Cast

ELIZABETH MARVEL as Louisa May Alcott

Broadway: Top Girls, Seascape, An American Daughter, Taking Sides, The Seagull. Off-Broadway: Fifty Words (Lucille Lortel Theatre; nominee 2009 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actress in a Play), Almost an Evening (Atlantic Theater Company), Dark Matters (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre), Terrorism (New Group), A Secondhand Memory (Atlantic Theater Company), Hedda Gabler (OBIE Award), Lydie Breeze, Alice In Bed, A Streetcar Named Desire (OBIE Award), Shopping and Fucking, Play Yourself (NYTW), Meshugah (Naked Angels), Thérèse Raquin (OBIE Award, CSC), Misalliance (OBIE Award, Roundabout), Arts & Leisure (Playwrights Horizons), Troilus and Cressida, King Lear, Silence, Cunning, Exile (NY Shakespeare Festival). Regional: McCarter Theater, Guthrie Theater, American Repertory Theatre, Stratford Theatre Festival, Williamstown Theater Festival. Film & TV: Burn After Reading, Pretty Bird, The Guitar, Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women, The Dying Gaul, 10 Hundred Kings, “A Dog Year” (HBO), “The District” (series regular), “Kidnapped,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “Homicide,” “New York Undercover,” “A Will of Their Own.” Training: Juilliard. In the past year, Marvel has appeared in “30 Rock,” “Nurse Jackie,” and “The Good Wife.”

Elizabeth Marvel Downloads:
Q&A With ‘Fifty Words’ Actress Elizabeth Marvel – Fall Preview 2008 — New York Magazine
Elizabeth Marvel Interview With Time Out New York – Time Out New York
Interview with Elizabeth Marvel on the new Michael Weller play, ‘Fifty Words’ – MCC Theater

Jane Alexander as Ednah Cheney

(Jane Quigley born October 28, 1939 Boston, Massachusetts, USA) distinguished acting career includes her Tony Award-winning performance in “The Great White Hope” directed by Ed Sherin (who later became her husband) and Tony-nominated roles in “Honour,” “The Sisters Rosensweig”, “The Visit,” “First Monday in October,” “Find Your Way Home,” and “6 Rms Riv Vu,” all on Broadway. In addition, she received a Drama Desk and Theatre World Award for “The Great White Hope”, and an Obie for “The Sisters Rosensweig”. She also appeared in “Shadowlands” opposite Nigel Hawthorne, both on Broadway and in London’s West End. Her regional theatre work includes performances at Arena Stage and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., as well as at the Mark Taper Forum, Alliance Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre, and American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford Connecticut. She has appeared in over 100 stage roles in all throughout her career, the most recent being her portrayal of Djuna Barnes in her one-woman show, “What of the Night.”

A four-time Oscar nominee for the films “Testament,” “Kramer vs. Kramer,” “All The President’s Men,” and “The Great White Hope,” she has also appeared in over 50 screen roles; among them being “Brubaker,” “City Heat” and “The Cider House Rules.” Ms. Alexander was also seen in the feature films: “Fur” with Nicole Kidman, directed by Steven Shainberg, “The Ring”, and John Sayles “The Sunshine State”.
On television, Jane won an Emmy Award for the movie “Playing for Time” and a Television Critic’s Circle Award for her portrayal of Eleanor Roosevelt in “Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years.” She was in the tele-film “Jenifer” on CBS, which was directed by her son, Jace Alexander. Jane received a Daytime Emmy nomination for her cameo role in Showtime’s film “Carry Me Home” also directed by Jace Alexander. Ms. Alexander received the Emmy Award for “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie” for her portrayal of “Sara Roosevelt” in HBO’s “Warm Springs”.
Ms. Alexander is the author of “Command Performance: An Actress in the Theater of Politics,” documenting her tenure as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 1993-1997. She continues her political career as a Commissioner of Parks, the Taconic Region, for New York State.
Ms. Alexander co-stars in Robert Benton’s film “Feast of Love” opposite Morgan Freeman, which was released in theaters in September 2007. Jane also co-stared in the new HBO series “Tell Me You Love Me.” In 2008, she played Ednah Cheney in “Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women” to be broadcast on PBS American Masters, December 28, 2009.

Daniel Gerroll as Bronson Alcott

Born in London, Gerroll has appeared on television in both Great Britain and the United States, although his greater contribution has been to the stage in both countries. In New York City, he has won the Theatre World Award for The Slab Boys and Knuckle, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Translations and the Village Voice’s Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance. His Broadway credits include Plenty, The Homecoming, and High Society. Gerroll’s television credits include Miami Vice, Cheers, Knots Landing, Seinfeld, Sex and the City, Law & Order, Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women and The Starter Wife.

On film Gerroll has appeared in Chariots of Fire, Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, 84 Charing Cross Road, Big Business, and The Namesake.

Dossy Peabody

Dossy Peabody as Abigail Alcott

Dossy is an actress and acting coach. She teaches acting at Emerson College. Her acting career spans over twenty years on stage in such productions as Israel Horovitz’ The Widow’s Blind Date, Kate Snodgrass’ Observatory, and in films such as The Crucible and Mermaids. In 1990, Dossy was honored with the first Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Actress.

ADDITIONAL CAST

MOLLY SCHREIBER as
Teen Louisa

EMILY STIKEMAN as
Child Louisa

HALEY GARVIN as
Toddler Louisa

MARIANNA BASSHAM as
May Alcott

MAGGIE QUIGLEY as
Child May Alcott

LINDA AMENDOLA as
Anna Alcott

ELLEN ADAIR as
Teen Anna Alcott

ANNA FINKLESTEIN as
Teen Beth Alcott

ELEANOR FARRIS as
“Lulu” May Alcott Nieriker

LEWIS WHEELER as
Laddie

KEN CHEESEMAN as
Ralph Waldo Emerson

BENO CHAPMAN as
Henry David Thoreau