Mississippi Today
Rebuilding trust: How Ted Henifin hopes to repair the relationship between Jacksonians and their water system
Rebuilding trust: How Ted Henifin hopes to repair the relationship between Jacksonians and their water system
Eager to spread the news of a massive federal investment in his city’s drinking water system, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba called several town hall events over the last few months to update his constituents.
But to the residents in attendance, the $800 million coming to Jackson is far less tangible than the problems right in front of them, as many directed the same, commonly heard refrains towards Lumumba: What is with my water bill? Why am I being charged for water that’s unsafe to drink? Who’s going to fix the sewage spewing onto my lawn?
“I’m being charged for water I’m not even using,” one man said at a Forest Hill High School town hall in February, saying the water he was being charged for was leaking across his yard.
A woman in attendance said her monthly bill went from $55 to over $200, which she eventually just refused to pay. At another town hall in December, a resident said he got a bill in the thousands even though the water from his tap was brown.
Unable to speak to each person’s problem, Lumumba echoed a hopeful sentiment: While the city didn’t have the resources it needed before, it does now, and help is on the way.
While much has happened for the future of Jackson’s water since last fall – a federal takeover that placed a third-party team in control of the system’s improvement, the $800 million investment provided through several federal funding streams, a grant program that’s already eliminated $8 million in resident’s water bill debt in less than a week – the process of restoring trust among residents in what comes out of their taps is a long road ahead.
“I mean we’re going on, what, 40 years of distrust in Jackson’s water system?” said Brooke Floyd, a coordinator with the JXN People’s Assembly.
Floyd, a Jackson native, mother, and former teacher, said she distrusted the water even as a child, recalling her grandparents boiling the water for as long as she remembers.
“People are centering this on (the current) administration, but this is a deep-seated distrust that goes for years,” Floyd said. “So, I think it’s going to take some time for residents to understand, and it’s going to take some showing; you have to show people that the billing is going to get straightened out, and that our water is safe and that the pipes work, all those things.”
Last November, a federal judge appointed Ted Henifin to be the one in charge of lifting Jackson’s water system into a state of self-reliance.
Henifin recently sat down with Mississippi Today to talk about his game plan, as well as rebuilding trust in a water system among the people who have to pay for it.
Henifin said restoring credibility comes down to three changes: fixing the billing system, providing consistent water pressure by replacing small water lines and finally clarifying the existence of lead in Jackson’s distribution system.
Henifin’s plan
After working for 40 years in Virginia, it wasn’t until getting to Jackson that Henifin realized being a municipal utility worker could earn him public notoriety.
“People will recognize me pretty much everywhere I go, which is a little weird,” Henifin told Mississippi Today at his office. “I’ll be going out to dinner and people will say, ‘Oh, you’re the water guy.’”
But Henifin is in a city where such basic services – whether it’s garbage pickup, sewage disposal or drinking water – regularly leave residents without guarantees. He’s also in a position where few very, if any, municipal water professionals have ever sat.
In one of the largest federal interventions of a local utility system in American history, the U.S. government equipped Henifin with far-reaching authority that allows him to bypass local and state regulation, as well as nearly a billion dollars to spend on projects and a $400,000 personal salary.
His new title is chief executive officer of JXN Water, a nonprofit established to carry out the federal order put in place in November.
Although he’s heading a non-public entity that can avoid public record laws and government procurement rules, Henifin said he’s committed to transparency.

At the December town hall, Henifin waited afterwards to greet attendees, handing out his phone number to anyone who asked. While he said connecting with people directly is important for him to build credibility with Jackson residents, he admitted it’s been a little overwhelming at times trying to get back to everyone who reaches out.
But restoring trust is more than just being a personable face. Henifin said he wants residents, who will have to fund the water system once he’s left and the federal money has dried up, to feel that they’re paying into something worthwhile and that they’re being charged fairly.
“The billing system’s not helping us whatsoever at the moment, sending out terrible bills and continuing to struggle answering calls,” he said. “The trust-building where (residents) connect to us, which is really billing, is the big piece.”
While it’s a widely accepted practice for cities to charge customers based on how much water they consume, Jackson hasn’t had a reliable metering system in place for years due to the fallout from a failed Siemens contract, and residents are constantly burdened with inconsistent or incorrect bills.
As part of a debt relief program – funded through a new social safety net grant created under the CARES Act – Jackson last week began offering to correct water bills for customers who felt they were given incorrect charges. In less than a week, the city corrected $8 million in residents’ debt.
Recognizing the damage the broken water meters had done to the whole system’s credibility, Henifin in January laid out a novel approach in a financial proposal he was required to submit by the federal order: charging residents based on their property value. He conceded then that, as far as he knew, the only city to try something similar was Milwaukee with its wastewater system.
According to an analysis he presented, this system wouldn’t change much for the lower-income and average rate-payers: the median single-family household would see a $50 monthly bill; lower-value property owners would pay slightly less; and and higher-value owners would pay slightly more, with bills capped at $150.
What would change, Henifin explained, is that residents would be getting the same bill amount every month, taking away the monthly mystery that has haunted Jackson customers since the Siemens fiasco.
But on Wednesday, lawmakers passed a bill in the Senate that would ban charging customers for water in a way that doesn’t include consumption. The bill is headed back to a committee for further debate.
Henifin called out the Legislature’s efforts to interfere during a recent town hall at Millsaps college.
“There are so many things we pay for that aren’t directly connected to our use,” he. “We all pay for schools, not all of us have children. We all pay for trash, some people put out tons of trash, some people only put out a bit.
“We’re just stuck in this, ‘water has to be based on consumption’ mindset, but so many other things that are for society we pay for without even giving it much thought, because it’s all about a community that’s supporting the other members of the community.”
Lumumba has yet to comment on the idea, saying he hasn’t seen Henifin’s proposal.
The JXN Water CEO will spend the next few weeks and months at roundtables with community members to hear their thoughts on his idea, among others he put in his January financial plan.
Trusting the water
In 2015, test results for lead in Jackson’s water system showed samples above the “action level,” or legal limit, of 15 parts per billion (ppb). Just months later, the state Department of Health found that nearly a quarter of homes it tested had lead levels above 15 ppb.
The Environmental Protection Agency has since required the city to issue quarterly notices to residents, reminding pregnant women and children to take extra precautions before drinking the water. The EPA requirement is still in place for Jackson because the city has yet to complete a corrosion control plan to ensure no lead or copper dissolves into the water during the treatment process.
“How can you have trust if you have to have that statement on everything you put out about the water?” Henifin said.
He said the system to complete the corrosion control, which the city has put off completing for years, should be in place this summer, which would then allow the city to stop sending the quarterly notices.
But even after fixing the treatment process, the city will still have to ensure there’s no lead in the water lines of the distribution system. Henifin said he has a contractor set to do an inventory analysis of Jackson’s piping to determine if there are any lead service lines, and said that information should be presented to the public within a year.
Jackson is facing multiple lawsuits that allege the city exposed residents to lead, including one representing 600 children that alleges a coverup dating back to 2013.
Danyelle Holmes, National Social Justice Organizer with the Poor People’s Campaign, said that even with the city upgrading its water lines, there is still a concern of the presence of lead in the city’s homes, especially in poorer neighborhoods where pipe replacements are less feasible.
“If they’re old pipes they need to be replaced,” Holmes said. “We know that in south Jackson, and in west Jackson as well, a large portion of those homes are old homes, and those are the homes that we’re concerned will be disproportionately affected.”
In the city’s latest quarterly notice, it disclosed that during the July-December testing period it found the 90th percentile of results showed 6 ppb of lead; while 15 ppb is the legal limit, health experts say that no amount of lead is safe to consume.
Last year, a series of tests conducted by the Clarion Ledger and Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting found positive results for lead throughout Jackson, with the highest being about 6 ppb at Jackson State University.
Restoring pressure: replacing lines, plugging leaks
Because of leaks throughout the distribution system, the city of Jackson loses about half of the water that it treats and puts out everyday. On average, water systems around the country lose about 15% of the water they put out.

Henifin’s team, led by former Jackson planning director Jordan Hillman, is finding major leaks throughout the city, he said, in some cases by detecting chlorine in puddles that wouldn’t otherwise be there. He projects that, through contracted work, they’ll be able to fix some of the larger leaks within the next two years.
The other issue, though, is the city’s small diameter water lines. The modern standard is that water lines should be at least 6 inches in diameter; Jackson, though, has over 100 miles of lines smaller than that.
Henifin projected it’ll take between five to 10 years to make the necessary fixes, with the goal of doing about 20 miles of replacements each year.
“Hopefully soon after we’ll get the anecdotal stories that people say, ‘Wow, the water’s great, it’s no longer discolored,’” Henifin said. “So, if we get a couple of those stories out by fall, I think by next year we could have some movement towards trust building if (we fix) the billing system, pipe replacement, and we get the corrosion control. Those three things should help to at least begin to build some trust.”
Optimistically speaking, Henifin added, if his team of contractors plug enough of the city’s leaks, Jackson could reach a point within the next year where it wouldn’t need the century-old J.H. Fewell, one of the system’s two treatment plants. City officials have for years hoped to retire Fewell, which would save Jackson “significant money” from not having to operate it, Henifin said.
What’s next
Pending the legislative session and feedback from upcoming community roundtables and city leaders, Henifin hopes to have the new billing system in place by October.
On Tuesday, Henifin also mentioned early talks of Jackson’s wastewater system, which is under an EPA consent decree, joining the drinking water system in the federal stipulated order. But he said that decision is at least a few weeks away.
Looking ahead, Henifin is already thinking about how he plans to leave the city. In his January proposal, he looked at the various options for long-term governance, and suggested the best option would be placing the water system under a corporate nonprofit, similar to JXN Water but with a board of governors made of local constituents.
Under that model, Jackson would retain ownership of the water system assets, and contract out its services. Henifin said while he hadn’t thoroughly researched it, he didn’t know of any water systems in the U.S. with a similar model.
He added that he didn’t think it’d be wise to give the city back full control of the system, citing local politics and obstacles in issuing contracts. He said he’s had that conversation with Jackson leadership, and thinks they may come around to the idea at some point.
“I don’t believe the city has demonstrated that they’re able to do this,” Henifin said. “With a track record like that, what would make any of us think that changes just because there’s an influx of federal dollars?”
On Wednesday, proposed legislation to create a state-controlled regional authority over Jackson’s water system died in the House.
Floyd, the coordinator with JXN People’s Assembly, said she’s encouraged by the work Henifin has done so far, and thinks he’s serious about winning over residents’ trust.
“There’s going to be a lack of trust with whoever is (running the water system),” Floyd said. “I don’t think people are really that worried with (Henifin) being from wherever and coming from the outside. When is the water going to be fixed and when is my bill going to be fixed? That’s the number one concern for everybody.”
In conversations with those affected by the ongoing water crisis, Henifin said he’s been surprised by the empathy he’s gotten from Jacksonians.
“The folks have very high expectations that I might be able to make a difference, but they also seem willing to be patient,” he said. “Much more so than if I was in their shoes and had lost water pressure for weeks during the summer and again at Christmas. I’ve found it actually to be increasing my personal pressure to succeed because so many people have been really nice about encouraging me.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Feuding GOP lawmakers prepare to leave Jackson without a budget, let governor force them back
After months of bitter Republican political infighting, the Legislature appears likely to end its session Wednesday without passing a $7 billion budget to fund state agencies, potentially threatening a government shutdown if they don’t come back and adopt one by June 30.
After the House adjourned Tuesday night, Speaker Jason White said he had presented the Senate with a final offer to extend the session, which would give the two chambers more time to negotiate a budget. As for now, the 100 or so bills that make up the state budget are dead.
The Senate leadership was expected to meet and consider the offer Tuesday evening, White said. But numerous senators both Republican and Democrat said they would oppose such a parliamentary resolution, and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has also said it’s unlikely and that the governor will have to force lawmakers back into special session.
White said he believes, if the Senate would agree to extend the session and restart negotiations, lawmakers could pass a budget and end the 2025 session by Sunday, only a few days later than planned.
But if the Senate chooses not to pass a resolution extending the session, White said the House would end the session on Wednesday.
It would take a two-thirds vote of support in both chambers to suspend the rules and extend the session. The Senate opposition appears to be enough to prevent that.
Still, the speaker said he believes Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Senate leaders are considering the proposal. But he said if he doesn’t hear a positive response by Wednesday, the House will adjourn and wait for Gov. Tate Reeves to call a special session at a later date.
“We are open to (extending the session), but we will not stay here until Sunday waiting around to see if they might do it,” White said.
White said leaving the Capitol without a budget and punting the issue to a special session might not cool tensions between the chambers, as some lawmakers hope.
“I think when you leave here and you end up in a special session, some folks say, ‘Well everybody that’s upset will cool down by then.’ They may, or it may get worse. It may shine a different and specific light on some of the things in this budget and the differences in the House and Senate,” White said. “Whereas, I think everybody now is in the legislative mode, and we might get there.”
The Mississippi Constitution does not grant the governor much power, but if Gov. Tate Reeves calls lawmakers into a special session, he gets to set the specific legislative agenda — not lawmakers.
White said the governor could potentially use his executive authority to direct lawmakers to take up other bills, such as those related to education, before getting to the budget.
“When we leave here without a budget, it is entirely the governor’s prerogative to when he (sets a special session) and how he does that.”
While the future of the state’s budget hangs in the balance, lawmakers have spent the remaining days of their regular session trying to pass the few remaining bills that remained alive on their calendars.
House approves DEI ban, Senate could follow suit on Wednesday
The House on Tuesday passed a proposal to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs from public schools, and both chambers approved a measure to establish a form of early voting.
The House approved a conference report compromise to ban DEI programs and a list of “divisive concepts” from K-12 schools, community colleges and universities. If the Senate follows suit, Mississippi would join a number of other Republican-controlled states and President Donald Trump, who has made rooting DEI out of the federal government one of his top priorities.
The agreement between the Republican-dominated chambers follows hours of heated debate in which Democrats, all almost of whom are Black, excoriated the legislation as a setback in the long struggle to make Mississippi a fairer place for minorities. Legislative Republicans argued the legislation will elevate merit in education and remove from school settings “divisive concepts” that exacerbate divisions among different identity groups.
The concepts that will be rooted out from curricula include the idea that gender identity can be a “subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality.” The move reflects another effort to align with the Trump administration, which has declared via executive order that there are only two sexes.
The House and Senate disagreed on how to enforce the act, but ultimately settled on an agreement that would empower students, faculty members and contractors to sue schools for violating the law, but only after they go through an internal campus review process that would give schools time to make changes. The legislation could also withhold state funds from schools that don’t comply.
Legislature sends ‘early voting lite’ bill to governor
The Legislature also overwhelmingly passed a proposal to establish a watered down version of early voting, though the legislation is titled “in-person excused voting,” and not early voting.
The proposal establishes 22 days of in-person voting before Election Day that requires voters to go to the circuit clerk’s office or another location county officials have designated as a secure early voting facility, such as a courtroom or a board of supervisors meeting room.
To cast an early vote, someone must present a valid form of photo ID and list one of about 15 legal excuses to vote before Election Day. The excuses, however, are broad and would, in theory, allow many people to cast early ballots.
Examples of valid excuses are voters expecting to work on Election Day, being at least 65 years old, being currently enrolled in college or potentially travelling outside of their county on Election Day.
Since most eligible voters either work, go to college or are older than 65 years of age, these excuses would apply to almost everyone.
“Even though this isn’t early voting as we saw originally, it makes this more convenient for hard working Mississippians to go by their clerks’ office and vote in person after showing an ID 22 days prior to an election,” Senate Elections Chairman Jeremy England said.
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves opposes early voting, so it’s unclear if he would sign the measure into law or veto it.
Both chambers are expected to gavel at 10 a.m. on Wednesday to debate the final items on their agenda.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
‘A lot of us are confused’: Lacking info, some Jacksonians go to wrong polling place
Johnny Byrd knew that when his south Jackson neighborhood Carriage Hills changed wards during redistricting last year, his neighbors would have trouble finding their correct polling place on Election Day.
So he bought a poster board and inscribed it with their new voting location – Christ Tabernacle Church.
“I made a sign and placed it in front of the entrance to our neighborhood that told them exactly where to go so there would be no confusion,” said Byrd, vice president of the Association of South Jackson Neighborhoods.
Still, on April 1, a car full of voters from a senior living facility who should have gone to Christ Tabernacle were driven to their old polling place.
“I thought it was unfortunate they had to get there and find out rather than knowing in advance that their polling location was different,” said Sen. Sollie Norwood, a Democrat from Jackson who was on the ground Tuesday helping constituents with voting.
One of those elderly women became frustrated and said she no longer wanted to vote, Norwood said, though her companions tried to convince her otherwise. By midday Tuesday, 300 people had voted at Christ Tabernacle, one of the city’s largest precincts currently in terms of registered voters, but among the lowest in turnout historically.
Voting rights advocates and candidates vying for municipal office in Jackson are keeping an eye on issues facing voters at the polls, though without official results, it remains to be seen if that will dampen turnout this election with the hotly contested Democratic primary.
“I still believed it was gonna be low,” Monica McInnis, a program manager for the nonprofit OneVoice, said of turnout. “I was expecting it would be a little higher because of what is on the ballot and how many people are running in all of the wards as well as the mayor’s race.”
The situation is evolving as the day goes on, but the main issues are twofold. One, thousands of Jackson voters have new precinct locations after redistricting last year put them into a new city council ward.
Two, some voters didn’t realize their polling place for the municipal elections may differ from where they voted in last year’s national elections, which are run by the counties.
In Mississippi, voters are assigned two precincts that are often but not always the same: A municipal location for city elections and a county location for senate, gubernatorial and presidential elections
“People in Mississippi, we go to the same polling location for three years, and that fourth year, it changes,” said Jada Barnes, an organizer with the Jackson-based nonprofit MS Votes. “A lot of us are confused. When people are going to the polling place today, they’re seeing it is closed, so they’re just going back home which is making turnout go even lower.”
Barnes said she’s hearing this primarily from a few Jackson voters who called a hotline that MS Votes is manning. Lack of awareness around polling locations is a big deterrent, she said, because most people are trying to squeeze their vote in between work, school or family responsibilities.
“Maybe you’re on your lunch break, you only got 30 minutes to go vote, you learn that your polling location has changed and now you have to go back to work,” she said.
Norwood said he heard from a group of students assigned to vote at Christ Tabernacle who had attempted to vote at the wrong precinct and were told their names weren’t on the rolls. They didn’t know they had been moved from Ward 4 to Ward 6, Norwood said, meaning they expected to vote in a different council race until reaching the polls Tuesday.
Though voters have a duty to be informed of their polling location, Barnes said city and circuit clerks and local election commissioners are ultimately responsible for making sure voters know where to go on Election Day.
Angela Harris, the Jackson municipal clerk, said her office worked to inform voters by mailing out thousands of letters to Jacksonians whose precincts changed, including the roughly 6,000 whose wards changed during the 2024 redistricting.
“I am over-swamped,” she said yesterday.
Despite her efforts, at least one voter said he never got a letter. Stephen Brown learned through Facebook, not an official notice, that he was moved from Ward 1 to Ward 2.

A resident of the Briarwood Heights neighborhood in northeast Jackson, Brown’s efforts to vote Tuesday have been complicated by mixed messages and a lack of communication. He has yet to vote, even though he showed up at the polls at 7:10 this morning.
His odyssey took him to two wrong locations, where the poll managers instructed Brown to call his ward’s election commissioner, who did not answer multiple calls, Brown said. Brown finally learned through a Facebook comment that he could look up his new precinct on the Mississippi Secretary of State’s website — if he scrolled down the page past his county precinct information.
This afternoon, Brown has a series of meetings planned, so now he’s hoping for a 30-minute window to try voting one more time, even though he’s skeptical it will make a difference.
“I’m a very disenchanted voter, because I’ve been let down so much,” he said. “I vote because it’s the thing that I’m supposed to do and because of the sacrifices of my ancestors, but not because I truly believe in it, you know?”
Brown’s not alone in facing turbulence. Back at Christ Tabernacle, one Jackson voter, who declined to give her name, said she’s frustrated from having to drive to three polling locations in one day.
“I’m dissatisfied with the fact that I had to drive from one end of this street and all of the back to come over here when I usually vote over here on Highway 18,” she said. “This was a great inconvenience, gas wise and time wise.”
The same thing happened to Rodney Miller. He called the confusion some voters are facing in this election “unnecessary.”
“That ain’t the way we should be handling business,” he said. “We should be looking out for one another better than that, you know? It’s already enough getting people out to vote, and when you confuse them when they try? Come on now. That’s discouraging.”
Christ Tabernacle is the second largest precinct in the city in terms of registered voters, with 3,330 assigned to vote there as of 2024, according to documents retrieved from the municipal election committee. But it had one of the lowest voter turnout rates – 10% in the 2021 primary election before redistricting and before it became so large.
Byrd mentioned the much higher turnout in places like Ward 1 in northeast Jackson, compared to where he lives in south Jackson. Why does Byrd think this is?
“Civics,” Byrd said. “They took civics out of school. If you ask the average person what is the role and responsibility of any elected official, they can’t tell you.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
New Stage’s ‘Little Women’ musical opens aptly in Women’s History Month
Ties that bind, not lines that divide, at the heart of “Little Women” are what make Louisa May Alcott’s beloved novel such an enduring classic. More than a century and a half since its 1868 publication, the March sisters’ coming-of-age tale continues to resonate in fresh approaches, say cast and crew in a musical version opening this week at New Stage Theatre in Jackson, Mississippi.
“Little Women, The Broadway Musical” adds songs to Alcott’s story of the four distinct March sisters — traditional, lovely Meg, spirited tomboy and writer Jo, quiet and gentle Beth, and artistic, pampered Amy. They are growing into young women under the watchful eye of mother Marmee as their father serves as an Army chaplain in the Civil War. “Little Women, The Broadway Musical” performances run March 25 through April 6 at New Stage Theatre.
In a serendipitous move, the production coincides with Women’s History Month in March, and has a female director at the helm — Malaika Quarterman, in her New Stage Theatre directing debut. Logistics and scheduling preferences landed the musical in March, to catch school matinees with the American classic.
The novel has inspired myriad adaptations in film, TV, stage and opera, plus literary retellings by other authors. This musical version debuted on Broadway in 2005, with music by Jason Howland, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein and book (script) by Allan Knee.
“The music in this show brings out the heart of the characters in a way that a movie or a straight play, or even the book, can’t do,” said Cameron Vipperman, whose play-within-a-play role helps illustrate the writer Jo’s growth in the story. She read the book at age 10, and now embraces how the musical dramatizes, speeds up and reconstructs the timeline for more interest and engagement.
“What a great way to introduce kids that haven’t read the book,” director Quarterman said, hitting the highlights and sending them to the pages for a deeper dive on characters they fell in love with over the two-and-a-half-hour run time.

Joy, familial warmth, love, courage, loss, grief and resilience are all threads in a story that has captivated generations and continues to find new audiences and fresh acclaim (the 2019 film adaptation by Greta Gerwig earned six Academy Award nominations).
In current contentious times, when diversity, equity and inclusion programs are being ripped out or rolled back, the poignant, women-centered narrative maintains a power to reach deep and unite.
“Stories where females support each other, instead of rip each other apart to get to the finish line — which would be the goal of getting the man or something — are very few and far between sometimes,” Quarterman said. “It’s so special because it was written so long ago, with the writer being such a strong dreamer, and dreaming big for women.
“For us to actualize it, where a female artistic producer chooses this show and believes in a brand new female director and then this person gets to empower these great, local, awesome artists — It’s just really been special to see this story and its impact ripple through generations of dreamers.” For Quarterman, a 14-year drama teacher with Jackson Public Schools active in community theater and professional regional theater, “To be able to tell this story here, for New Stage, is pretty epic for me.”
Alcott’s story is often a touchstone for young girls, and this cast of grown women finds much in the source material that they still hold dear, and that resonates in new ways.

“I relate to Jo more than any other fictional character that exists,” Kristina Swearingen said of her character, the central figure Jo March. “At different parts of my life, I have related to her in different parts of hers.”
The Alabama native, more recently of New York, recalled her “energetic, crazy, running-around-having-a-grand-old-time” youth in high school and college, then a career-driven purpose that led her, like Jo, to move to New York.
Swearingen first did this show in college, before the loss of grandparents and a major move. Now, “I know what it’s like to grieve the loss of a loved one, and to live so far away from home, and wanting to go home and be with your family but also wanting to be in a place where your career can take off. .. It hits a lot closer to home.”
As one of four sisters in real life, Frannie Dean of Flora draws on a wealth of memories in playing Beth — including her own family position as next to the youngest of the girls. She and siblings read the story together in their homeschooled childhood, assigning each other roles.

“Omigosh, this is my life,” she said, chuckling. “We would play pretend all day. … ‘Little Women’ is really sweet in that aspect, to really be able to carry my own experience with my family and bring it into the show. … It’s timeless in its nature, its warmth and what it brings to people.”
Jennifer Smith of Clinton, as March family matriarch Marmee, found her way in through a song. First introduced to Marmee’s song “Here Alone” a decade ago when starting voice lessons as an adult, she made it her own. “It became an audition piece for me. It became a dream role for me. It’s been pivotal in opening up doors for me.”
She relishes aging into this role, countering a common fear of women in the entertainment field that they may “age out” of desirable parts. “It’s just a full-circle moment for me, and I’m grateful for it.”

Quarterman fell in love with the 1969 film version she watched with her sister when they were little, adoring the family’s playfulness and stability. Amid teenage angst, she identified with the inevitable growth and change that came with siblings growing up and moving on. Being a mom brings a whole different lens.
“Seeing these little people in your life just growing up, being their own unique versions, all going through their own arc — it’s just fun, and I think that’s why you can stay connected” to the story at any life juncture, she said.
Cast member Slade Haney pointed out the rarity of a story set on a Northeastern homestead during the Civil War.
“You’re getting to see what it was like for the women whose husbands were away at war — how moms struggled, how sisters struggled. You had to make your own means. … I think both men and women can see themselves in these characters, in wanting to be independent like Jo, or like Amy wanting to have something of value that belongs to you and not just just feel like you’re passed over all the time, and Meg, to be valuable to someone else, and in Beth, for everyone to be happy and content and love each other,” Haney said.
New Stage Theatre Artistic Director Francine Reynolds drew attention, too, to the rarity of an American classic for the stage offering an abundance of women’s roles that can showcase Jackson metro’s talent pool. “We just always have so many great women,” she said, and classics — “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Death of a Salesman,” for instance — often offer fewer parts for them, though contemporary dramas are more balanced.
Reynolds sees value in the musical’s timing and storyline. “Of course, we need to celebrate the contributions of women. This was a woman who was trying to be a writer in 1865, ’66, ’67. That’s, to me, a real trailblazing thing.
“It is important to show, this was a real person — Louisa May Alcott, personified as Jo. It’s important to hold these people up as role models for other young girls, to show that you can do this, too. You can dream your dream. You can strive to break boundaries.”
It is a key reminder of advancements that may be threatened. “We’ve made such strides,” Reynolds said, “and had so many great programs to open doors for people, that I feel like those doors are going to start closing, just because of things you are allowed to say and things you aren’t allowed.”
For tickets, $50 (discounts for seniors, students, military), visit www.newstagetheatre.com or the New Stage Theatre box office, or call 601-948-3533.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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1 Dead, Officer and Bystander Hurt in Shootout | March 25, 2025 | News 19 at 9 p.m.
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News from the South - Alabama News Feed5 days ago
Severe storms will impact Alabama this weekend. Damaging winds, hail, and a tornado threat are al…
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News from the South - Alabama News Feed4 days ago
University of Alabama student detained by ICE moved to Louisiana
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News from the South - Louisiana News Feed6 days ago
Seafood testers find Shreveport restaurants deceiving customers with foreign shrimp
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News from the South - Oklahoma News Feed7 days ago
Why are Oklahomans smelling smoke Wednesday morning?
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News from the South - Oklahoma News Feed3 days ago
Tornado watch, severe thunderstorm warnings issued for Oklahoma
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News from the South - West Virginia News Feed6 days ago
Roane County Schools installing security film on windows to protect students