This weekend, Paschal Theatre is presenting Little Women, written by Kate Hamill and directed by Mr. Weesner, Mr. Clemmons, and Mr. Whitehead. The show opened on Thursday night with an amazing performance with great acting, directing, and production. There will be two more performances: one on Friday October 13th, and two on Saturday October 14th. 

The play started with wild and unconventional Jo March (Megan Seeds), telling a dramatic story at the request of her quiet but wise younger sister, Beth (Abby Walters). Meg March (Kingsley Marshall), the oldest and most responsible March sister, and Amy (Ella Lawrence), the youngest and most childish sister, join in the conversation. Everyone is very stressed about the civil war, which their father is fighting in, and they get into an argument until their mother, Marmee (Mavah Lawrence), and Hannah (Penelope Maddox) settle them down. 

All of the girls changed slightly as they met new characters, such as their neighbor Laurie (Owen Perry), his grandfather, Mr. Lawrence (Jacob Ekeroth), and Laurie’s teacher, John Brooks (Drake Spencer). But Jo continued to stand out the most. She doesn’t want to attend dances, or get married like her sisters. Instead, she has ambitions of learning more about the world, and becoming a famous writer or actor. 

In addition to the main characters, there were multiple interesting side characters who were portrayed in interesting ways that really added to the performance. These included strict and intimidating Aunt March (Audrey Middleton), vain and silly Mrs. Mingott (Olivia Carrell), Mr. Dashwood (Walker Maxwell), Robert March (George Gulde), Messenger (Hanah Trujillo), and of course, the highly memorable parrot (Sam Gulde). 

There were many unique aspects about the performance in addition to the story. In some scenes, there were several things happening almost at the same time, which created an interesting effect. For example, during the scene at the party, Jo and Laurie were talking in one part of the stage at the same time that Meg and John Brooks and several other people were dancing in a different area. 

They also used sound and lighting to set the tone in some of the scenes, which made them more emotional. Lighting was managed by Rosemary Griffith, and the sound was by Caleah Johnson. Other crew members, Haley Hooper (stage manager), Sabine Stringer (assistant stage manager), Charlie Horton (LED technician), Molly Forrestal (property manager), Carmen Salavon (costumer), and Sam Sides (makeup designer) also contributed to the performance. And of course the carpentry team, Luca Riccetti, Isabelle Saffell, Hannah Dietrich, Emme Dietrich, Greta Salavon, Azul Ramos, and Cam Lino, were responsible for building the atmospheric set. 

The second half of the play was a little darker than the first; anyone who knows the story of Little Women remembers how heartbreaking some moments are. But this ending was done in a very unique way that connected back to the beginning of the play in a very natural way, showing how much each character had changed from the many things they experienced. 

Overall, Little Women was a moving, funny at times, and uplifting show that explored topics as light as family and love, to much deeper ones, such as self discovery and making an impact on the world. There are three more productions happening: Friday night at 7:00 p.m., and Saturday at both 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Tickets are ten dollars for students, and 15 dollars for adults. Paschal Theater productions have been known to sell out in the past, so buy tickets now!