02/25/2025
The first Performing Arts production of SUNY Cortland’s spring semester promises to be a family affair, as "Eleemosynary" highlights the humor and drama in the lives of three generations of women.
Written by Lee Blessing, the play with a mouthful of a name (pronounced el-li-moss-inary) debuted in 1985 and developed a word-of-mouth following that’s led to multiple revivals in the decades since.
“Eleemosynary” can be seen at Cortland Repertory Theatre’s downtown Cortland location at 24 Port Watson St., at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 27, Friday, Feb. 28 and Saturday, March 1, with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, March 2. A minimum audience age of 13 is recommended. All tickets are sold through the SUNY Cortland Box Office, with discounts for seniors and SUNY Cortland faculty, staff and students.
Director Adara Alston said that its enduring popularity is based on ideas that have proven timeless.
“It has themes that were relatable then and still relatable now,” Alson said. “For anybody who has a family or was born even in the best familial situation, there’s always something there about how you feel about your mother, how you feel if you have a child, or how you interact with that family. It resonates with all audiences in some way.”
The main characters of Dorothea Westbrook, played by senior Olivia Celis, her daughter Artie, played by sophomore Erin DeGraw, and Artie’s child, Echo, played by sophomore Ann Marie Thorell, experience relationships that are recognizable to anyone who’s had a sibling squabble or parental meltdown.
“All three are evenly divided in the story and given story in an interesting way,” Alston said. “They’re very complex and you get to learn why they are complex and their complexities, so it’s a very well-crafted story.”
Alston, an Ithaca, N.Y., and New York City- based actor and director, was asked by the Performing Arts Department to direct the show after being recommended by Assistant Professor Scott Holdredge, who had worked with Alston previously. It’s her first collaboration with SUNY Cortland and Cortland Repertory Theater.
She said it’s been a joy to see the college students work through a play with elegant dialogue that is heavy on nuance and subtext. As an added challenge to test their acting skills, the students will need to perform as three generations of characters when they’ve yet to experience two of those time periods in their own lives.
“My cast is so open to discovery, finding new moments and being able to explore what it would mean for someone in a life that they haven’t lived,” Alston said.
As a co-production with Cortland Repertory Theater, the cast and crew will make the best use of a different stage than their normal location on campus at the Dowd Fine Arts Center.
“Our set is very much designed for the CRT space,” Alston said. She noted that work on the set began at SUNY Cortland before being transferred to the theater ahead of opening night. The long shape of Cortland Repertory Theater’s downtown space — once a bowling alley — allows for the stage to reach out into an audience that will sit on three sides of it.
More than any one technical detail, it’s the overall experience of “Eleemosynary” that can be expected to leave audiences with a greater appreciation for those closest to them, Alston said.
“I hope they walk away feeling good having spent 80 minutes with the Westbrook women,” she said. “You can see that relationships can be complicated, but you can also feel love and connection.”