The challenges we all face in our need to cope with drama and change are the greatest struggles we must overcome. Water By the Spoonful tackles the reality of coping and our inability to successfully perform the act on our own. It is a grandly complicated process that requires support and understanding. This production's goal is to drive that message home: that we all need someone in our darkest times of desperation and despair in order to cope with the hand that life has dealt us.
IMAGES
WATER
Throughout Hudes' play, the imagery of water is brought up several times. The motif of water can allude to baptism, reflection, damage, and loss of control. The role of water in this play is to connect to the characters through their moments under the water struggling to reach the surface. Once they each attempt, currents continue to challenge and push them down. At the same time, each character is consistently trying to wash away their pains and the world they want to leave behind.
SUPPORT
These images show our need and desperation for the strength for support. We all need the encouragement and understanding of others in order to get through our darkest times
VIDEO/MUSIC
Micah P Hinson's music is filled with distraught self-reconition and belts of desperation. His own pain and recovery influences his lyrics and music. There is softness and sweetness underlying but overt crisis and screeches of guitars and choir voices
Janelle Monae's ballad, 'Cold War' reminds us through Monae's powerful voice that every day is a struggle. We battle each challenge that we face within ourselves. Her passionate use of the song in the music video emphasizes that even those on top are affected by their past. Her eyes reveal a type of reflection that many have faced, similar to those in the play. | Iron and Wine's song 'Walking Far From Home' is a powerful tribute of the connections that we make every day that make us whole and human. The world is full of all types and kinds of people that are connected forever, no matter how together or destroyed. |
The people in this play are heartwarming, inspiring, complex, and facing each day with spirit and will power. Steppenwolf is a strong choice for a unique production of Water by the Spoonful by supplying at least three wonderfully talented voices from its ensemble. Their recent honoree of the Women in the Arts Luncheon, Julianna Margulies will headline the production as Odessa Ortiz. She will be joined by Alana Arenas as Yaz and K. Todd Freeman as Chutes&Ladders.
Odessa Ortiz: 39, aka Haikumom, founder of www.recovertogether.com, works odd janitorial jobs, lives one notch above squalor. She begins the play with self-reconition and attempting self-control but ultimately spirals down when faced with self-doubt 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. He beings focused on his mother and then learns to focus on himself Yazmin Ortiz: 29, in her first year as an adjunct professor of music, Odessa's niece and Elliot's cousin. She begins the play very unsure about herself but ends knowing what the next steps are for her. Fountainhead: aka John, a computer programmer and entrepreneur, lives on Philadelphia's Main Line, white. Also plays a Customer. He begins unable to recognize his addiction to finally being able to tell his wife Chutes&Ladders: 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. He begins by just living day by day but then grows to take chances. Orangutan: a recent community college graduate, Japanese by birth, her real name is Madeline Mays and before that Yoshiko Sakai. She beings by trying to find what she is looking for through her past but then realizes that she will find it in her future. |    |
