“Luna Gale,” a play written by Rebecca Gilman, transformed the stage this past weekend. Held in the Fain Fine Arts Theatre and open to the public, Christie Maturo directed more than 30 students in the production, seven of whom were actors and the rest were behind-the-scenes.

The play focused on the lives of a young, drug-addicted couple named Karlie and Peter, who struggled to raise their 6-month-old daughter, Luna Gale. Social worker Caroline, the play’s protagonist, embarks on a task to find Luna a safe home, all while getting herself into the family’s lives and dealing with her own situations, including other cases. The play’s story ends in a slightly okay but discordant note, where Peter decides to care for the baby and Karlie runs off on her own to figure out what she wants to do.

The setting of the play involved six different settings, which benefitted the production because it added a realistic feel to it. The plot of the play was fairly realistic for that kind of unfortunate situation in which the characters were in, making the setting that much more important. Needless to say, they got it right: each setting had its own amount of coffee cups, office supplies or fridge photos depending on which setting it was. The actors’ wardrobe costumes were also brilliant. Each actor dressed in normal clothing that their character would actually wear if they were real people. Karlie dressed exactly how a 19-year-old attractive but edgy girl would dress — tights, boots and mostly black clothing. Each character’s outfits seemed to match them perfectly.

As far as the acting, I found it to be phenomenal. Each actor immersed themselves in their particular role and, though small nerves did show for some, all were spectacular to watch. The plot of the play itself seemed slightly too heavy for a two-hour play, but was a great and entertaining show overall. While there were dark themes, they were not outright disturbing. There was mention of rape, death and drug use, so it was definitely not suitable for younger children; however, I enjoyed this performance and am impressed with the actors’ performances.

Fast facts:

Cost of production: About $3,000

Number of actors: 7

Attendees for second night of performance: 92

Alex Rios is an English sophomore.