Celebrating Little Women:
Special Events
Over 48 seasons, BTE has delighted and stimulated readers with new, lively adaptations of their favorite stories such as The Velveteen Rabbit, Peter and Wendy, A Midnight Dreary: Tales from Edgar Allan Poe, Emma, Dracula, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and A Christmas Carol. But this season marks our first production ever of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. So, of course, we have to roll out the red carpet for a novel that has never gone out of print!
We hosting a variety of fun tie-in events and classes, thanks to our ensemble, playwright Heather Chrisler, and our friends at the Campus Theatre! Whether you are joining us for our opening weekend or the Louisa May Alcott poetry workshop, we promise this will be the best April ever for Little Women fans!
Opening Day Celebrations!
Saturday, April 11th
The Campus Theatre
413 Market Street, Lewisburg
Doors Open at 12:30 PM
Panel Starts at 1:00 PM
Screening Starts at 1:30 PM
Starting off Little Women’s official opening day at BTE, the Campus Theatre and Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble are co-hosting the Little Women on Stage and Screen panel featuring Little Women playwright Heather Chrisler, followed by a screening of Little Women (1994)!
Heather Chrisler, production director Sarah Elizabeth Yorke, and cast members Kimie Muroya and Mackenzie Moyer will be joined in their discussion about literary adaptations by Bucknell professors Dr. Brian Hauser and Dr. Virginia Zimmerman. Through the lens of Little Women, we will explore the practice and techniques of adaptation, a medium's impact on how a story is retold, adaptation as translation, and adaptation as a form of historical education.
Doors open at 12:30 PM with the panel starting at 1:00 PM and the movie at 1:30 PM. You will also have the opportunity to win tickets to Little Women at BTE! And if you go to the premiere at BTE later that night, you could win free tickets to the Campus Theatre too!
Panelists
Heather Chrisler
Playwright, Little Women
Heather Chrisler is an educator and playwright in Chicago, Illinois. She adapted Little Women in 2018 for her home, First Folio Theatre, due to an abundant love for the novel. Little Women has had productions in theatres in several different states and will make its debut in even more soon. In years past, Chrisler performed as an actor for Goodman Theatre, Victory Gardens Theatre, Writers Theatre and many others. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Theatre from Ohio University. After discovering a love of teaching, however, Chrisler is now working in Special Education. Teaching has not stopped her from writing plays, she recently completed a new adaptation of Jane Eyre which is currently in the development stage. When she is not writing or teaching, Chrisler is spending time with her two year old son, Theodore. He is named for Theodore Lawrence.
Mackenzie Moyer
Jo, Little Women and BTE Guest Artist
Mackenzie Moyer is an actor, writer, and educator born and raised in the Pennsylvania Dutch Mennonite community, who now calls New York City her home. She earned her B.A. in Theatre from DeSales University, and has worked as an actor for Bedlam, the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, The 24 Hour Plays, the cell, SoHo Playhouse, Lenfest Center for the Arts at Columbia University, and the Tank. Thank you to Sarah for bringing her along, as always. Love to Mom, Dad, and Bryan. @mackenzie_moyer on Instagram.
Sarah Elizabeth Yorke
Director, Little Women and BTE Creative Producer
Sarah Elizabeth Yorke, BTE’s new Creative Producer, is an accomplished theater director, producer, actor, and educator from Schuylkill County. She holds an MFA in Directing and an MA in Arts Administration from Ohio University, along with a BA in Theatre Arts from Virginia Tech. An experienced acting coach of nearly eight years, and former full-time faculty member of Virginia Tech, Sarah is known for her innovative, interdisciplinary approach to theater and the arts.
Dr. Brian Hauser
Associate Professor of English - Film/Media Studies at Bucknell University
Dr. Brian Hauser (he/him) is an Associate Professor of Film/Media Studies and Creative Writing. He is a scholar of film and literature, a novelist, a filmmaker and a screenwriter. He has published essays on cinematic and televisual adaptation, the early career of Wes Craven, women directors of horror films and the aesthetics of weird fiction and film in various journals and collections. His screenplays have garnered multiple awards and his debut novel, Memento Mori: The Fathomless Shadows, was released in 2019.
Kimie Muroya 室屋季美恵
Beth/Laurie, Little Women and BTE Resident Artist
Kimie Muroya 室屋季美恵 (she/her/hers) is loving experiencing sisterhood with this delightful cast. She also fondly remembers dressing up as Louisa May Alcott in 6th grade, so perhaps this was destined to be! Kimie is also a founding member of Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists, and has performed regionally with Delaware Shakespeare, Tiny Dynamite, Philadelphia Artists’ Collective, InterAct Theatre Company, Theatre Exile, Montgomery Theatre and more. Gratitude to Sarah and Eleanor for the rehearsal room. Thanks to Mom, Otosan (父), Mikito, Kayla, and baby Mak for all their love and support! Website: kimiemuroya.com. Instagram: @kimie.muroya. As always, Black Lives MATTER.
Dr. Virginia Zimmerman
Presidential Professor of English
Dr. Virginia Zimmerman is Professor of English at Bucknell University. She specializes in Victorian literature and culture and in children's and YA literature from the 19th century to the present. Professor Zimmerman's scholarly works address the intersection of material culture and time, whether in poems about archaeology or in children's books. Dr. Zimmerman's essays have appeared in Victorian Studies, Children's Literature, Configurations, the Journal of Literature & Science, Victorian Periodicals Review, Victorians Institute Journal, Pedagogy, and The Lion and the Unicorn, as well as recent collections published by MLA, Cambridge, Palgrave, Routledge, and Manchester UP. Her book Excavating Victorians was published by SUNY press in 2008. Professor Zimmerman also writes children's fiction: La Finestra del Temps (Cruïlla 2012), The Rosemary Spell (HMH/Clarion Books 2015) and PINK! A Women’s March Story (Running Press 2022). She is also a board member of the River Stage community theatre in Lewisburg.
The Alvina Krause Theatre
226 Center Street, Bloomsburg
Doors Open at 6:30 PM
Performance Starts at 7:30 PM
The Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble officially opens its first ever production of Little Women! Playwright Heather Chrisler, director Sarah Elizabeth Yorke, BTE Resident Artists Kimie Muroya (Beth/Laurie) and Amy Rene Byrne (Meg/Professor Bhaer) and BTE Guest Artists Mackenzie Moyer (Jo) and Arrianna Daniels (Amy/John Brooke) will answer questions directly from the audience following the performance. The show starts at 7:30 PM, with doors opening at 6:30 PM.
Saturday, April 18th and Sunday, April 19th, 2026
Mitrani Production Center
166 East Pine Avenue, Bloomsburg
11:00 AM to 2:00 PM
In honor of National Poetry Month and BTE’s production of Little Women, the Theatre School is offering a two-day poetry workshop where students will draw from the same source of Louisa May Alcott’s inspiration for her classic novel: sisters. In this workshop, we will explore writing poetry about and inspired by our sisters and the other women in our families. The first session, held on April 18th, will focus on writing. The next day, participants can share their writing with the group for feedback. This class is mainly for adults, but all-ages are welcome to participate.
Instructor
Emma Ginader
Writer, Editor, and BTE Communications Director
Emma Ginader is a published writer and editor. Her poetry has appeared in national and international publications such as The Journal of Radical Wonder, The Lavender Review, december magazine, South Broadway Press, The Moth Magazine, The FU Review - Berlin, and Mantis: A Journal of Poetry, Criticism & Translation. She was selected as the 2023 Literary Arts Fellow at the Chautauqua Institution, a 2022 Ayatana’s Biophilium’s Mortem Arts Resident, the 2015 Mount Holyoke College nominee for the Glascock Intercollegiate Poetry Contest, and the Five College Poetryfest 2012 - Mount Holyoke College winner and festival representative. She also recently hosted a cat-themed workshop and reading for the River Poets. The River Poets also hosted her first solo reading in 2022. Emma earned her MFA in writing from Columbia University in 2020.
Preview Performances
Low-Price Preview
Thursday, April 9th, 2026
7:30 PM, with doors opening at 6:30 PM
Admission is $10.00 for Bloomsburg University students and $15 for everyone else*
*excluding Bloomsburg University students. Does not include the $3.50 convenience fee applied at check-out.
Regular-Price Preview
Friday, April 10th, 2026
7:30 PM, with doors opening at 6:30 PM
$35.00/Adults (35-54)
$30.00/Seniors (55+)
$25.00/Young Adults (22-34)
$10.00/Bloomsburg University Students
$15.00/Students (2-21)*
*excluding $3.50 convenience fee