As the lights dim, showcasing two young girls, familiar words echo: “Tell me a story, Jo.” In the Coppell High School Auditorium, the Cowboy Theatre Company brings the “Little Women” production to life in its public viewing in preparation for UIL. “Little Women” is about a journey the four March sisters face coming into maturity. The story focuses primarily on Jo, a writer who rejects femininity and the typical norms that society attaches to women.
Junior Sanjana Sreemushta, who plays the headstrong character of Jo, draws inspiration solely from the script. She navigates the challenges of portraying a character different from her typical roles.
“Even though I did know of the other two and I have read and watched the movie, I looked at the script independently and crafted my character just through the script, ” Sreemushta said. “The thing I find most challenging is portraying the realism, because I’m very used to exaggerated characters that are less real and more comical.”
Through the characters’ challenges, the audience relates to the growing pains of adolescence. With themes of finding oneself in the world as a woman, “Little Women” is an empowering play that shows that you can write your own story, even if it doesn’t meet societal standards.
“The entire time, Jo is trying to rebel against the idea of the stereotypical woman. She thinks that through her rebellion, she’s going to find herself. What the story really is that she has to define what it means to be a woman,” technical director Grace Hellyer said. “It’s not that she’s rejecting standard traditional feminine roles, she’s also realizing that just because she does not fall into that, that doesn’t mean that she’s less of a woman than anyone else.”
It was important for the cast to maintain the meaning of the play while simultaneously meeting UIL One-Act Play qualifications. Changes were made to make the production fit within the 40-minute time requirement.
“Little Women’ by Kate Hamill is a full two-act play, it’s
about two and a half hours long. We’ve taken that entire script and cut little bits and scenes out and we’ve narrowed that down and focused on really one or two story lines to make it fit within the 40 minutes,” Hellyer said. “That’s really where the work of it is. It’s figuring out what’s the storyline that we want to focus on and tell and then how do we truly and accurately portray that in a way that is also respectful to the way Kate Hamill wrote this way.”
Due to UIL time constraints, stage managers found creative ways to make the production come together with props and lighting. They mixed abstract themes to create a cohesive and dynamic production that mirrored Jo’s inner thoughts as she grew throughout the play.
“From my point of view as a stage manager, ‘Little Women,’ for this adaptation specifically, we are trying to play less into realism. What you saw on the set is trunks. There’s not really a set that is like what an audience would typically imagine, because we had to cut so much of the show and there’s no set changes,” senior stage manager Sarah Myers said, “The lighting and the special effects, like the LEDs, they add mood, and then also in this show specifically, the passage of time. We did that through Jo’s writing. When they’re gold, we’re in Jo’s mind, and she’s writing her story, and that story eventually becomes the story of her life.”
Through the many hours and weeks the cast and crew put into the play, “Little Women” stands as a captivating performance. This show has been important for the cast as they made lasting bonds through bringing this adaptation to life.
“This company has put in a lot of work and even if we don’t get to where we want to go, like state, region or we don’t advance as far as we want, I think they’re all very proud of the work that they’ve done and how bonded they’ve had to be,” Myers said.
Follow @CHSCampusNews on X.
