Everything one goes through growing up has the potential to affect future relationships. These relationships are under a microscope in a play by three acting students out on at Cortland Repertory Theatre Downtown.
“Eleemosynary,” a play by Lee Blessing, opens tonight at the theater. Three SUNY Cortland students will tell the story of three generations of women in one family, and how their life experiences affect their relationships with each other, the actors say.
Junior Olivia Celis plays Dorothea, an eccentric 75-year old woman. It’s fun to explore the physicality of a character so different from herself, Celis said.
“It’s also fun thinking about how I can use my own grandparents, and add them to the character,” Celis said. “My grandparents are quite different in eccentricity and crazy thoughts and stuff. It’s good to branch out a bit and try something different, and this character gives me that.”
“I get to put myself in a very different mindset than my 19-year-old self,” said sophomore Erin DeGraw, who plays Artie. “It’s definitely a challenge because I don’t relate to a ton of what Artie has gone through, but it’s fun to see her brain and see how she views the world.”
That’s the best challenge of directing the show, said Director Adara Alston – these actors haven’t lived 30-year or 70-year lives.
“It’s been fun to explore with people who haven’t experienced the same experiences as these women, and discuss on terms that are relatable,” Alston said. “Having them imagine why they could be feeling that way. In order to perform these things, the motivation has to feel real. You can’t just try to replicate a thought, it has to come from a deeper place in order to manifest as something real.”
The title is a spelling bee word, meaning charitable, that the youngest character, Echo, has been studying for her upcoming competition.
Sophomore Ann Marie Thorell, who plays Echo, says attendees will learn many new words. The set is very minimal, but it is covered in words Echo has been studying.
The play has been very helpful as an acting student, Thorell said.
“We’re able to get more feedback than we would if we were in a large ensemble,” Thorell said. “Everything is so specific and tailored to what we need as actors, and that’s been a great help throughout this process. It’s been helping me gain and learn more acting skills.”
“It’s rare, rarer than it should be, that you find a piece that has three female characters that are interesting and funny and dramatic, and written in detail, with layers and complexity,” Alston said. “All of the things that as an actor, you’d like to embody, and as a director, you’d like to bring to life.”
“You find out about each experience that made them who they are, and how that altered the relationship between each character,” Celis said. “How Dorthea grew up, and how that made Artie grow up, and how that made Echo grow up. You see how different relationships can be if you get past traumatic or non-traumatic experiences.”
