Little Women

Performances (were 2009)	The original theatrical poster

Friday 20 February Saturday 21 February Friday 27 February Saturday 28 February Sunday 1 March Thursday 5 March Friday 6 March Saturday 7 March

Become part of the March family and experience the pain and joy as Amy, Beth, Jo and Meg learn to become Little Women.



Danika Alt as Jo March	Cathryn Stephens as Meg	Kristina Doucouliagos as Amy	Jennifer Ferrett as Beth	Andrea Bashfield as Aunt March	Debbie Keyt as Mrs March (Marmee)

Jonathan Strugnell as John Brooke	Chris Mann as Laurie	Elyse McInerney as Sallie Gardiner	Emily Prince as Belle Moffat	Dario Espinosa as Fred Vaughn	Bernadette Kinsella as Aunt Carol
	And featuring the voice of Tom Travers as Father
Neil Barnett as Prof. Friedrich Bhaer	And featuring the voice of Tom Travers as Father		Brian Uniacke Director	Alan Crispin Lighting Director	Rita Crispin Stage Manager

Justin Keyt Sound Operator	Lucy Bashfield Video Op & SPFX	Colin Buckley Stage Crew	Louise Harahap Stage Crew	Nick Lever Stage Crew	Jacinta Lyne Stage Crew

The following is an article that appeared in the April 2009 Talbot Tattler...
EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW The technology of Little Women By Little Women Director, Brian Uniacke
When Little Women was given the green light I realized the potential of providing a modern slant to the way it was presented. Due to the huge number of locations there was no way it could be achieved without it. This article provides some insight into how technology was utilized for the telling of a classic.
Fig 1 - eTecks Sweet Home 3D	Set Design	Heaven
	This was the first time I had done set design using a 3D computer drafting package. Because my thoughts on the set were conceptual I needed a tool to help me visualize it. I found a free program on the internet called eTeks sweet home 3D which is an interior design package. I measured up the stage and built the walls in SH3d. I included the parts of the Xmas show set I wanted to reuse and then designed the raised attic and stairs. Using the architectural map and the 3D rendered preview I could figure out how big to make my bits of set and props that I would need. The package already had some furniture and other geometric shapes that I could use instantly. Working in the 3D world was especially useful for the 4 girls toy boxes and Laurie’s trunk as it allowed me to plug in different measurements so I could see how big they could be and thus optimize space on stage and storability backstage. The package also exported the architectural map with dimensions so I could bring it to the set builds and say “build that”.	Beth’s dying scene was the key scene for the whole play. I disregarded most of what was written and created my own. I knew I wanted to have the dialogue recorded, to show Jo making an empty bed and finally have Beth walk through a brightly lit door. I chose the door to the men’s costume room and have Beth walk across the front of stage to symbolize her travel to heaven. I was happy with that but Alan gave me more. He added a fog machine in the room so we could have some smoke waft out. Lucy was in charge of the fog and opening the door. With Alan’s tracking spots he programmed in a lighting path so we could have Beth in a follow spot. This scene required a lot of choreography and communication to pull it off.


Storyboards	Fig 2 - Storyboards in MS Word	Did you know...
The 3D package also output “renders” of the 3D set. A render is like taking a photo of the set from any point of view I wanted. I chose to place the camera centre of the audience. I was able to set up the stage for each scene and take a photo. This allowed me to storyboard the whole play scene by scene. The storyboards proved useful in working out logistics on stage, the effect I wanted to present to the audience and would identify missing elements that I would need. Because I could change the colour of objects and walls or even added textures, this allowed me to express to the set builders and painters the look I was after. To create the storyboard document, I simply created a Microsoft word document and imported the appropriate set pictures into the document. I used some other pictures I had created as well as clip art to represent the actors, props, slides and directions.		During the Friday March 6 performance an earthquake hit during Act 1. Shortly after the shaking had finished, Jo delivered the following line “I feel as if there’s been an earthquake.

Fig 3 - Act 2 paper tearing scene in Powerpoint	Video Projection	The Icing On Top...
	When I decided that I was going to use the scrim curtain I thought it would be great to use it as a backdrop by projecting slides onto it via video projector. I have seen this work successfully and I think it is an exciting concept for set design. I always had in mind to have a slide presentation during father’s letter in scene 1 to make it clear to the audience that we are firmly set during the civil war. So this meant I had to use Microsoft Powerpoint. As we were doing rehearsals I found ways that we could utilize the video projection as part of the performance. Most noteably the window for the girls to look out of and the manuscript tearing scene. We could also use the video to help establish locations such as the Gardiner and Moffat houses and Hyde Park. We didn’t know if the video projection was going to work until 3 weeks prior to opening night. With the help of Vince and Alan we found the best approach was rear projection. Of course this created problems because anyone on the attic stage could be seen in the slide. Each act was produced as a slide show. We had Lucy Bashfield in the old bio-box to trigger the slides from a laptop.	This is only just a small insight of the technology enlisted to create Little Women. However, the success of the play was the sum of all it’s parts. It was the small set pieces created by Neil Barnett; the fantastic costume co-ordination by Debbie Keyt; the coordinated effort backstage by Rita, Colin, Louise, Jacinta and Nick; Justin Keyt’s sound operation; Lucy’s slide work and of course Alan Crispin’s amazing eye for lighting. I can’t go far without praising my cast. It was great to see the people I had cast fill my vision of the characters. But I was even more glad to see the friendships that were being forged during this show. So thank you to everyone who came to see the show and for everyone who agreed to be part of it.