presents
Little Women
based on a play by Marian De Forest
based on the book by Louisa May Alcott
adapted and directed by Frank Farrell
at
The Hermitage
355 N. Franklin Turnpike, Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ
on Saturday & Sunday, July 22 & 23 at 7pm
PLACE & TIME OF PLAY:
The sitting room of the March home in Concord, Massachusetts,
1863 – 1866
&
The apple orchard, Plumfield in 1868
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Beth March, Aunt March & Hannah
Jennifer Kim
Jo March – Stella Berrettini
Meg March – Reilly Hacker
Amy March – Alexa Elmy
Mrs. March – Lynn Manuell
John Brooke, Laurie, Mr. March & Prof. Bhaer
Matt Delavan
Directed by Frank Farrell
Stage Managed by Thomas Donohoe
Costume Designer – Julia Sharp
WHO’S WHO IN LITTLE WOMEN
STELLA BERRETTINI (Jo) is a 20 year old New Jersey based actor, and is delighted to be returning to First Flight after her work in their 2022 production of Valley Forge. She recently worked with Jennifer Kim on The Mystery of the Mosaic Bridge, an original play at the Players Theatre. Some other favorite stage credits of hers include Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest, Clarisse in Fahrenheit 451, Millie in Picnic, #46 in The Wolves, and Hamlet in Hamlet.
MATT DELAVAN (Brooke, Laurie, Mr. March & Professor Bhaer) is a theatre student at Montclair State University. He has welcomed the challenge that First Flight’s Little Women has presented, and thanks his castmates, crew, and director for a wonderful experience.
THOMAS J. DONOHOE II (Production Stage Manager/Sound) is a NJ/NYC-based stage manager and graduate of Ramapo College of New Jersey with a degree in Directing/Stage Management. Select credits include New Studio on Broadway: An Experiment. (PSM), Once More (PSM), Montclair Studio Players: Miracle on 34th Street (PSM/TD), Triad Theatre: Magic Box (PSM/Lighting), Charles Seller Foundation: The Addams Family (PSM/Sound Design), Wolfsmouth Players: Effigy (ASM/Tech), A Very Great Mischief (Tech), Acting Under the Influence: Julius Caesar (Director), Twelfth Night (PSM), The Tank NYC: 20th Anniversary Gala (SM), Autumn Affair (Tech), Modern Swimwear (Tech), Ramapo College: Stop/Kiss (PSM), Baltimore (PSM), The Big Unknown 1.5° (PSM), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (ASM), Antigone (ASM), The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise (ASM). Nutley Little Theatre: Hand to God (TD), Tin Cat Shoes (PSM), [Title of Show] (Tech), Gemini (Tech), The Musical of Musicals! (the musical) (Tech), Regrets Only (Tech), Amazons and their Men (Tech). He currently serves as the first chair of the Nutley Little Theatre Youth Committee. In 2020, he won the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region 2 Award for Stage Management Excellence. Contact at tdonohoe05@gmail.com.
ALEXA ELMY (Amy) is a NYC based Actor, Voiceover Artist, and Audiobook Narrator. NYC Theater: Nothing’s Plenty for Me (Theatre Row), Ray Gun Say0nara (New Ohio Theatre), Satin, Rain, and Marigolds (Flamboyán Theater), Pearl (Judson Memorial Church), The Bungle (Fordham/Primary Stages). UK Theater: National Being Human Festival (Ashmolean Museum), Accrington Pals (LDA), The Tempest (LDA). TV/Film: “Shattered” (Investigation Discovery), Spirit in the Studio Apartment (LAFA winner), Innards (Troma Ent.), Pumpkin Seeds (RMP Filmworks). Her voiceover work includes projects for Citizens Bank, Google, Blue Buffalo, and PwC, among others. She regularly narrates audiobooks for Tantor Media and bedtime stories for the podcast, Get Sleepy. Education: Fordham University (BA Acting), London Dramatic Academy, Stella Adler Studio of Acting, and Abacus Entertainment. Come see her solo show, Alexa, Play premiere this fall at Theatre Row as part of United Solo Festival 2023! Follow her on IG @alexaelmy www.alexaelmy.com
FRANK FARRELL (Director & Artistic Director of the First Flight Theatre Company) has recently directed three short films and one full length; Walt Kelly’s Songs of the Pogo, The Leaves Were Falling, Salvador and In the Garden of Live Flowers. He was an actor in Chicago for 40 years receiving three Joseph Jefferson acting nominations and recently returned to NYC where he was born. While in Chicago he directed and produced plays for Free Shakespeare Theatre Company, Temporary Theatre, Shakespeare’s Herd, Steppenwolf Theater, Raven Theatre, Equity Library Theater Chicago, the North Lakeside Players and Theatre-Hikes. For Citadel Theatre in Lake Forest, IL he directed outdoor productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Spoon River Anthology, Romeo and Juliet and Scapin. Frank has formed six theater companies along the way including Theatre-Hikes in Chicago and, in Grand Haven, Michigan, the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company. In NYC he wrote, directed and produced Forgotten Soldiers from Our Forgotten War for the First Flight Theatre Company, the seventh theatre group he has formed. For First Flight he also coordinated several stage readings of Maxwell Anderson’s plays in New York City and Chicago. Frank directed and produced last summer’s production of Maxwell Anderson’s play Valley Forge at The Hermitage Mansion in Bergen County, New Jersey. His Zoom film In the Garden of Live Flowers recently won Best Biopic at the Green Academy Awards Film Festival. Since 2015 he has published seven books including Forgotten Soldiers from Our Forgotten War, all available at Amazon.com.
REILLY HACKER (Meg) is so excited to be playing Meg in First Flight Theatre Company’s production of Little Women. Some of her previous credits include Kathryn Schaub in Radium Girls, Brooke Wyndham in Legally Blonde, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Agatha in Frankenstein, Officer#2/Musician in Twelfth Night, and Greek Chorus in Antigone. She also has a Bachelor's Degree in Theater from Ramapo College with concentrations in Acting, Directing, and Stage Management as well as a minor in Digital Filmmaking. Reilly would like to thank her friends, family, and mentors for their constant love and support and everyone in the cast and crew of Little Women for making this experience a positive one. She hopes the audience enjoys this version of this classic story.
JENNIFER KIM (Beth) is a NYC-based actress. Her recent roles include two roles in Thornton Wilder's short plays (Linda in "Love and How to Cure It" and Diana in "Cement Hands"); Neil in Maxwell Anderson's Valley Forge; Juliet in the comedy, How to Survive a Shakespeare Play; Lady Torminster in Alfred Sutro's The Open Door; Announcer #2 in a public reading of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds; Bob Cratchit, Marley, and others in a three-actor performance of A Christmas Carol; and Denaya in the NY Summerfest short play "Take the R Train."
LYNN MANUELL (Mrs. March) has appeared in over 50 shows in New York, London and Chicago. She has appeared in numerous shows for Genoveva Productions, FACT Theatre and First Flight. Favorite roles include Tess in Vanishing Tess, Miss Lovely in Umbrella in the Snow, Martha in If the Pink Pump Fits. Celia in As You Like It and Mama in High Button Shoes at the Illinois Theater Center. Her cd RETURN TO LOVE is on original cast records. Her book Standing Tall- the emails and creative writings of 9/11 is available on Amazon and was made into a play to raise money for the 9/11 Fund.
JULIA SHARP (Costumer), a retired professor of fashion, is pleased to be working on Little Women with Frank and this group of talented actors. She has costumed over 50 plays for the professional (Equity) theater at Centenary University and numerous plays for community groups. Last year she won a Perry Award for the costumes for Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play. Among her favorite credits are The Cripple of Inishmaan, Deathtrap, The Ladies Man, Harvey, Light up the Sky, The Nether, Madeline’s Christmas, Born Yesterday, Frankenstein; A Modern Prometheus, Peter and the Starcatcher, Radium Girls, and the musicals Peter Pan, and A Christmas Carol. Julia is also the author of several textbooks including one on textiles, and another on the use of design elements in creating apparel and costumes.
The First Flight Theatre Company is devoted to presenting the plays of 20th century American playwright Maxwell Anderson as well as other playwrights who instill poetry in their writing. His favorite writers were Shakespeare and John Keats.
For more about First Flight visit www.firstflighttheatreco.com
First Flight Theatre Company’s Shakespeare’s Ladies at Tea and Shakespeare’s Deaths has been chosen to be part of the Little Shakespeare Festival at the Under St. Marks Theater at 94 St. Marks Place in NYC with performances on August 10, 11, 12, 18 and 19, 2023. Tickets ($25 in person) are available for advance purchase at www.frigid.nyc. The performance will run approximately 55 minutes. This double bill will be an AEA approved showcase featuring 10 actors, directed by Frank Farrell, Stage Managed by Thomas Donohoe and with Fight Choreography by Paul White.
SPECIAL THANKS: Lorraine Haskins, Mary Farrell, Beatriz Estaban, Andrea Kircher, and Christine Blaylock.
OUR 2023 DONORS: John Zerbe, Marilyn Green, Pamela Coombe, Joseph Vetromile, Harper Craven, Debbie Ruzicka, Edward Alstrom,Lynn Manuell, Karen Eterovich, Richard Width, Marla Weeg, Mary Gross, Sandra Seaton, Kathryn Schmidt, Jeanette Schwaba Vigne, and Paul Sugarman.