Alcott on the Stage

Let Genius Burn · Sep 14, 2026 · 1h 33m

Louisa May Alcott loved the theatre: she wrote and staged plays both at home and with amateur theatre groups; she attended plays and recorded her thoughts about them in her journals; she aspired to be an actress herself. And while there is much we can know about her personal world, it is more difficult to place her in the context of the 19th century theatre world from her primary source works alone.

Dr. Amy E. Hughes is a 19th century theatre scholar who joins Let Genius Burn to describe the culture of performing arts, the life of working actors as Alcott aspired to be, and how audiences…