Playwright David Longest has taken the classic Louisa May Alcott novel and expanded it into a sweeping historical tale. The play begins with Louisa May recalling her own childhood. We quickly meet the real Alcott sisters and the many literary greats who visited Orchard House, their home in Concord, Mass.: Henry David Thoreau, once Louisa May's teacher; Thomas Niles, her editor and publisher; Ralph Waldo Emerson, a close friend of the family; George Bartlett, a local Concord actor; and a host of other real-life characters who influenced Ms. Alcott throughout her life. As the dramatization of Little Women begins, the fictional plot of the novel and the real-life friends and family of Louisa May Alcott are cleverly entwined. This powerful, tender and touching play brings us new insight into the person Louisa May Alcott actually was and showers us with renewed hope in the strength of family bonds and the spirit of love. Unit set.