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Adaptation
ISU Theatre's Jane Cox adapts literary classic for the stage.
- There may not be a more beloved novel than Little Women.
The classic tale by Louise May Alcott has been a favorite of girls young
and old alike since its publication right after the Civil War. Jane Cox's
love affair with the book began when her grandmother gave her a copy of
the book when she was a little girl.
"I loved it so much as a young girl, I must have read it seven or eight
times,: said Cox, professor of music and director of ISU Theatre.
So when it became necessary to balance out ISU Theatre's spring season with
a production featuring a strong female cast, Little Women fit the bill.
Yet the Alcott novel had only been adapted for the stage twice as far as
Cox's research turned up.
"Little Women has been made into a movie several times, but
I only know of two stage adaptations," she said, "and those were
in the 1910s and 1940s."
ISU Theatre's original intent was to use one of those adaptations. But upon
closer look, neither one was true to the original Alcott novel, instead
weaving in items from the eras that the adaptations were done.
So Cox, with several original plays on her resume but only one adaptation
(A Christmas Carol) under her belt, decided she would take a crack
at bringing one of her favorite stories to the stage.
It became a daunting task.
"Little Women is a huge book and that’s the problem
with adapting it for the stage," Cox said. "You want to include
the parts that you love as a reader, but you also need to develop the characters.
"What I tried to do was keep the spirit of the novel intact. It's been
loved by so many people for so long, to deviate too far from the book would
be a mistake."
But in order to make sure the play was only a two and half hours with an
intermission, cuts are necessary.
"You have to cut out a lot to get to that point," Cox said. "You
end up cutting out lots of events and dialogue that is great.
"A Christmas Carol was a lot easier because the story itself
is so short," she continued. "You can get all the major things
in that story into a stage production."
Even though Cox had read Little Women seven or eight times before,
her first step in adapting the book for ISU Theatre was to read it over
and over again. It was also important, Cox says, to get an adult perspective
of the story.
"Once you re-read the book as an adult, more things stick with you,"
she said. "Things that completely passed over your head as a 10-year-old,
now you understand."
The story of the four March children - Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy - is told by
Alcott very episodically over a six-year period surrounding the American
Civil War.
It's a story of each girl's journey from young teenager to young woman.
"All four (girls) are different from one another," Cox says. "I've
tried to adapt the book so that the audience will get a chance to see how
these four girls make that journey from a child to an adult."
The ISU Theatre production of "Little Women" will be presented
Feb. 27-29 and March 5-7 in Fisher Theater.
Around LAS
February 23 to March 7, 2004
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