a performance center for so long,” she said.
Northlight Theatre also cited the numerous economic benefits their new location will bring to Evanston as yet another upside to the campaign’s success. Their website says that, according to an economic impact study by Hunden Strategic Partners, the new location will create 115 new jobs and generate over $450,000 of city tax revenue during the first five years of operation.
While the new location was just announced on Dec. 11th, 2024, the project has been in the works since 2019. Its progress halted in 2020 when the pandemic interfered with fundraising, but fortunately Northlight Theatre was able to purchase the land in July, 2021. They demolished the pre-existing building in the summer of 2022. Since then the lot has stood empty, with only a sign announcing the future theatre. Construction is set to begin in March.
