Little Women Winter Musical 2024
Little Women Little Women is a musical about the March sisters, Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy, who grow up in Concord, Massachusetts, during the Civil War. At its center is Jo, a fiercely independent young woman determined to become a writer, who struggles to balance her ambitions against her family and her heart. Meg looks for romance and stability, Beth is kind and musically gifted but faces illness, and Amy longs for refinement and recognition. Their neighbor Laurie becomes closely tied to the family, especially to Jo, whose rejection of his proposal shows how much she values her independence. The sisters go through joys and heartbreaks, including Beth’s death, and Jo turns her grief into her most honest writing. She finds her voice as an author and an unexpected love in Professor Bhaer, while her sisters pursue their own dreams. The musical blends humor, warmth, and poignancy, and celebrates family, resilience, and the pursuit of one’s passions.
This was the first production where I was officially named Master Carpenter, and it felt like a milestone. Partway through the season, our technical director had to leave because of a medical emergency, which meant I had to step up quickly. I delegated tasks, managed the crew, and carried the responsibility of finishing the set. It was daunting, but it taught me how to balance leadership with mentorship, so that the people I worked with could contribute and develop their own skills at the same time.
The production built my confidence in task management and set construction, especially in coordinating builds under tight deadlines. I also began editing scripts and lining up technical work with the flow of the story, which connected carpentry to storytelling.
One of our largest builds was a thrust stage that extended into the audience. It looked simple, but the audience floor was uneven, so a standard set of legs would have left the platform rocking or tilted. I measured each level of the floor individually and adjusted the length of every leg to match, so the whole platform sat level and secure.
The orchestra pit was behind the main set, so we also pulled the thrust eight feet forward. That brought the performers closer to the audience and gave them more room to work. Careful measuring mattered more than speed on this build, and getting it right meant the cast could cross the stage without thinking about the structure beneath them.
This portrait of Aunt March hung from one of our trusses beneath the Juliet boxes, and we built it to swivel. We wanted a way to direct the audience’s attention during the big musical scenes, and a rotating portrait gave us a simple, effective one. When the portrait turned, the focus shifted toward the action on stage, and when the scene changed, it turned back.
Placing it high on the truss meant it worked as part of the set’s movement and not just a fixed decoration. A piece of scenery became a tool for guiding how the audience experienced the story.
Chandelier attached to the 1st electrics that we lowered for the ball scene. The scene of the four March sisters as they talk about their dreams Jo March singing about her dreams as a writer