Little Women Information

There will be Call Backs tonight for the character of

Jo only. Be prepared to sing your 16 bars again, and there will be cold readings with other male characters. Those of you who are called back will be notified individually. The Cast will be posted when auditions are complete.

Thanks to each and every one of you who auditioned. All of you were so wonderful; you really made our job HARD. Thank you for auditioning.

Auditions for DCT’s production of Little Women, The Musical, will be held January 29, 30, 2012 starting at 7:00 pm at the Campus Theatre, located at 214 W. Hickory Street in downtown Denton. Call backs, if needed, will be held January 31. This production is being directed by Buster Maloney. Music direction is by Ray Staniszewski.

Roles are available for 9 men and 9 women – ages 14 and up. All vocal ranges needed. Come prepared with 16 bars – preferably a ballad. Please bring sheet music in your key. Cold readings from the script will be included in the audition process. Dress comfortably for movement. Auditions are open - no appointments.

Louisa May Alcott’s beloved tale is set to music and filled with old-fashioned appeal for young and old. While their father is away during the American Civil War, the four March sisters and their devoted mother, Marmee, endure hardships bravely. They even manage to create a happy home where love and laughter brighten the darkest times. The story is told through Jo March’s eyes as she is the budding writer of the family. Intercut with scenes from the March’s lives are recreations of Jo’s highly dramatic short stories.

Performance dates for this production are April 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15. A mandatory pick-up dress rehearsal is also scheduled for April 12.

For more information, please call (940) 382-7014 or email thedctteam@campustheatre.com [thedctteam@campustheatre dot com]

The second-oldest of four sisters, Jo March starts out as a tomboyish, hot-tempered, fifteen-year-old girl. She loves activity and can't bear to be left on the sidelines; it drives her crazy that she can't go and fight in the Civil War alongside her father, who has volunteered as a chaplain. Instead, Jo has to stay at home and try to reconcile herself to a nineteenth century woman's place in the domestic sphere, which is extremely difficult for her. She's clumsy, blunt, opinionated, and jolly. Her behavior is often most unladylike – she swears (mildly), burns her dress while warming herself at the fire, spills things on her only gloves, and barely tolerates her cranky old Aunt March. She's so boyish that Mr. March has referred to her as his "son Jo" in the past, and her best friend Laurie sometimes calls her "my dear fellow." Jo also loves literature, both reading and writing it. She composes plays for her sisters to perform and writes stories that she ventually gets published. She imitates Dickens and Shakespeare and Scott, and whenever she's not doing chores or washing the poodle, cleaning the parrot Polly's cage, sewing towels (for Aunt Josephine March) she curls up in her room, in a corner of the attic, or outside, completely absorbed in a good book. Jo hopes to do something great when she grows up, although she's not sure what that might be – perhaps write a great novel. Whatever it is, it's not going to involve getting married; Jo hates the idea of romance, because marriage might break up her family and separate her from the sisters she adores. Jo is being set up for a meaningful journey of self-discovery and surprises. By the end of the novel, her dreams and dislikes are turned topsy-turvy; her desire to make her way in the world and her distaste for staying at home are altered forever. She does not find romance in the places that readers expect, but she did find it. She also realizes that romantic love has its place, even though it changes the relationships one already has. As Jo discovers her feminine side, she also figures out how to balance her ambitious nature with the constraints placed on nineteenth-century women.

At sixteen, she is the oldest sister. She is considered the beauty of the March household (written as very pretty, plump and fair, with large eyes, plenty of soft, brown hair, a sweet mouth, and white hands, of which she is rather vain) and she is well-mannered. Meg runs the household when her mother is absent. Meg also guards Amy from Jo when the two quarrel, just as Jo protects Beth. Meg is employed as a governess for the Kings, a wealthy local family. Because of the genteel social standing of her family, Meg is allowed into society. However, after a few disappointing experiences (first, the Kings' eldest son is disinherited for bad behavior, and later she visits her friend Annie Moffat and discovers that her family believes Mrs. March is plotting to match her with Laurie only to gain his family's wealth), Meg learns that true worth does not lie with money. She falls in love with Mr. John Brooke, Laurie's tutor, whom she marries. Meg bears twin children, Margaret "Daisy" and John Brooke "Demi" (short for Demi-John), and "Demi" and "Daisy" live a happy life.

Beth, fourteen when the story starts, is described as shy, even-tempered and musical, and has always been very close to Jo. As her sisters begin to leave the nest, Beth wonders what will become of her, as all she wants is to remain at home with her parents. When Beth's health eventually begins a rapid decline, the entire family nurses her, especially Jo, who rarely leaves her side. Finally, the family begins to realize that Beth will not live much longer. They separate a room for her, filled with all the things she loves best: her kittens, piano, father's books, Amy's sketches, and her beloved dolls. In her last year, at age nineteen, Beth is still trying to make it better for those who will be left behind. She is never idle, except in sleep. But soon, Beth puts down her sewing needle, saying that it grew "so heavy", never to pick it up again. In her final illness, she gives her dying attention to Josephine.

The youngest sister—age twelve when the story begins—Amy is interested in art. She is described by the author as a 'regular snow-maiden' with curly golden hair and blue eyes, 'pale and slender' and 'always carrying herself' like a very proper young lady.[5] She is dissatisfied with the shape of her nose which she attempts to fix with a clothespin. She is "cool, reserved and worldly" which sometimes causes her trouble. Often "petted" because she is the youngest, she can behave in a vain and spoiled way, and throws tantrums when she is unhappy. Her relationship with Jo is sometimes strained; the literary Jo particularly dislikes when Amy uses big words, mispronouncing them or using them incorrectly. Their most significant argument occurs when Jo will not allow Amy to accompany Jo, Meg and Laurie to the theater. In revenge, Amy finds Jo's unfinished novel and throws it all in the fireplace grate, burning years of work. When Jo discovers this, she boxes Amy's ears and tells her, "I'll never forgive you! Never!" Amy's attempts to pologize to Jo are unsuccessful. When Laurie and Jo go skating, Amy tags along after them, but she arrives at the lake too late to hear Laurie's warning about thinning ice. Under Josephine's horrified stare, Amy falls through the ice, and is rescued by Laurie's prompt intervention. Realizing she might have lost her sister, Jo's anger dissolves and the two become more close. When Beth is ill with scarlet fever, Amy is sent to stay with Aunt March as a safety precaution. Aunt March grows fond of her, as Amy's natural grace and docility are more to her taste. Amy is invited to accompany Uncle and Aunt Carrol and cousin Flo on a European trip. Although she enjoys travelling, after seeing the works of artists such as Michelangelo and Raphael, Amy gives up her art, because she believes herself to be lacking in talent. In Europe, Amy meets up with Laurie, and shortly after Beth dies, they marry. Later, Amy gives birth to daughter Elizabeth (Beth or Bess).

The girls' mother and head of household while her husband is away at war. She engages in charitable works and attempts to guide her girls' morals and to shape their characters, usually through experiments. She confesses to Jo (after the argument with Amy) that her temper is as volatile as Jo's own, but that she has learned to control it.

Mr. March's aunt, a rich widow. Somewhat temperamental and prone to being judgmental, she disapproves of the family's poverty, their charitable work, and their general disregard for the more superficial aspects of society's ways. Her vociferous disapproval of Meg's impending engagement to the impoverished Mr. Brooke becomes the proverbial 'last straw', convincing her great-niece Meg to affiance herself with the young man.

A rich young man, older than Jo but younger than Meg, who is a next-door neighbor to the March family. Laurie lives with his overprotective grandfather, Mr. Laurence. Laurie's father had eloped with an Italian pianist and was disowned. Both died young, and as an orphan, Laurie was sent to live with his grandfather. Laurie is preparing to enter at Harvard and is being tutored by Mr. John Brooke. He is described as attractive and charming, with black eyes, brown skin, curly black hair, and small hands and feet. In the second book, Laurie falls in love with Jo and after her return from New York City, he offers to marry her. She refuses, and out of pity, Mr. Laurence persuades Laurie to go abroad with him to Europe. There he meets up with Amy March and the two eventually fall for each other. They later marry while still in Europe, shortly before their return home to America.

A wealthy neighbor to the Marches and Laurie's grandfather. Lonely in his mansion, and often at odds with his high-spirited grandson, he finds comfort in becoming a benefactor to the Marches. He protects the March sisters while their parents are away. He was a friend to Mrs March's father, and admires their charitable works. He develops a special, tender friendship with Beth, who reminds him of his deceased granddaughter, and he gives Beth his daughter's piano.

love with Meg. When Laurie leaves for college, Brooke continues his employment with Mr. Laurence as an assistant. He accompanies Mrs. March to Washington D.C. when her husband is ill with pneumonia. When Aunt March overhears Meg rejecting John's declaration of love, she threatens Meg with disinheritance because she suspects that Brooke is only interested in Meg's future prospects. Eventually Meg admits her feelings to Brooke, they defy Aunt March (who ends up accepting the marriage), and they are engaged. (This part of the plot is similar to, and perhaps inspired by, one of the later chapters in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejuduce.) Brooke serves in the Union Army for a year and is invalided home after being wounded. Brooke marries Meg a few years later when the war has ended and she has turned twenty.

A friend of Mrs March's who runs a boarding house in New York. She employs Jo as governess to her two girls.

A poor German immigrant who was a famous professor in Berlin but now lives in Mrs. Kirke's boarding house and works as a language master, seeing some of his students in Mrs. Kirke's parlor. He and Jo become friendly and he subtly critiques Jo's writing, encouraging her to become a serious writer instead of writing "sensation" stories for weekly tabloids. The two eventually marry, raise Fritz's two orphaned nephews, Franz and Emil, and their own sons, Rob and Teddy.