LITTLE WOMEN WEEK IN CONCORD, DECEMBER 15-22: LOUISA MAY ALCOTT AND THE CONCORD PLAYERS

The Concord Players owe their existence to their most renowned and legendary citizen, Louisa May Alcott. She, with her sisters founded the Concord Dramatic Union in 1857.  The Alcotts performed their plays, most of them original, in the parlor of their home at the Wayside (the home Orchard House was designed after) and in the homes of friends in the Town. Their standards were high, an ethos that has been maintained throughout the organization's growth, inspired no doubt by their early example, and the literary traditions of the Town and its founders. The Players have paid tribute to their founder since 1932, staging a performance of her beloved novel  Little Women every ten years, also known to membership as their "Passion Play."

The moniker is used tongue in cheek, but passion, really, is what inspired Louisa and her sisters throughout their lives.  Louisa's passion for writing infused her sisters' imaginations, which in turn, animated their stories.  Like her character Jo, Louisa preferred to play the "lurid" parts in her plays, "the villains, ghosts, bandits and disdainful queens," as she described them.  The polite society she depicted in  Little Women and other stories had a wide readership and thus became a means to an end for her: to give her unshackled imagination free rein in creating characters of blazing purpose and stories of bold adventures. 

Louisa's sister Anna, had her own passionate longings.  She was stage-struck from an early age and had secret yearnings "to shine before the world as a great actress or Prima Donna."  In 1857, Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, who ran a school in Concord, had enjoyed the Alcott girls' improvisations and persuaded Louis May and her sister Anna to form the Concord Dramatic Union.  In 1885, the Union became The Concord Dramatic Club, and later, in 1919, The Concord Players. 

Under Sanborn, and later George Bartlett, the village doctor's son and other prominent citizens in the Town, the Dramatic Union flourished.  Plays and skits were performed at the High School, The Town Hall, the Armory and the Unitarian Church vestry.  Louisa and her sisters all the while continued to maintain their household and support local charities. During and after the Civil War, the troupe performed often for the benefit of the Soldiers Aid Society.  Louisa said that she couldn't afford do give money to charities, but could act to help raise money.  She was in much demand and sometimes performed in  Mrs. Jarley's Waxworks  up to nine times in a given week.

Louisa's theater company thrived for many years, waning only briefly into a dormant stage in the late 19th  century.  But, in the early years of the 20th  century the organization as it is now began to take shape.  Playwright, author and editor Samuel Merwin moved to Concord from New York City  in 1916, inspiring renewed vigor in the company.  He capitalized not only on the group's illustrious founder's legacy, but on his literary and publishing contacts from New York.  He brought star power to leading roles, and invested his formidable talents into breaking new ground in community theater. Under his mentorship, the Players took shows on the road for the very first time - even to Broadway - winning awards in the process.  

The quality of the group's productions and the intellectual standard held by its leader attracted like-minded people to assemble with each other in creative pursuits. Opinion leaders and local luminaries were drawn not only to the Players' cultural cache, but to the collaborative spirit and creativity that characterized its members. Soon, the Players were not only a theater company, but a social network, forging strong bonds of community and fellowship. 

Fast forward 100 years and the Players produce three productions annually, involving actors, technicians, artisans and members of the community in a shared purpose.  Every production is indeed a bold adventure, inspired by a feast of collective imagination and of course, unbounded passion. 

Through her character Jo in  Little Women , Louisa wrote, "I want to do something splendid... something heroic or wonderful that won't be forgotten after I'm dead.  I don't know what, but I mean the watch for it and mean to astonish you all someday."

Thank you Louisa, you surely did.

--Linda McConchie and Tracy Wall

BAREFOOT IN THE PARK CAST!