S4E8: Little Women - Craving Creativity, Collaboration, & Sisterhood

Ensemble Members, Aaron White and Sarah Elizabeth Yorke chat with guest artist, Mackenzie Moyer about creativity, collaboration, and sisterhood in BTE’s upcoming production of a new adaptation of Little Women by playwright, Heather Chrisler 

Spotlight on Laura Knorr, Executive Director of the Campus Theatre in Lewisburg, PA and the partnership between BTE and the Campus promoting culture and storytelling across central PA.

Transcripts of all Season 2-4 episodes are available on our Buzzsprout website.

Check out our current season: http://www.bte.org
Ensemble Driven. Professional Theatre. Arts Education. Rural Pennsylvania. For Everyone. With Everyone.

Transcript

S4E8: Little Women- Craving Creativity, Collaboration, & Sisterhood

[00:00:00] 

Intro

Aaron: Welcome to Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble Down Center, a podcast where we savor the simple pleasures of sisterhood and sharing creativity with our company, our people, our art, and our town. And scribble it down. For all to read, front and down center. Hello, I'm Erin White, resident artist here at BTE, and I am joined by my fellow ensemble member, Sarah Elizabeth York, who is directing little women.

Sarah: Hello 

Aaron: and our guest artist, Mackenzie Moyer.

Sarah: Hello 

Aaron: To chat about an exciting new adaptation of the classic and American favorite Little Women.

Rehearsal Check-in

Aaron: Hi all. 

Sarah: Hello. Good morning. 

Mackenzie: Good morning. Morning. 

Aaron: It's 9:00 AM here at the Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble.

I am on tour right now, with all kiddos. So I don't know anything about little women and I'm so excited to hear about it. 

Sarah: Great. 

Mackenzie: We're excited to tell you about it.

Aaron: You're, you're in week two of rehearsals right now? 

Sarah: Yeah. Week two, yes. 

And just finished a designer run yesterday. So it's all pieced together. Yeah.

Heather Chrisler's New Adaptation

Aaron: Can you tell me a little bit about this particular adaptation? 'cause you both have history with Heather's adaptation. Tell me about it. 

Sarah: So [00:01:00] Heather's adaptation is unique compared to other Little Women adaptations because there are only four actors, and those four actors play the four Sisters and also three of them double as the men. So it's this really innovative, exciting adaptation that takes the core of the story and the pieces, the way they're moving, move in such a way that you're able to follow the story even though it is more truncated than the book but you still get all of the core moments that are important to the story, to their sisterhood, to the love, to the loss, to the grief.

It highlights Jo's artistic journey. Mm-hmm. And how she becomes a writer and why she becomes a writer. That, for me, in this adaptation, is the heart of the story and is really exciting to witness. 

Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. It moves. Listening to the readthrough, it has a pace to it. 

Sarah: Yeah. It 

Aaron: cooks 

Mackenzie: Clips. Yeah. Cooks. Cooks with gas. It cooks. I also think what's so exciting about this adaptation, I love. Small ensemble pieces. Mm-hmm. And it really feels like four actors could have just gotten into a space and like devised [00:02:00] this play with the book.

Like that's what's so exciting about it is it feels. So actor driven because we're doing everything. Mm-hmm. We're doing the set pieces, the props, the costumes, the audience sees changes from Beth to Laurie and back to Beth. Mm-hmm. We don't hide anything from the audience, which really lets the audience in on the story, which I really love. 

Sarah: Mm-hmm. 

Aaron: It's set in the attic. 

Sarah: Yeah. 

Aaron: You and I chatted a or you had mentioned a little bit about wanting it to feel like you're playing dress up Yes. In your grandmother's attic or 

Sarah: whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Mackenzie and I worked on this back in 2020... 2021. During COVID. We did an online production of it. Which is actually how I met Heather. Mm-hmm. I was looking for, mm-hmm. A play to do. And I was leaning into something around Christmas time and Little Women was calling to me and I had looked at Kate Hamill's adaptation. Mm-hmm. And I happened to stumble upon Heather's in the Kilroy's list and.

I read it and I reached out to her because she was also an Ohio University graduate, 

Aaron: A ha!. 

Sarah: And um, we made a connection through that and I ended up producing and directing it and Mackenzie was my Jo the first time [00:03:00] around .We produced fully online and everybody was in different locations.

Pennsylvania, Ohio, 

Mackenzie: that's crazy. 

Sarah: California. There were people all over and, capturing the attic in an online workshop because it was the first like, public performance of it Yeah. Was a totally different thing. So being able to actually be in the space and play that dress up and be in the attic and have things physically manifest, is really different this time around.

Mackenzie: Having a scene partner, I can like, hold their hand. 

Yeah. 

Or like, you know. Sure. You know, just have someone in front of me. Oh 

Aaron: wow. 

Mackenzie: The first time. We did this, like Sarah said, it was during lockdown specifically and it was in the winter.

Mm-hmm. And I had just graduated from college. There are people that I spent four years with that I may never see again in my life. And it was so depressing. And, you know, no jobs, no nothing. I was very lucky to be living with my parents at the time. And they let me commander our basement corner, hang up, string lights, have a whole table... We had an ethernet cable that I had to like lock in

Aaron: the good internet. You know what I 

Mackenzie: Yeah. Get the [00:04:00] good internet. 

Sarah: Yeah. 

Mackenzie: I mean, it was an incredibly fulfilling experience, right? To work on this new play, to have Heather there to work with Sarah for the first time. Mm-hmm. Actually. Mm-hmm. Um, and you know, it was a very much a bright spot in a dark time. But after the play, which is. Spoiler alert. Sad. Yeah. At times. There, there, there are some, some, there are some sad moments. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. There. Spoiler, alertly, if you haven't, uh, if you're not familiar with this a hundred and something year old uh, story. To just be like. To log off, right? 

Aaron: Mm-hmm. 

Mackenzie: And just be in my parents' basement... by myself. To not have any sort of closure with castmates or with an audience. Yeah. The release of an audience. That sort empty feeling. That empty feeling. Yeah. 

Aaron: I know that. 

Mackenzie: You know, and not having the same exchange that you have in a room with a group of people who have received the story.

Right. You know, the lonely thing about the internet is you're just sending it off. Out into the ether and it can, there are wonderful things about that, but I'm just so happy and excited to [00:05:00] get to experience it. Yeah. In a room full of people mm-hmm. Who are hearing it. 

Aaron: There's something about that communal catharsis.

Mm-hmm. 

Mackenzie: Mm-hmm. 

Aaron: That, that, that, let's go Aristotle. Any, any Zoom. Theater is just never captured, I feel. 

Mackenzie: Yeah. Yes. 

Aaron: That's such a joyful thing. Yes. That's good. It is. It Good, good, good.

The COVID/Scarlett Fever Parellel

Aaron: I guess part of the sadness is the, to be producing this play during COVID and Scarlet Fever that's a major plot point, right. And some of the source of sadness! Yeah. Do you feel like the distance from lockdown. I don't know. I certainly feel different than I did in 2020. 

Sarah: Yeah. 

Aaron: With like five years distance.

Right. Oh, from lockdown though? Yes, from lockdown and, and from, I think sort of the perpetual fear of illness, that's my own personal feeling, right. Mm-hmm. Do you feel the same distance or Do you feel that residual as you're rehearsing it, knowing, having that context of that fear of COVID mm-hmm.

And Scarlet Fever kind of feeling that substitution in, is that a very apparent in the room or is that something that's just kind of on the page but not in the storytelling? [00:06:00] 

Sarah: I think it was definitely more palpable back in 20 end of 2020, beginning of 2021. Sure. When we had done this piece, because we were all living in lockdown and if someone in your family was ill, you couldn't be around them.

Yeah. In the book Amy sent away because she's never had Scarlet Fever. And so it makes it incredibly relevant and timely. Yeah. Whereas like I do feel some distance, but it's not lost on me that anything like that could happen again. I think the state of the world and where things are right now, and just uncertainty in general feels really palpable in the rehearsal room.

Aaron: Yes. 

Sarah: But what's nice about it this time that feels radically different is this time feels like an escape, where the first time felt more like a mirror. 

Aaron: Interesting. 

Sarah: Yeah. 

Aaron: Interesting.

Mackenzie: Yeah. I feel like the Scarlet Fever thing is super interesting. Similarly to tuberculosis, it's a bacterial illness. I believe it lives dormant in your body, which is why like Jo, and don't quote me on this, I'm not a scientist, but I believe similar to [00:07:00] tuberculosis, not everyone who got tuberculosis died from it, right? Mm-hmm. Sure. Obviously many people did and it was like a very long drawn out, they called it the wasting away illness.

And I think Scarlet Fever is similar in that you can get over the initial infection like Beth does, and then you are left with a damaged immune system , so she ultimately does Die Scarlet Fever even though the acute illness is not 

Aaron: right. 

Mackenzie: What kills her. Yeah. But that's very similar to something like COVID mm-hmm.

Where there is an acute phase and then there is for many people a long phase. Yeah. Yeah. So that's certainly not lost on me as someone who has dealt with long-term COVID symptoms. Not nearly to the degree of a majority of people, but it's certainly on my mind. Yeah. And illness is something that.

And like a body failing you, you know? 

Aaron: Sure. When it doesn't work the way, it's, 

Mackenzie: when it doesn't work the way you're, or the way 

Aaron: it used to, 

Mackenzie: or, yeah. Yes. That's something that's omnipresent for me in the art that I make. And I'm sure we'll talk about the short film a little bit later. So It's not a focal point in this production at all. Both [00:08:00] in the way it's written and the way we're interpreting it. Right. But it's certainly, something that I think is very interesting and is a core part of Beth's journey for sure.

Aaron: Wasn't intending on talking about that, but it came up. 

Mackenzie: Feel free to keep it, cut it, whatever. 

Aaron: No it's good insight. So I have to confess, I've never read the novel. Hm. But I've seen all the adaptation, like I've seen so many.

Yeah. That's many people. Yeah. I, I feel many people be common. Mm-hmm. Growing up with, , the Winona Ryder and 

Mackenzie: Christian Bale, 

Aaron: Christian Bale Dream. I wanted to be Christian Bale and I wanted to, you know. 

Mackenzie: Oh, he's so dreamy. 

Aaron: Yes. And Claire Danes. I also had a big for Claire Danes too. So sad when she died.?

Mackenzie: Spoiler alert. Spoil 

Aaron: alert. Yeah. Just put a big spoil. It's been around a long time. 

Mackenzie: I know. To be fair, people, to be fair. 

Aaron: I really enjoyed the newer adaptation with Saoirse Ronan. 

Mackenzie: Mm-hmm. 

Aaron: And I discovered Florence Pugh watching that movie 

Mackenzie: she's so good!

Aaron: I hadn't seen her in anything else.

Mm-hmm.

Personal Relationship with the Story

Aaron: For you all, what are your relationships with the adaptations, with the novel? How are you coming to this work?

Sarah: Sure. I could speak to that a little bit. Because it directly shaped who I am today. I read Little [00:09:00] Women in fourth grade. That was the first time I read it. I had gotten the book for Christmas and then I proceeded to bring it to school every single day, read it at recess while other people were doing things. I was off reading Little Women. I lugged it in my backpack every day, and that was the year I started writing plays. 

Aaron: Oh, wow.

Sarah: I started writing plays because I was like, oh. I'm Jo, like without really thinking about it. When I stop and look back on it now I'm like, wow, that really shaped me and crafted me into who I am.

Aaron: It sounds just like your gateway into bookworm honor. 

Sarah: Yeah, so that year I went to a little Catholic school and we didn't do any plays or anything. We just had the Christmas pageant and I went around and had a petition for people to sign for me to put on a play at recess. Oh wow. I got enough signatures and I took it to the principal and I put on a play at recess where I like invited everybody's parents. I had juice and cookies, like I had the whole nine yards... and I starred, directed, and acted in this play. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So it's funny because...

Mackenzie: You have to. 

Sarah: I know.

Mackenzie: You simply have to, yeah. 

Aaron: This was the beginning. This is your origin story. 

Sarah: Yeah. This is my [00:10:00] origin story, and what's really funny is it's the same year I read The Little Prince, which is what I directed last year.

So fourth grade for me, the literature that I read, and the media I was exposed to really shaped me. Yeah. 

Mackenzie: Formative year

Sarah: Yeah, it was a formative year. It was also the year 2000, like so it was like a really big transformational moment. But yeah, I was, there was what little 10-year-old me lugging around Little Women and, being a Jo.

Aaron: This adaptation is amplifying Jo's creativity. 

Sarah: Yeah. 

Aaron: Yeah. And I feel like the most recent adaptation also... 

Sarah: Greta Gerwig's 

Aaron: Yeah, Greta Gerwig was

Sarah: She leaned into the artist journey a bit too? 

Mackenzie: I actually had not, believe it or not, I had not read the book until 2020. 2020 when, uh, we started in December, uh, working on the play. Mm-hmm. And I was like, oh, better read this real quick. Uh, real quick. Not real quick. 'cause it's a long book. so I, I read the book then. Mm-hmm. It's phenomenal.

I knew the story [00:11:00] because I had seen the musical. 

Aaron: Mm-hmm. 

Mackenzie: I had seen the musical the first time when Jessica Bedford took me, shout out Philly artist to DeSales when I was in high school.

Gotcha. 'cause that's her alma mater. Mm-hmm. It is now my alma mater. Mm-hmm. And it was the first show that I saw when I was like 16 there. 

Sarah: Mm-hmm. 

Mackenzie: At DeSales. And I was like, whoa, I should go here. And I did. Yeah. So that was my first time I saw the story at all. 

Aaron: Mm-hmm. 

Mackenzie: And then I saw the musical one other time and I.

Sorry. Like it much better as a play. I think it's much better as a play. Why is Jo singing? Sorry. Respectfully. Why is Jo belting? 

Aaron: Yeah, yeah. 

Mackenzie: I'm gonna get black for that. 

Aaron: Well, and well, it's okay. We need, we, we need to. Star vehicle for Sutton Foster, right? Yeah, that, that was Christopher, was 

Mackenzie: Christopher Columbus.

Yeah. No, I do actually love the musical. I think it's really fun, but I think it functions so epically as a play. And then, yeah, I read the book in 2020. I saw all the [00:12:00] adaptations kind of in a row, but for this go around, I've decided to revisit pieces of the book that I need clarification on. I'm not gonna watch any of the adaptations until probably we're open.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So I've really just been kind of focusing on the history that we have with the play together since we've done it before, as well as the other actors in the room and the play itself as written.

Louisa May Alcott's Biography as Inspiration

Mackenzie: That's kind of what I've been focusing on, as well as taking little bits and pieces from Louisa May Alcott's Life. Mm-hmm. And from the book itself. Oh, 

Aaron: fun. It's 

Mackenzie: fun. Yeah. Fun. 

Aaron: So you. Folding in some of that biography as 

Mackenzie: well. Yeah. At least trying to have an understanding so that I can either choose to adapt it or disregard it.

Aaron: Of course, of 

Mackenzie: course. Yeah. 

Aaron: No, that context I always think is very helpful 

Mackenzie: and so interesting too. What a fascinating, fascinating person. 

Aaron: It's be writing at that time. Like 

Mackenzie: just be living at that time in, you know, civil War America and Transcendentalism. Oh yeah. And gender non-conformity and all that stuff.

Aaron: The timeline of the development of Western narratives is kind of [00:13:00] on my brain knowing that melodrama was such a big part of the theatrical tradition at the time she was writing.

Mm-hmm. 

Mackenzie: Mm-hmm. 

Aaron: Which ramped up the stories of what would at the time have been considered unremarkable. 

Mackenzie: Mm. 

Aaron: We weren't writing operas about poor American mm-hmm. New England families. Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. That was something that was new in melodrama Mm. I think was being amplified in novels.

Mm-hmm. Like, like the, the sort of new form of novel at the time. Um, and, and so it's just interesting hearing you talk about 

Mackenzie: and what's also so interesting about. Louise May Alcott is that, um, she didn't write, like Little Women was not what she normally wrote.

Mm-hmm. There's a certain amount of autobiography mm-hmm. To the piece and to the way that the play goes also. Because she wrote more fantastical stories, fairytales, things like that. Things that Jo writes. In the play 

Aaron: is very 

Mackenzie: much, is very much closer to what mm-hmm.

She'd been doing. And she has, um, a whole body of work outside of Little Women, even though little women is what she's known best known for. 

Aaron: Yeah. [00:14:00] Yeah. Oh, interesting. 

Mackenzie: Yeah. 

Aaron: I didn't know 

Mackenzie: that. Yeah. Yeah. 

Aaron: Thank you. Mackenzie. 

Mackenzie: learning The dramaturg has clocked in.

Gender and Collaborators

Aaron: You had mentioned, the sort of gender non-conformity that, Louisa May Alcott Yeah. 

Mackenzie: She preferred to be called Lou. 

Aaron: Lou. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And so in crafting the creative team it was important to you to have female and genderqueer collaborators.

Sarah: Yes. Yeah, absolutely. I'm not going to subscribe to Louis May, Alcott who she was or who she was intending to be. Yeah. 

Mackenzie: Don't wanna assign Sure. 

Aaron: Yeah. 

Sarah: But the way that gender nonconformity was something to her that she wanted to be at war and she wanted to do these things that women weren't really doing at the time. She was caring for the men, and caring for people. She couldn't fight, but she wanted to be fighting. And we even see that in Little Women where Jo speaks to, I wanna be fighting with father, I wanna be over there. Yeah. That these gender roles were. Not the most important thing to Louisa May Alcott or to Jo.

So we have an all female and gender queer team, because this story deals so much with sisterhood and the relationship between women and the way women connect with one [00:15:00] another. I think for me, being in a space to craft that felt really valuable and really important. Yeah. Something about me, and I didn't realize I did it, is a lot of my creative teams are often women heavy. Mm-hmm. Um, or, or gender queer. And I think it was something that I started to do around the first time I did Little Women and I found what each person brought to that was really valuable. And because sisterhood and connection is so important in this piece, it felt all these years later doing it again. Like having that, energy in the room was imperative to the piece. 

Mackenzie: And experiencing, and I experienced this when I am. Playing Jo I experienced gender almost as an obstacle. Mm. As opposed to like an identity, if that makes sense. 

Aaron: Interesting. You like it's something to work against as opposed to something to be 

Mackenzie: Yeah. It's like, though, I, I personally identify as a cis woman when I'm playing Jo I don't, I don't feel like a woman necessarily. I don't feel like a man. I feel like gender only is [00:16:00] put upon the character.

I'm fighting against the petticoat and I'm fighting against what the petticoat means about what I can and cannot do. Mm-hmm. And my name it's not the gender itself. The way I'm playing Jo March has, she has no problem being a woman. She has a problem with what that means to other people.

Aaron: The expectations. 

Mackenzie: The expectations and yeah. And the dysphoria of. What you know you can do and who you know you are. 

Yeah. 

And that being in conflict with 

how the world, 

what the world tells you, you can and cannot do, which I think maybe that's a queer experience. Maybe that's a universal experience. But I feel like it's written into the character regardless of who plays the character.

Aaron: I do think that there's, and I, this is not to take away from anyone with a queer experience. I think that there is a tension between what society expects of the individual and what the individual feels.

Mackenzie: Surely, and it manifests. Yeah. I think that there's something for different 

people. 

Aaron: Mm-hmm. I think there's something human because we're social creatures and I think for the most part are required for survival to somehow assimilate into the [00:17:00] society. 

Mackenzie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Which is why, you know. Anti-trans Anti-queer legislation and things like that is so abhorrent because everyone experiences dysphoria. Every single person does.

Aaron: My lovely receding, hairline no, 

Mackenzie: Everyone experiences it. and, 

and Everyone is just trying to navigate the world in a way that makes sense to them, feels good, and allows them to be exactly who they're meant to be.

Sarah: Yeah, I think that's really interesting that you say. Gender is an obstacle. And I think in particular this adaptation is a really interesting way to look at that because the way it is written is little women. 1, 2, 3, 4. Right? Play Jo play Meg/Bear, play Laurie/Beth, play Amy/John Brook. So we have

we have an all female identifying cast, taking on the roles of men. Recently there was a production of all trans and non-binary actors who were in this adaptation of Little Women. Mm-hmm. And it was the first, of its kind to have a cast like that.

So I would be so interested to hear what was their experience in doubling? What did that feel [00:18:00] like? And thinking about gender as an obstacle for Jo is really fascinating, especially in the context of this adaptation and the way that gender is, so malleable.

Mackenzie: We were talking about having like an all female and gender queer creative team, and also just in the rehearsal room it's all women.

Aaron: Of course, our cast also features Amy Rene Byrne 

Mackenzie: Mm-hmm. 

Aaron: and, Kimie Muroya and we get to welcome back Arrianna Daniels who's fabulous. 

Mm-hmm.

She was an apprentice here a couple years ago, excited to see what she brings to the character of Amy.

Mackenzie: And, um, and not only that, but the story itself does not impose the same power dynamics that are often present in a rehearsal room.

Like I've been in a lot of rehearsal rooms of mixed company, right? That, and there's just certain you feel a certain need to perform gender in a way that I just don't feel that way in this play, in this rehearsal room. And I don't know if it's because it's all women in the room.

I think it's more so because of the story and the [00:19:00] character that I'm playing. Mm-hmm. She's not, it's one of the first characters that I've played in a long time that like isn't supposed to be very pretty, you know, she doesn't have to be. The reason people like her and are drawn to her is because of her brilliance and her mind and her spirit and imagination as opposed to anything about her physicality. It's been very rare in my career. Mm-hmm. To not have, needs to be beautiful is like part of the thing. 

Sure. 

Mackenzie: Um, which I'm not complaining. That's like a great strokes look. It strokes 

Aaron: to ego, it's nice to, to have the avenue to play that 

Mackenzie: way. That's great. That's wonderful.

Aaron: I was similarly the young lead 

Mackenzie: Yeah. 

Aaron: Love, interests, uhhuh until my son was born and I took five years off. Yeah. So my, my early thirties and I came back and then I was no longer the leading man. Mm-hmm. I didn't have to be attractive. I just needed to be threatening, you know, like that. 

Sarah: That's only two things a man could be

Aaron: well or threatening. And I feel that kind of, you know, and it's a very different sort of gender expectation. 

Sarah: Of course. 

Aaron: Of course. But, but right now looking for narratives that are anything other than those two things.[00:20:00] 

Sarah: Yeah.

Mackenzie: It's something that you don't realize that you're craving until you're in a space and you're like, oh my God, I don't have to show up and do anything but play this part. I don't, I, I don't have to look a certain way. I don't have to act a certain way. I don't have to do anything but just be this hurricane of a person.

Campus Promo

Aaron: We will take a brief break here from talking about Little Women and introduce you to a wonderful human being and artist and now administrator for the Campus Theater, We talk about creativity in rural Pennsylvania. A conversation that parallels the question about Joe and her creativity. Enjoy this conversation with Laura Knorr.

BTE/Campus Collab

Aaron: Can you tell Me a little bit about who you are? Of 

Laura Knorr: course. My name is Laura Knorre and I'm the executive director of the Campus Theater in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. 

Aaron: BTE and the Campus have been collaborating over the last year, maybe two years.

Laura Knorr: It's been a year, I would say. 

Aaron: Yeah, Doing parallel events and I'm very grateful. I know that we've covered Hitchcock and now we're doing Louisa May [00:21:00] Alcott. Can you tell me a little bit more about what the campus's mission is? We'll just start there. It's been there for a long time. 

Laura Knorr: It has been. It was built and opened in 1941. And so it's, and it's a, it's a beautiful theater. Yes. And it, there was a full restoration, um, in 2011. 

Aaron: Okay. 

Laura Knorr: And we're one of the remaining, single screen art deco nonprofit movie theater. And so the majority of our programming is film based. We consider it a great opportunity for storytelling and having that experience. We have art house films, classic films We show major films as well. Yes. From major studios. And we do a lot of programming for children. We like to add that other layer mm-hmm to films. We do programming around especially our repertory films. Mm-hmm which to be honest with you, are really some of the more popular. So that's why we're so excited. Oh, that's lovely. Good. Yeah. So excited about showing the 1994 version of Little Women Yes. That was requested. 

Aaron: It It's very clear in my memory. I [00:22:00] 

Laura Knorr: mine as well. Yes. And I think that the movie Going experience, we understand that you can watch it on your phone. You can watch a movie at home and have that experience. But there is nothing like being in, first of all a really. Beautiful environments. 

Aaron: Yes. 

Laura Knorr: In this particular theater, you know, and sharing it with other people. And so, you know, feeling those emotions, which has been happening since 1941. Yeah. In that same space.

Aaron: When my wife and I have the opportunity to have dates, we do love coming there because it's a beautiful space and you are showing films that you're not seeing in the bigger movie houses around the area, which we appreciate. 

Laura Knorr: I think that's what's really great, and it's very important as well to continue that generationally because I know for myself that I remember. Date night would be going to the movies. Yes. It would be a great family outing to go to the movies. And you didn't have other options to see new films , and we've, you know, gotten away from that because of streaming. So for younger [00:23:00] children. Their first experience of coming to the movie and the popcorn and Yes. Then the seating and just the size of the screen and the sound. Because even though we are an older theater, we do have our state of the art projector we just got actually last year Congratulations and Thank you.

Yes. It's a big deal. I mean, we were very, very fortunate and so we have a new digital laser projector in 4K. We have 7.1 surround sound, but we also have a 35 millimeter projector and 16 millimeter. So we do also also show 35 millimeter films, which is incredible because there's nothing like that.

'cause that's really how it was meant to be seen. Right? Yeah. That's how the, how the director, how the vision for the film was originally meant. And even now sometimes are filmed on 35 millimeter. 

There's something about physical media. 

Mm-hmm. 

Aaron: Yes, 4K laser projectors are incredible and the definition is incredible. But there's something about the hands that touch the film. There's something about 

Laura Knorr: Absolutely. 

Aaron: You know 

Laura Knorr: the sound. 

Aaron: Yes. Yeah. [00:24:00] 

Laura Knorr: Right. I mean, the dust of like, when you look back and you can see, oh, I don't know. It's just if you sit at the back of the theater again, you can hear the projector. Those moments of those changeovers, which ideally you want them to be perfect and beautiful 'cause there is an art to the process to that Yes. Alone that even that in itself. But there's the always those moments where, you watch for that dot up in the right hand corner and you realize it's really a beautiful art form and and we're just very fortunate to be able to screen them at the theater.

Aaron: Do you train projectionists?

Laura Knorr: Yes. Okay. And our technical director, Andy Seale, has been there for over 10 years. And so we're very fortunate to have him at the theater and even myself, he's training me. Mm. So I'm learning because it is an art form that you need to continue that, you know, you need to have more than one or two people that are able to run it so...

Laura Mini-Bio

Aaron: Burgeoning projectionist. 

Laura Knorr: That's right, that's right.

I also illustrated children's books for before I, you know, got into. Theater business. So yeah, I have a degree in [00:25:00] illustration. Yeah, 

Aaron: your background, so you a degree in illustration? 

Laura Knorr: I do. I went to Ringling College of Art in Sarasota, Florida. And, I've illustrated, eight children's books.

If you're able to have a career based in creativity, no matter what that is, you are, it's a blessing. It is worth every moment, every struggle, you know, because I've, you know, I've done that. And then be working with the nonprofit theater and being around creative people and being in the arts no matter what those arts are. I was an art teacher and again, even if you're not able to spend as much time on your own art, 

Aaron: yeah. 

Laura Knorr: Just the fact that you can surround yourself with it and with people that enjoy it and do it and appreciate it, I mean, that is the life. I mean, it really is.

Aaron: This is a relatively new position for you. Yes. 

Laura Knorr: Yes., It'll be two years, the end of this month actually, I, at the Campus here and be prior to that I was at the Burwick Theater and Center for Community Arts and I was there for seven years. Okay. And so, it was interesting because the Berwick Theater very important mm-hmm to the [00:26:00] Burwick community. Yes. When the opportunity came up to maybe work at the Campus Theater, I really couldn't pass up that chance to Sure. To apply for it, because you know, how many single screen, historic nonprofit movie theaters do you have in this area? Yeah. What is wonderful is that the community supports them. Yes. And I think that it affirms that it is worth the time, the effort, the money to keep them going. Yeah. People value them. Yeah. And, you know, and, and that inspires you to work even harder.

To bring that kind of programming and also to collaborate because , I think it's so important. Sometimes with any business or organization you become very... it's like a silo, right? I mean, you're very, in your world, and you're aware of other things happening around you with other organizations, but it's all time consuming.

And so when you have the chance to work together, on a regional level to be able to bring the arts and to connect film, literature, [00:27:00] plays, you know, performance arts, and different perspectives on it. Yeah. I and if someone maybe sees this 1994 version of Little Women on the screen and then is like, you know what?

I wanna see it, I wanna see this adaptation of it. Yes. In Bloomsburg and then. You know, which is really not that far away. Although it's funny because Berwick, Bloomsburg, Danville, Lewisburg can seem so far away. 

Aaron: They're all half hour away from each other.

Laura Knorr: Right? But yet it's not that far. You know, if you live in a more urban area, you drive that far just to go very short distances, distance, and so it is worth the whole experience of it, that it's not just when you're actually there, it's, it's the getting going, getting ready, making the plans. You know, you could go to to lunch or dinner with friends and be able to have something to talk about. It creates a dialogue with your friends and family and other artistic people. Creative people. Yeah.

Conversations About Art

Aaron: The conversation that comes around after it, I think that's something in the digital sphere. Dialogue and conversations around art or just conversations in [00:28:00] general feel so much less rich to me than a conversation after you've watched a film and you're sharing air with the person you're having the conversation with.

Laura Knorr: Mm-hmm. 

Aaron: You can have those conversations online, but oftentimes I think they skew toward anger or trying to win. Mm-hmm. As opposed to curiosity about what the person actually wants to know. Um, Correct. Because you can't see the excitement in the person that you're talking to. Or Oh, that's right.

Or the disappointment if it's, if the movie is bad or if the show is bad. Like, I was really hoping that Right, right. Like that disappointment informs that conversation in a different way. 

Laura Knorr: It does. 

Aaron: So I'm thrilled that we get to partner and I am too, and have those conversations about art, which I hopefully make for better art or make for a rich community of folks who like to digest art. 

Laura Knorr: Mm-hmm. 

Aaron: Um, that, that it's important to be vital that way. I, I do think that. On the slide, we [00:29:00] are in an area where there are lots of creative people. 

Laura Knorr: Absolutely. And you know, the thing with, with being as an artist myself, it can be a very, you, there's a lot of solitude with it at times.

Yes. And it's very internalized or you know, you tend to, at least it is now, I'm sure, obviously with performance arts, that is a unified, and with music a lot of times, you know, you have groups and things like that. But really when you know who you are, when you. Think creatively, it's like you're in your own head and, and sometimes you really have to make an effort mm-hmm.

To connect. Things like this is a perfect example. It's exciting, it's exhilarating and it's inspiring because then when you were around, even just like us sitting here talking about, this is getting me. I get excited about all the prospects of not only April 11th and what we have coming...

Aaron: Heather Chrisler, who's adapted little women will be doing a panel for Campus Theater on April 11th. 

Laura Knorr: But also, you know, oh, I can't wait for us to do more of this.

More of this

Laura Knorr: Emma and I were talking about [00:30:00] this collaboration. Just talking with one another, sharing this space, it's really a gift. Mm-hmm. And something that I think, you know, for any other arts organizations that are listening out there mm-hmm.

Yes. Please know that, you know, we are always very open to ideas and trying new things. Things. Yeah. We know there is an audience for it. Thank goodness. Thank goodness. And you know why? People need to understand how important it's to make the effort to go out and, 'cause I'll tell you what, there's plenty of times I just wanna stay at home.

Me too. You know, when I am done with a work week, I'm just, I'm like, oh, you have great things at the campus year. But sometimes I'm like, I just want to go home and hang out with my dogs and, you know, you know, but. You also realize that that is what keeps us going. Mm-hmm. That is what keeps our doors open, is that, is our community coming out, supporting us, telling other people about it. Because you can advertise every way possible and there will so be people say, I didn't know that you had that. 

Aaron: I know. 

Laura Knorr: And then you're like, then it's too late. You know, you wanna say, darn it, it's gone. You would've come to this. But [00:31:00] it wasn't on your radar.

Aaron: That word commune is a reciprocal word, right? Mm-hmm. We can invest as much as we can into the community, but unless the community reinvests back into us. Mm-hmm. Right? That's something that Lewisburg does and that Bloomsburg does mm-hmm for both of our institutions that there is an excited and passionate group of people that support our, oh my gosh, our, our institutions. 

Laura Knorr: Absolutely. 

Aaron: And people are missing out because they, they aren't, they aren't communing in the same way. And so, um, the, I guess the invitation is there. 

Laura Knorr: It's, it's, and we'll continue to, it's an open invitation, 

Aaron: right?

Yeah. Yeah. Wonderful. . 

Laura Knorr: I want us to do more so we can hang out a little bit more and talk more about art For sure.

And I did wanna share, um, we have something coming up,

So Saturday from 12 to one you can meet the Easter Bunny at the theater, it's free. You can get your photo taken and then we're showing, here comes Peter Cottontail, also free at one o'clock at the campus theater. So we really hope everyone will come. 'cause I know there's a lot of things going on this weekend. Make. [00:32:00] That's great. Absolutely. I just add, tack it on there to the other things you were planning on doing

Science on Screen is a initiative with the Coolidge Center. Okay. With support from the Alfred P Sloan Foundation. Mm-hmm. There's 41 theaters in the United. States that participate in it. This is a way to integrate and bring together science and film and making it fabulous fun, you know, or make and getting a different perspective on it.

We had the, Bucknell Animal Behavioral Department and their students, they showed Tarzan and it was in the afternoon we did a matinee of Tarzan, the Disney version, and they had kids activities. You know, every single event that you do, you put 150% into Right. You don't know if you'll have 10 people show up. And you know, to be honest with you, you keep your expectations low and then be pleasantly surprised when there's a lot of people that come out. Yes. So it was really such a successful event it was so much fun. Um, and so we actually in April. 23rd. 

Aaron: Mm-hmm. 

Laura Knorr: We have Alan Lightman coming in [00:33:00] to do a presentation for 2001 Space Odyssey. 

Aaron: Cool. 

Laura Knorr: We be showing and then, um, and then in the beginning of May, we're showing Hidden Figures and we have some Bucknell professors comp.

Yeah, coming to discuss that as well. So we will definitely be putting information out about all of our programs.

Aaron: All right, so this Saturday, come see the Easter Bunny. 

Laura Knorr: That's right. 

Aaron: 12 one. 

Laura Knorr: Your. Correct. Here Comes Peter Cottontail. Both are free 

Aaron: mm-hmm. 

Laura Knorr: And open to the public. 

Aaron: Cool. And on the April 23rd, come see 2001 is space 

Laura Knorr: I 2001 is Space I.

And also you can visit our website. Mm-hmm. www.campustheatre.org We have our calendar, we have all of our upcoming films on there. Everything that's coming up event-wise. Follow us on social media and you can sign up for our weekly newsletter every Friday, so it kind of tells you what's coming up for the weekend. 

Aaron: Fantastic. 

Laura Knorr: Mm-hmm. 

Aaron: Lauren, it's such a pleasure chatting with you. Thank 

Laura Knorr: you. Oh, thank you. Thank you very much for having us.

Aaron: We'll see you soon. 

Laura Knorr: Can't wait.

Aaron: Thanks so much to Laura Knorr taking a bit of her day to [00:34:00] talk with us about BTE and the Campus collaboration and all of the fabulous things that they're doing over at the Campus Theater in Lewisburg. If you have the opportunity, go see the Easter Bunny this Saturday on April 4th, enjoy the panel discussion on April 11th and watch the 1994 version of Little Women so you can have a conversation with your friends about your memories about the movie and how it might interact with our adaptation by Heather Chrisler. And then make sure that you check out Science on Screen , I'm looking forward to 2001 Space Odyssey. That sounds like a lot of fun. Now, back to my conversation with Sarah and Mackenzie.

Jo & Laurie

Aaron: On the way in, 'cause I do a lot of driving and listening. Mm-hmm. So that's how I experienced the reading was in the car and I was listening to the section with Jo and Laurie, where Jo is saying, "I cannot love you the way you want me to love you." 

Sarah: Mm. Mm-hmm. 

Aaron: Right. In this play particularly, I'm not sure if if it's Heather's adaptation of it or if it is just because Jo, so [00:35:00] clearly is focused on being creative.

Mm-hmm. Like, that is my sole purpose here. 

Mackenzie: Yeah. 

Aaron: And, and you want me to be something other than that? 

Mackenzie: Yeah. 

Aaron: And the bustling up against that. Yeah. And whether that's gender, 

Mackenzie: right. 

Aaron: Maybe. Mm-hmm. Or it could just be, I'm so focused on the thing that I, know that I'm here to do. 

Sarah: Mm-hmm. 

Mackenzie: The Laurie /Jo relationship is so challenging 'cause there are so many, there's no one right way Mm-hmm. to play it. Mm-hmm. And we've seen it done in many adaptations in many different ways. It's so messy and beautiful and, there is a lot of love there.

Yes. Mm-hmm.

But just because you love somebody, even if you love them romantically... as I believe Jo does love Laurie romantically, at least for a time. 

Aaron: Mm-hmm. 

Mackenzie: It's not necessarily enough.

Aaron: Or recognizing if you enter into that relationship, the expectations within that 

Mackenzie: relationship Exactly.

Would be too much. Right. Would be 

Aaron: It 

Sarah: changes everything. 

Mackenzie: It changes everything, 

Aaron: yeah. 

Mackenzie: In a way that it's a sacrifice. Yeah. Love is a sacrifice. Yeah. And I think she's not willing to make that s sacrifice. 

Aaron: Sacrifice. 

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Context of the Books Origin 

Aaron: When did, do you know when Louisa May Alcott wrote this book [00:36:00] in like the span of her life? 

Sarah: Yeah. Boy. 

Aaron: Because that's curious to me too. 

Sarah: I do know, and I'm gonna forget the year. I'm gonna look 

Mackenzie: it up.

Aaron: That's all right. We have our glowing boxes. 

Mackenzie: We have our cursed amulets. Don't worry. 

Aaron: That's the first time I've heard them call that. That's 

Mackenzie: fine. Oh, yeah. It's need my cursed amulet time. When did Louis May, I'll call it right, little women. It was 1868.

Sarah: When she wrote it, she became the sole provider for her family.

Sure. She is the one who, the success of the book was providing the family bread. Yeah. It was Breadwinning and it was, it changed the game for her family. The way that she was able to provide for them, the way that she was able to show up. And then we had the follow up of Little Men and Jo's Boys.

Right. Which she wrote in succession. With Little Women and, you know, people wanted the story to continue. 

Aaron: Right? 

Mackenzie: Yeah. She was in, uh, she died about 20 years later or so. Okay. So I think she was in her mid thirties. Okay. In her thirties at some, sometime in her thirties. Sure. Um, she died at 55 of a stroke.

Aaron: Interesting. You know, had lived a [00:37:00] life 

Sarah: mm-hmm. 

Aaron: And probably had gone through feeling the pressure to enter into family life. Yeah. Like it, it's so apparent in, in the story so 

Mackenzie: well, when her life is phenomenal. 

Sarah: Yeah. And when her sister passed, she cared for her, her boys, like she cared for her children and became a caretaker. Back in October, I actually got to visit Orchard House and it was remarkable to walk through the halls and the rooms in which she and her family lived. And being able to stand above the desk where she wrote Little Women was a really cool and surreal and completely transformative experience and walking through the rooms of the sisters May, who is Amy in the book? She has renderings all over the walls and they preserve them so there's these sketches and renderings that have been there for well over a hundred years.

Walking through those halls, walking through the rooms, knowing that they slept in those beds, she cared for her nephews there. Mm-hmm. It was The life she lived is, is pretty spectacular.

Mackenzie: Very interesting family. Very. Strange, progressive, education background. Very, very interesting. 

Aaron: [00:38:00] Family is also a big part of the play. And I think you can either be a person like Jo. And be supported or be a person like Jo and be facing opposition within the house that you grew up in. Mm-hmm. It's very point, and I think I, I think it's so clear in and, and parent, the parents, because it is four actors, they're not as present 

Sarah: mm-hmm.

Aaron: In this telling name only. Yeah. Yeah. In name only. But, , I can only imagine that those parents were supportive. 

Sarah: Yeah. 

Aaron: And loving to get Louisa where she wound up and to get Jo where...

Sarah: her mother was, and, and her father was honestly... the way that they speak about him and how he like challenged things and they lived extremely poor. Because they did not take on any worldly goods or things like that. Right. And he had a schoolhouse where he taught people and transcendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson. All of these people were her teachers. They were the people that she learned from there was a support from her father. But there was a lot of tension there because he did not wanna make money doing certain things. He, you know, the way that they were living and surviving, like, Louisa decided I am going to [00:39:00] provide for my family, right?

Because my father isn't, my father isn't because my father's not.

Yeah.

Aaron: I had a big fascination with Walden when I was growing up. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I think that there's something about artists and that transcendental I was super into transcendentalist Yeah.

Philosophy. Oh yeah. Ninth grade. 

Mackenzie: Come 

Aaron: on now. It's so seductive. I just wanna go to the woods and live. Yeah. Thoughtfully, you know? 

Mackenzie: Yes, absolutely

Collabship

Aaron: We'll depart from Little Women for just a little bit. You two are creative in other avenues.

Yeah. Um, uh, and have projects in the works. So you're collaborating again.

Sarah:  I will say Mackenzie and I continue to collaborate.

I always joke that she's my muse.

Mackenzie: Sarah has given me many jobs. 

Sarah: But it's a person who I come back to and collaborating with mackenzie does feel like home. And it, it's such a nice, um, I like to call them collaboration ships. Mm-hmm. It's a collaboration ship where it's like a deep friendship and a relationship, but also the way we respect each other as artists and identify and see each other as artists.

Mm-hmm. And as humans just feels. So fulfilling to me.

Mackenzie: I know many people who have, really [00:40:00] fruitful collaborations and through good and through bad. Highs and lows and that. You know, we keep each other employed or we keep each other busy, if not monetarily employed, 

Aaron: It's nice to speak the same language with someone. Yeah.

Mackenzie: Totally, totally. 

Aaron: To, to work effortlessly. Yeah. It's a pleasure. 

Sarah: Yeah. And you know, Mackenzie and I, I was, the first time we worked together, like as a director actor, was Little Women.

So coming back home to that is. Really wonderful. 

In a rehearsal room as a director and actor. Mm-hmm. But that's what's so unique is like our experience now in Little Women is like your standard director, actor, but it's taken us so long to get there. 

Mackenzie: Yeah. 

Aaron: Yeah. 

Mackenzie: Yeah, this is 

Aaron: What is the stasis of that? Are you still discovering it is something that it's oh, this feels comfy?

Sarah: It's so interesting because I already have such a relationship and a language with you  and I also know you so well as an actor that I'm watching you in the run yesterday, and I'm noticing something that is dawning on you in the moment.

I'm like, oh, I'm gonna bring up this note later and she's gonna know exactly what I'm [00:41:00] talking about. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So there's a rapport, there's a language.

So being able to work on Joan, a piece that you wrote. Yeah. And we'll be starring in and are producing it. You've been there for me so it's nice to be able to be there and, and be partners in this again. 

Mackenzie: Yeah, so it, we're doing a short film mm-hmm.

Called Joan. Um, I wrote it in August of 2024. But it has gone through many, many, many revisions. Mm-hmm. And lemme give you the little log line. I pulled it up. I'm done. The little elevator pitch. After joining the cast of her community theater's latest Shakespeare play, A young woman reckoning with life-changing news finds herself haunted by her character Joan of Ark.

And. It's really a, a love letter to theater.

I do. Yeah. I really just, I love characters, like the righteousness of a teenage girl. Mm-hmm. You know? 

Aaron: Yeah. Everything is true. Right. 

Mackenzie: And how often that is true, like, I just think how often young women are Right. You know what I mean?

Sorry, I'm a little biased, but there's like that one meme where it's like [00:42:00] every thought. Middle aged philosopher has like a teenage girl discovered in her bedroom at 12 years old. You know what I mean? Like the idea that , you know, women go through these things so early and have all these.

For whatever reason. I'm sure it's socially based 

Aaron: I think that there's a social intuition that awakens, in young women, so it's forced so much, so much earlier than 

Mackenzie: Right. Right, right.

Aaron: Mm-hmm.

Mackenzie: Yeah.

I just, something about knowing exactly who you are, what you're meant for, and. Not believing what other people tell you. There's just something so magnetic about a person who says exactly what they mean.

Mm-hmm. And like, knows exactly what they're about. 

Aaron: Yeah. 

Mackenzie: And, uh, is just so I don't this righteousness and, and that's not a, and righteousness not in a bad way. You know what I mean? 

Aaron: Yeah. 

Mackenzie: It's just so magnetic to me. 

Aaron: Well, certainty is so attractive. 

Mackenzie: Yes, absolutely. As a character, it's just so interesting to watch.

Yeah. Whether the audience thinks they're right or not doesn't Yes. Whatever, but it's, it's 

Aaron: a different thing. Well, 

Sarah: and that [00:43:00] ties, that ties back to Jo.

I mean, and like why Laurie is drawn to her, like her, her dresses burnt, her frocks are burnt and there is this certainty and this confidence and this air about her that he is just, mm-hmm. Magnetically drawn to. Yes. And it's, I think she's also a teenage girl. Yeah. And it's, you know, the being so certain and so conscious of who you are is an attractive thing.

Mackenzie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Sarah, bringing it back to Little Women, let's 

Aaron: go. 

Mackenzie: No, 

I, 

Aaron: well done. Well done. Thank you. Thank 

Sarah: you. Thank you. 

Aaron: No, I'm glad that you did.

Parallell Projects

Aaron: Can we talk really quickly about the parallel projects that are coming because we're doing this show?

Sarah: Sure. Yeah. So Heather Chrisler, who is the playwright of Little Women, is also working on an adaptation of Jane Eyre called Haunting Jane Eyre. And Heather is coming and doing a panel on adaptations at the Campus Theater, which following our, our panel will be showing the 1994 version of Little Women to an audience.

 Mackenzie will be part of that. Um, yeah, she, 

Aaron: She just found out!

Sarah: She's surprised. 

Mackenzie: Surprised!

Sarah: Later on that evening, we will have our opening performance, and then a talk back after that. 

Mackenzie: Delightful. 

Sarah: We have a very busy [00:44:00] day, but the day before, the Friday before the Campus Theater event we will be having a reading of Haunting Jane Eyre for Heather so she can hear it out loud.

She has worked with another theater where she has been able to workshop it a little bit. Mm-hmm. But it's an opportunity for her to hear another piece out loud with actors in the room it's a really cool adaptation that takes all of the characters within Jane Eyre.

And you have two actors enacting it and it is spooky. But there's this incredible tension within the piece that I long for in theater sometimes that I don't always feel like, is there I want to feel this tension.

You're waiting for something to happen. You're waiting for the other shoe to drop. Heather just writes so smart and she crafts pieces in such an intelligent way and she adapts so innovatively. Yeah. That I just admire her writing tremendously.

Well, thank you 

Summing up the Play 

Aaron: Anything that you haven't said that you would like to say?

Sarah: I think this piece is really important right now because sometimes theater is a mirror, but as I mentioned earlier, this. Is giving us a bit of an escape. Mm. There is so much happening in the world, including love loss, grief, pain, [00:45:00] and I think that while this piece does still hold up a mirror, it does it in such an innovative, exciting, and tactile way that you're allowed to escape for 90 minutes.

You're allowed to escape into the world of these four women and their relationships, and you experience real love. You experience real loss, and it is. So important right now. 'cause we are so, we're becoming really jaded and we're becoming so disconnected from things because we don't wanna look at what's happening on our phone.

We we're afraid to watch the news. It's okay to feel, and I think this piece gives you permission to feel and a permission to escape and. 

Mackenzie: It's a really earnest piece. 

Sarah: It's so earnest and I, I just want people to come and allow themselves to sit, to sink into the seats and escape for 90 minutes and whatever.

You know, the catharsis is, if it's joy, if it's laughter, if it's pain, if it's it's loss, it's whatever you're experiencing is valid. And I think we've been turning off our emotions so much lately to preserve ourselves. Mm-hmm. That this piece is, [00:46:00] um. This piece allows the preservation to release. 

Mackenzie: Awesome.

It's like an open heart piece. Open wound. 

Aaron: Open wound. 

Mackenzie: Yeah. That's what we're all doing up 

Aaron: there. Filled, filled with joy though, too. I think that's, that's one of the, just really quickly, the, the reason why I feel so sad to me is that there's so much joy, so much joy in the sisterhood. 

Mackenzie: That's life though. I mean, that's, I mean, you can't, you can't.

You know, have the highs of joy without opening yourself up to the lows of grief. Yeah. You know, if you close yourself off, you don't get either. Mm-hmm. You know, and, and this piece is saying it is worth it. 

Sarah: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

Mackenzie: To experience grief, to have that joy. 

Sarah: Yeah. We had one of our designers in the room yesterday, and we also had, you know, some shop folks in the room and somebody afterwards was.

That was so beautiful. I was crying and it was just a designer run. Mm-hmm. And so being able to give someone that release is the most remarkable gift. 

Aaron: Thank you so much. 

Sarah: Yeah, 

Aaron: So nice to talk with you. Yes. 

Mackenzie: So wonderful. My first podcast. 

Aaron: Yay. Is that your first one? Yes. Oh, there you go.

Sarah: [00:47:00] Congratulations.

Aaron: That's awesome. You did fabulously.

Outro

Aaron: This has been Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble, down Center, Ensemble Driven Professional Theater Arts Education in rural Pennsylvania for everyone. With everyone.

Tickets are on sale now for this adaptation of Little Women. The show runs April 9th through the 26th with a low price preview on April 9th and a post-show conversation with the cast and playwright Heather Chrisler on opening night.

We also have spots available for our high school matinees, on April 16th and 26th.

If you would like to make April 11th, a Little Women Day, you can come to view the 1994 movie adaptation and panel discussion featuring members of the cast at the Campus Theater in Lewisburg and then come see our opening night show and speak with playwright, Heather Chrisler. It's all one day. It is gonna be a Louisa May Alcott extravaganza! This production is sponsored by Service First Federal Credit Union, and you can purchase [00:48:00] tickets@www.bte.org.

Laura Knorr: and you can sign up and look. I'm doing my little like marketing yazmataz.