Water By The Spoonful
by Quiara Alegría Hudes

Name: Water By The Spoonful
Brand: Quiara Alegría Hudes
SKU: 9780822227151
Rating: 3.98 (2173 reviews)

Off-Broadway

Water By The Spoonful Book Cover — Water By The Spoonful Cover

Highlights

Small Cast

Female

Male

120 mins Present Day Role(s) for Latine Actor(s) Multicultural Casting Unit Set/Multiple Settings Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes American

Awards & Recognition

Pulitzer Prize

Winner! 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Synopsis

How many plays make us long for grace?

Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Hudes is such a rare play; it is a yearning, funny, deeply sad and deeply lyrical piece, a worthy companion to Hudes’s Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue

The play infects us with the urge to find connection within our families and communities and remains with us long after we’ve left the theater.”

Paula Vogel, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of How I Learned to Drive

Hudes’s writing is controlled and graceful.

Each of the play’s 15 short scenes is perfectly balanced, the language both lyrical and lucid.”

Richard Zoglin, Time

For a drama peopled by characters who have traveled a long way in the dark, Water by the Spoonful gives off a shimmering, sustaining warmth.

Ms. Hudes writes with such empathy and vibrant humor about people helping one another to face down their demons that regeneration and renewal always seem to be just around the corner.”

Charles Isherwood, New York Times

Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

, Water by the Spoonful is a rich, brilliant montage of American urban life that is as dazzling to watch as it is difficult to look away from” (

Associated Press

). Somewhere in Philadelphia, Elliot has returned from Iraq and is struggling to find his place in the world.

Somewhere in a chat room, recovering addicts forge an unbreakable bond of support and love.

The boundaries of family and community are stretched across continents and cyberspace as birth families splinter and online families collide.

Water by the Spoonful is a heartfelt and poetic meditation on lives on the brink of redemption and self-discovery during a time of heightened uncertainty, as startling and innovative and human on the page as on the stage” (Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-Winning author).

Hudes’s cycle of three plays began with Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue (Pulitzer Prize finalist) and concludes with The Happiest Song Plays Last

Quiara Alegría Hudes is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Water by the Spoonful

, the Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights and the Pulitzer Prize finalist Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue

Her other works include Barrio Grrrl!

, a children’s musical; 26 Miles

; Yemaya’s Belly and The Happiest Song Plays Last

, the third piece in her acclaimed trilogy.

Hudes is on the board of Philadelphia Young Playwrights, which produced her first play in the tenth grade.

She now lives in New York with her husband and children.

Press Reviews

"The play is a combination poem, prayer and app on how to cope in an age of uncertainty, speed and chaos. When cyber meets the real world, anger gives way to forgiveness and resistance becomes redemption; the heart of the play opens up and the waters flow freely."
— Variety

"Quiara Alegría Hudes is a blazing talent… her new play, Water by the Spoonful, blazes with promise. Non-linear and fascinating, it is not easily followed but definitely worthy of both close attention and ultimate praise. Provocative and brimming with life."
— Talkin’ Broadway

"A complete and satisfying work… A quartet of wounded yet fiercely bright characters who are trying to stay sober communicate over the internet. Those who feel the web is a cold connection may change their opinion after they see the very hot limbo in which these characters live and interact. This is a very funny, warm, and, yes, uplifting play with characters that are vivid and vital, and who stay with you long after the play is over."
— The Hartford Courant

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
ODESSA ORTIZ 39, a.k.a. Haikumom, founder of www.recovertogether.com; works odd janitorial jobs, lives one notch above squalor.	—	—	39, a.k.a. Haikumom, founder of www.recovertogether.com; works odd janitorial jobs, lives one notch above squalor.
ELLIOT ORTIZ 24, an Iraq vet with a slight limp, works at Subway Hoagies, scores an occasional job as a model or actor. Yazmin’s cousin, Odessa’s birth son.	male	—	24, an Iraq vet with a slight limp, works at Subway Hoagies, scores an occasional job as a model or actor. Yazmin’s cousin, Odessa’s birth son.
YAZMIN ORTIZ 31, adjunct professor of music, Odessa’s niece and Elliot’s cousin.	—	—	31, adjunct professor of music, Odessa’s niece and Elliot’s cousin.
FOUNTAINHEAD 38, a.k.a. John, a computer programmer and entrepreneur, lives on Philadelphia’s Main Line, white.	—	—	38, a.k.a. John, a computer programmer and entrepreneur, lives on Philadelphia’s Main Line, white.
CHUTES & LADDERS 56, lives in San Diego, has worked a low level job at the IRS since the Reagan years, African-American, his real name is Clayton “Buddy” Wilkie.	male	—	56, lives in San Diego, has worked a low level job at the IRS since the Reagan years, African-American, his real name is Clayton “Buddy” Wilkie.
ORANGUTAN 31, a recent community college graduate, Japanese by birth, her real name is Madeleine Mays and before that, Yoshiko Sakai.	female	—	31, a recent community college graduate, Japanese by birth, her real name is Madeleine Mays and before that, Yoshiko Sakai.
A GHOST haunts Elliot. This actor also plays	male	—	haunts Elliot. This actor also plays
PROFESSOR AMAN , an Arabic professor at Swarthmore and	male	—	, an Arabic professor at Swarthmore and
A POLICEMAN in Japan.	—	—	in Japan.