photo by Grace Nicole Tait

The play “Eleemosynary” opened Wednesday night to favorable audience reviews at Loyola University Chicago.

by Lee Blessing and directed by Michelle Bradley, had its opening night Wednesday Feb. 22.

“It went great,” said the director Michelle Bradley, 22, a senior theater major. “All of the elements were there and the actors did a fantastic job, I couldn’t be happier for our first performance.”

“Eleemosynary,”  written by Lee Blessing, was performed in the Studio Theater below the Centennial Forum Student Union.  There were about 40 people in attendance.

The cast members were, sophomore Angela Sandall, junior Liza Massingberd, and freshman Dominique Ritvo.

“It is good to support the arts and your fellow students, you get to see a really good show” said the stage manager Claire Reinhart, 20, a junior theater major.

The cast and crew worked hard to put on “Eleemosynary”  since the fall.

“We’ve had production meetings since October,” Reinhart said. “We started the day before classes began for the semester, so it has been a solid 12 weeks.”

The Studio Theater was staged in a theater in-the-round set up, for a 360 viewing of the play. The scenic designer Victoria Bain,  a junior theater and advertising and public relations major, designed it to look and feel like an attic.  It was set up with wooden beams over head, and trunks on the stage.

“Tonight was really good for me as the stage manager,” Reinhart said. “The lights and sounds were really good”

Many students reacted positively after the play.

“I thought it was a really good show and the acting was phenomenal,” said Katie Condon, 19, a freshman fine arts major. “People should come see this play because I think it really speaks to a family dynamic, I think it is a sign of hope that everyone needs to see.”

“Eleemosynary” will be performed through Feb. 26, and tickets are being sold for $6 on the Loyola Department of Fine and Performing Arts website as well as the box office.

“Students should totally come see it, we put so much work into it,” Bradley said. “Its something that will touch you if you are a 15-year-old boy, or a 75-year-old women. It is about family and everyone can appreciate that.”