Bringing a musical filled with personal discovery, heartache and love to the stage of Shackleford Auditorium, the MSMS Drama Club has announced “Little Woman” as the spring musical. “Little Women” follows the stories of four sisters, Meg, Beth, Jo and Amy March, coming of age in post-Civil War-era Concord, Massachusetts. As of right now, the musical is set to show on April 22 at 6 p.m. and April 24 at 2 p.m.

Jan. 13 marked the first round of auditions, and callbacks were held on Jan. 17 with senior Director Audrey Paige Robinson, junior Assistant Director Kylie Reed and sponsors Dr. Thomas Easterling and Dawn Barham as the judges. The show has now been cast, with senior Chloe Sharp taking the lead as Jo March, seniors Madelyn Phillips and Jay Snodgrass and junior Mariah Bailey playing Beth, Meg and Amy respectively, junior Karlin Campbell as Theodore “Laurie” Laurence, III and senior Alex Wallace as Professor Bhaer.

Many students involved in the production are enthusiastic about the show and eager to see the end result.

Junior Addie White said she is excited to perform in the upcoming show.

“I’ve always wanted to try musical theatre, given my experience in choir and dance, so given the opportunity to audition, I did,” White said. “I am very excited to see our hard work pay off with a great outcome.”

Sharp, who earned the lead role, said her excitement is slightly dampened by the risk of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I hope we actually get to [perform] in April,” Sharp said. “There have already been some unfortunate situations, like when a few performers weren’t able to attend callbacks in person because they were quarantining, so I hope there aren’t any more COVID complications.“

Robinson said the excitement and hard work demonstrated by the cast and crew would be essential in putting together a performance in the middle of a pandemic.

“Flexibility is essential right now. The cast has their music and scripts, and they are working hard to learn it, even without being in-person,” Robinson said. “Karlin [Campbell], for example, came in [to audition] without being in a show before and got cast as Laurie. He then came up to me at lunch, and he’s like, ‘tell me everything I need to go ahead and work on because I want to do this right.’ It’s that kind of passion that makes this possible even with tentative schedules and complicated rehearsals due to COVID.”

Cast List:
Jo March – Chloe Sharp
Beth March – Madelyn Phillips
Meg March / Rodrigo II – Jay Snodgrass
Amy March / Troll – Mariah Bailey
Marmee March / Hag – Addie White
Aunt March / Mrs. Kirk – Katie Mae Rials
Theodore “Laurie” Laurence, III – Karlin Campbell
Mr. Laurence – Ben Tabor
Professor Bhaer – Alex Wallace
John Brooke – Eric Franklin
Rodrigo I / Knight – Icarus Riggle
Clarissa – Andra Dusin