Interview: Giovanna Sardelli of LOUISA MAY ALCOTT'S LITTLE WOMEN at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley

Classics are classics for a reason - they explore universal truths through stories and characters that never fail to move us. By that measure, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women easily qualifies. And yet, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Artistic Director Giovanna Sardelli readily admits that when she was first approached with the idea of commissioning Lauren Gunderson to write a new stage adaptation of Little Women, she wasn’t certain the world needed another version of the iconic novel. Then she read a partial draft of Gunderson’s script and was immediately convinced that it did. Not only did she program the play to kick off the 55th season of the Tony-winning theater company, she opted to direct the play herself. And boy is she glad she did. When I spoke with her at the end of the second day of rehearsal, she was brimming over with joy in anticipation of getting the play in front of audiences.

TheatreWorks’ production is part of a “rolling world premiere” being done in conjunction with three other regional theaters, a smart move that shares resources while continuing the company’s longstanding association with the prolific playwright. Gunderson is a Bay Area resident whose works have proven to be incredibly popular with theater companies and audiences all over the U.S. In fact, just last week American Theater magazine released their annual survey which found that she will once again be the most-produced living playwright in the country this season. Known for her characteristic charm and wit, and for writing fiercely feminist plays that center on the lives of women heroines, Gunderson is the perfect person to adapt Alcott’s novel for the stage.

I’ve interviewed Sardelli many times over the years, and while she’s always passionate and upbeat, I don’t know that I’ve ever heard her sound quite this rapturous about a production she’s working on. In rehearsal, she’s been struck by the story’s parallels with current times (a divided country, women striving to carve out their own place in the world) and how richly drawn all of the characters are, including the men. We also chatted about the current state of TheatreWorks and the continuing challenges it faces, such as government funding drying up overnight. After having successfully guided TheatreWorks through the financial crisis that she inherited when she came on board as Artistic Director in 2023, at least that particular “wild ride” is now in the rearview mirror. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Did Little Women play a significant role in your growing up?

The book was very important, and my mother made sure we all had a copy. And the movie – I’ve seen the Winona Ryder version, the Greta Gerwig version and of course the Katharine Hepburn version. So the movie in a weird way almost more than the book is what I remember as a child, and then this project reintroduced me to the book. I’ve never seen a stage version, not even the musical, even though TheatreWorks produced it and a friend of mine wrote it. [laughs]

As you just alluded to, this isn’t the first stage adaptation of Little Women. How does it differ from others that people might have seen before?

It’s so funny that you ask that. I was honest with Zak Berkman, who runs People’s Light Theatre, who called and said, “Would you like to be part of commissioning Lauren Gunderson to write Little Women?” I will confess my first thought was “Do we need another Little Women?” [laughs] And then I read the script, at that point just Lauren’s first act, and my answer became resoundingly “Yes, we do!” Because Lauren is doing something so incredible with this story. It is honoring of the book, but there is also this contemporary lens with Louisa as a character, putting the book, this woman and this gorgeous story in its proper place and time in history. It’s all happening simultaneously.

And it is so timely. It was a country that was at Civil War, where what you relied on was your community, your family, there was this feeling of unrest, this feeling of defining an unknown future. It’s about resilience and love and forgiveness, and rebuilding and relationships and romance. It all feels so present, and so loving, that it’s really powerful.

Lauren Gunderson is by many measures the most frequently produced playwright in the country. What do you especially love about her writing, and how does that show up in this play?

Well, first of all, Lauren is so smart, and her love of smart women who define their lives for themselves is so present. What makes Lauren so special is her theatricality, her belief in what is possible on a stage, how much of a story can be contained. I just don’t think there’s anyone writing with multiple perspectives like she’s doing with this piece. While Jo is the character most like Louisa May Alcott, all of these women represent her. I feel like everyone can find their way into this story, including these lovely male characters, like the father and Laurie.

As a director, how do you take a group of actors who may not have even met before and help them forge a credible family onstage?

That is a big question: How do you make a family? The most amazing thing happened in our first readthrough of the play, and I mean this sincerely. I’ve been doing this for a very long time, and it was probably the best first reading I have ever experienced. There was something about each person bringing their own love for Little Women into the room, and that feeling when you know that you’re doing something special. I wept and laughed and just got swept away into the story, and I think everyone else did, too. I have not really had this happen before in my career and I believe it is what will happen for the audience as well.

It is also remarkable when you consider that it’s a diverse cast who are approaching the story from so many different perspectives, and everyone found their way to the story and to this family unit. Today was our second day of rehearsal, and it already felt like a family. I think that’s a testament to the original story and how Lauren has brought it to life. It is a kind of magic, and I am so grateful.

You have such a keen visual sense as a director. What will this production look like?

This is an exciting production for me because I’m working with two Bay Area theater legends who I’ve never worked with before. Annie Smart is designing the set and Meg Neville is doing the costumes. And then anchoring it, we have Kurt Landisman doing the lighting and James Ard doing the sound, two artists I’ve worked with a lot. One of the things I’m trying to do this season is take people I know, like Elissa Stebbins playing Jo is an actor I’ve work withed a lot, and then there are many people in this cast whom I’ve never worked with.

And the visual story – when I say that Lauren has done something theatrical, I also want to say when I read it, I went, “Omigod, is that even possible to pull off?” What it requires, how it moves in time and space, and how it covers the breadth of the story is astounding. Annie brought in a set that does on a physical level what Lauren’s script does, which is it honors the truth of who the Alcotts were, the poverty that the family had, their outsider belief at that time as transcendentalists. There’s just enough of that to then also provide a shell for the imagination to take place so that it’s a playground in a way that I’m thrilled by.

We will be creating the show as we go, in some ways, with this set that Annie gave. There’s something exquisitely specific for every piece of the story, and Meg did the same thing with costumes, in a way that allows people to grow and change and be in multiple places. I think it’s gonna be visually stunning, with the lights and then of course the beautiful music. I hope so, Jim. We’ll see!

Let’s talk a little about your “day job.” Congrats on making it to your third year as Artistic Director of TheatreWorks. I know it hasn’t been an easy ride because you came on board at what was truly a make-or-break moment for the company. You successfully guided TheatreWorks through that period of crisis, but the regional theater scene all across the country continues to struggle. How would you describe where things are right now with TheatreWorks?

I think they’re in such an exciting place. I had the privilege of helming the company through this wild ride, and I think one of the reasons TheatreWorks came through it is a phenomenal and dedicated staff and a community that stepped up in a way that many theaters haven’t had, and that’s why they folded. When I took over, we had a meeting and learned the dire straits we were in, and we said, “We can play it safe, or we can play it bold and double down on our mission.” So we really looked at our mission and said, “How do we stand behind it and fiercely fight for it?” And it paid off.

There are still problems to solve, and just when you think you’ve solved them, the government says, “Hey, let’s create some other obstacles.” It pains me that we’re still somewhat unknown in our own backyard, and yet across the country people understand that TheatreWorks is this gem that is creating vibrant new theater all the time while also reimagining classics like Little Women. But we are standing in a place where the path forward is clear. There’s still work to do, but we have bought ourselves runway to do it, to experiment and look at problems from many angles, and that is a luxury we didn’t have. It’s the team and the community that has afforded us that.

What do you see as your biggest challenge for the coming season?

I think the biggest challenges are always the unknowns at a time of change. Some of the changes were because of changes in funding, like again the government cancelling some funding. Some of the changes came with partnerships as a theater that doesn’t own our own space. We work with the City of Palo Alto and the City of Mountain View. With the Mountain View theater, there are some experiments that we’re trying this year, like performing in the Second Stage and performing at different times, that were necessitated by our relationship there. So we’ll see if these changes pay off or create different challenges and different problems to solve. There is no such thing as stability. There is just a constant tapdancing of what’s comin’ our way. [laughs] The difference is we have bandwidth to solve the problems, it’s not constant crisis.

I think a clear sign of the current health of TheatreWorks is the terrific slate of plays you’re offering this season.

Oh, thank you!

It’s beautifully varied and every single production looks like something audiences will find immensely rewarding. I’m personally most excited about the regional premiere of Eboni Booth’s Primary Trust, a play I’ve been dying to see ever since its New York run almost two years ago. What were the behind-the-scenes negotiations like to land a play that no doubt many Bay Area theaters would have loved to program as part of their season?

We were really worried about that because we figured that people would be clamoring to do the play. It won the Pulitzer. Listen, I will never know how many other theaters were bidding for it. [Director] Jeffrey Lo loved this script and understood it in a way that I didn’t. I appreciated it, I think it is stunning, but Jeffrey’s love of the play is what also made me go “TheatreWorks has the heart, we are the right theater to produce this play.” So there was the confidence of, if we’d had to fight for it and articulate why this play matches who we are and how we have told stories for decades, I believe we would have won this play anyway.

I think that did play into it, and the agent knew us so I think that that had something to do with it as well. The other thing that’s interesting is several of our board members saw the play at other theaters and came to me and said, “Do you know about this play? I didn’t know anything about it and I was captivated by it.” The number of people who have said they discovered this special play, and I’d laugh and think “Well, yes, you and the Pulitzer team!” There’s something going on in that story that really works its way into people’s hearts and souls. I can’t wait to do it.

Circling back to Little Women, which one of the four March sisters do you most closely identify with?

Well, it’s almost a cliché to say this, but I will tell ya, it is Jo. [laughs] Jo in that place of choosing a life in the arts, a life that didn’t make sense to anyone - this girl from Las Vegas thing [where Sardelli grew up], “I’m gonna go do theater! It’s something that involves feathers and sequins and… I don’t know!” [laughs] So there’s something in that. But I also see myself in this family. I’m one of four sisters, I had a sister who passed away, I had a strong mother and a father who traveled a lot, so I just find myself in this story, as I think many people do.

But what I’m starting to see now that I’m really delving in is how each sister is a piece of their mother and each sister is not defined by one thing. I’ve found myself wishing I could be more like Amy, who claims her place in the world, who is as fierce a dreamer as Jo, but also left room for romance and love in her vision. So today I started to go “Ooh, I wish I had a little bit of Amy in there.”

Another remarkable thing is we talk about “Little Women,” but the men in the cast, Max Tachis and George Psarras, were saying how special it is for them to be in this show because they don’t often get to play men like this – full characters, who love deeply. It moved me so much. And the whole cast was like “I can’t wait to do the student matinee and bring this story to life, and to show all these facets of womanhood and this wonderful view of what it is to be a good man.” That’s something you don’t really get to see a lot.

That blew me away, to hear the actors say that. You rarely have a cast begin a process by saying “I can’t wait for the student matinee!” [laughs] I thought that was beautiful, like this feeling of “We’re doing something special and I can’t wait to introduce it to students and tell them the story.”

(Header photo of Giovanna Sardelli by Deborah Lopez)

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