Lifelong Little Women Fan Lives the Dream on Stage

Charles Runnells | Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News

Published January 8, 2026

For Emily Ahrens, the March sisters aren’t just characters from a famous book. They’re real people. And they feel like her own sisters — not just words on a page.

“I’ve had those sisters with me my whole life,” she says.

Ahrens has known “Little Women” and the four March sisters — Jo, Beth, Amy and Meg — since she was about 12 years old and first cracked open the novel. Now she’s re-read it seven or eight more times.

She’s even visited the famous Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts. That’s where Louisa May Alcott wrote the beloved novel in 1868, basing the March family on her own family.

“The book is so timeless,” she says. “I think that’s the perfect word for it. There’s a lot in there that still really rings true.”

Her mom first got her to read the book when she was about 12 years old. Now she’s 29.

“I grew up reading ‘Little Women,’” she says. “I’ve reread the book, God, probably seven, eight times now. … Also, my degrees are in musical theater and English literature.

“I’m a book girl. I love classics in particular, but this one’s special.”

As a young reader, she says, she didn’t see many novels with great female characters  — let alone an entire family of great female characters. And when she re-reads the book, she often finds herself identifying with a different March sister.

“Every time I’ve read it, I’ve read it from a different point of view based on where I am at in my own life,” she says. “So when I was growing up — obviously the book is written from the perspective of Jo, right? And so you read it, and you are Jo when you read the book.

“And she’s such a lovable protagonist, and you know, she’s very real and has a lot of flaws. I grew up in an era of Disney princesses, and to have a character like that, it’s like, ‘Oh okay, you don’t have to be perfect at everything.’”

On later re-reads, though, she found herself identifying more with Amy, and then Beth, and now — after reading the book yet again to prepare for the Players Circle Theater show — Meg.

“I’m at a point in my life now, even as an actor, where I’m like, okay, where am I going to build my community?” she says. “Eventually, I do think I want to have a family, and I’m in a career that’s not famously easy for that.

To get ready for the musical, Ahrens finally fulfilled a longtime goal: She visited the Alcott family’s Orchard House in Massachusetts.

“I used this show as an excuse to go,” she says. “It’s been on my bucket list for a long time. … And so I got cast in the musical, and I was heading to New York anyway to get my headshots redone. And Concord, Massachusetts, is just a train ride away…”

That manor house is where Alcott wrote “Little Women” in 1868, inspired by her own mother and sisters. She wrote it on a “shelf desk” her father built for her.

“I got to tour through the entire Alcott home…” Ahrens says. “And (the novel) ‘Little Women,’ like the whole show, the whole book takes place in that house. And she based it on that house.

“You go through the house, and they show you … where she wrote the book. They have her desk that her dad built her to write ‘Little Women’ on. They’ve got Beth’s piano.”

As a huge fan of the book, it was a big day for her.

“Your favorite book literally comes to life,” she says. “It’s really, really cool. I saw Beth’s piano and I started crying because I was like, ‘Oh my God, that was a real person. That’s based on a real person.

“And how beautiful is it that her sister kept her alive (as a character in the novel)? And everyone knows Beth because she wrote about her.”

“I think the challenge that I have as Amy is she is famously the hated sister,” Ahrens says. “Famously hated because she gets Laurie in the end. And a lot of people want Jo to end up with Laurie.”

She understands that reaction, she says, even if she thinks the book makes it clear that Jo and Laurie aren’t meant to be together.

“When I’m looking at Amy, I’m very aware of public perception,” she says. “And I’m very aware of how I felt about her growing up.”

No one actually thinks they’re the villain in their own story, though. So Ahrens did her best to make Amy human and relatable.

“I was like, OK, this is a real girl who really loved art, who did love her sisters, even if she was the youngest, and you know, had some tendencies of the youngest,” she says. “So my job is to make people understand her.

“You don’t have to like her, but I want you to understand why she does what she does. Because maybe then — even if you don’t like her still by the end — maybe at least then you’ll understand the sisterhood, which is the thing I care most about with the story.”

She also played up the character’s comedic moments in the show.

“I love comedy,” she says. “That is my sweet spot. So I think I’ve gone in really focusing on how can I make her more human? How can I make her funny? Because you know, funny, I think is a very relatable trait.”

“When it came to Broadway, it actually didn’t do well,” Ahrens says. “But I think the reason why it didn’t do well — and the reason it actually plays so well in the theater that we’re doing it in right now — is it’s a very intimate story.

“I’ve always read ‘Little Women’ alone in my room or by a fireplace. Or, you know, I read it on the school bus and in a corner somewhere. So I think the problem with bringing it to Broadway was it was a real big house for a real intimate story.”

At the smaller Players Circle, the audience gets to see the March sisters up close and personal.

“I have to be careful not to trip over people’s feet,” Ahrens says and laughs. “It’s not a proscenium, 2,000-seat space, so you’re going be able to see everything that you need to see.

“The most important part of the show is the sisterhood and the connection there. And if you can’t see people’s faces, you’re not gonna get that.”

“Little Women: The Musical” opens Friday, Jan. 8, and continues through Jan. 25. Tickets are $40-$55.

Players Circle Theater is at 13211 McGregor Blvd., Fort Myers.

For more information, call 239-800-3292 or visit here.