Eleemosynary at Sierra Madre Playhouse

The meaning of the title Eleemosynary is explained during the course of this play. It gives away too much to explain it here. The three generations of females in the Westbrook family are gifted with extraordinary intelligence, genius I.Q.s, and exceptional mental abilities. The grandmother explores human-powered flight. The daughter becomes a bio-medical researcher. The granddaughter emerges as the National Spelling Bee Champion. All this brilliance carries a price: The personalities of all three have tinges of cruelty, a family curse. The youngest of the three is the most self-aware and perhaps the most gifted. She reasons that the power of love can overcome the family curse and defeat the legacy of cruelty. Lee Blessing is the playwright. One of the most successful and popular American playwrights, his works which have received local presentations also include Cobb, Chesapeake, Down the Road, Flag Day, Independence, and A Walk in the Woods. Eleemosynary debuted in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1985. It won a Best Play Award from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle in 1997. A revival was nominated for an Ovation Award in 2004.