More Arts

• Despite violence, Iraqi art gallery perseveres
• Actress embraces soul of the controversial Rachel Corrie
• Albuquerque theaters welcome five plays spanning dramatic spectrum

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation
• Albuquerque company participates in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

Joann Danella said the toughest thing about directing the play "Eleemosynary" was getting a handle on some of the demanding words in the script.

"There were words I had never heard of in my life," she said. "I needed to do a pronunciation guide, a spelling guide and a meaning guide as well."

Lee Blessing's play, which opens at the Adobe Theater tonight, is about the difficult relationship of three women in a family. But the plot revolves around the national spelling bee in which the youngest of them, the granddaughter, is taking part.

Hence the title, which is one of the words in the bee. It's pronounced el-uh-MOS-uh-ner-ee, and it's an adjective meaning of or for charity; as, "an eleemosynary institution."

Once she got past the "words" barrier, Danella said her job wasn't all that tough, thanks to the acting talents of her three leads.

"The beauty of this piece is that there really is no set, so nothing gets in the way of the acting," she said. "The actors get to really test their range, get to know their character and to be the character."

The characters are the eccentric grandmother, Dorothea (Becky Mayo); the very bright granddaughter Echo (Chloe Turner, a La Cueva High School student); and the rebellious Artie (Michelle Boehler), who is Dorothea's daughter and Echo's mother and who has been estranged from them both.

They are reunited by Dorothea's sudden illness and must face up to the issues that have made them both combative and vulnerable.

Danella finds all three women intriguing.

"Dorothea wants so much for her daughter, Artie, that she didn't get herself," she said. "She is peculiar in our eyes, because we don't like to see mothers portrayed oddly. It's not a comfortable place for us to go."

Artie gives up her daughter, Echo, for Dorothea to raise.

"Our reaction is 'How can a mother do that?' " Danella said. "But at different moments in the play, we see why it was so difficult for her to be a mother and compete with her own mother."

She said Echo turns out to be a remarkable individual despite all the craziness around her.

"Echo shows that even though there have been bad things in our past, that doesn't mean we have to turn out odd and eccentric," Danella said.

Playwright Blessing is male, but Danella said he has done a wonderful job of tapping into the the lives and psyches of women.

There's pain and longing in his play, but there's also humor. A lot of that comes out in the characters' asides, which are directed to the audience.

"The wall is definitely broken," Danella said. "They talk to the audience, disappear into their scene and then come back out and talk to the audience."

That might sound as if it could be distracting, but Danella said it's not.

"It helps the audience to get into the characters' stories, and it works especially well in an intimate setting like the Adobe," she said.

This is the first production at the Adobe since renovation has installed new seating, floor tile and carpets and made other improvements.

But Danella said the refurbishing did not affect the theater's intimacy or diminish the audience's feeling that it is in on the action.

So don't be surprised if someone in the third row takes a crack at a word during the spelling bee.