{"id":13923,"date":"2014-08-26T12:09:08","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T19:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=13923"},"modified":"2014-08-26T15:32:36","modified_gmt":"2014-08-26T22:32:36","slug":"water-by-the-spoonful-given-a-prize-winning-performance-at-theatreworks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/water-by-the-spoonful-given-a-prize-winning-performance-at-theatreworks\/","title":{"rendered":"Water by the Spoonful given a Prize winning performance at TheatreWorks."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Strangers (played by clockwise from lower left: Zilah Mendoza, Patrick Kelly Jones, Anthony J. Haney, and Anna Ishida) come together in an online support group in TheatreWorks’ Regional Premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama WATER BY THE SPOONFUL, playing August 20 – September 14 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts Photo by Kevin Berne<\/p><\/div>\n

WATER BY THE SPOONFUL<\/em>: Drama by Quiara Alegria Hudes. Directed by Leslie Martinson. TheatreWorks, Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro Street, Mountain View. (650) 463-1960 or visit www.theatreworks.org<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

August 20\u2014September 14, 2014
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Water by the Spoonful<\/em> given a Prize winning performance at TheatreWorks. [rating:5]\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

TheatreWorks once again demonstrates its standing as one of the Big Three theatrical groups, along with A.C.T. and Berkeley Rep, in the Bay Area. This time they have mounted a stunning and powerful production of Water by the Spoonful. <\/em>The play won, and deserved, the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2012. It is the second part of her \u201cElliot Trilogy\u201d plays dissecting the life of a Puerto Rican Iraq War veteran living in Philadelphia. It is a standalone play in the trilogy with Elliot (Miles Gaston Villanueva )being the only character from the other plays. It is a play for our time and transcends ethnic stereotyping.
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For this reviewer who does not do Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, have an IPhone or enter chat rooms it was a learning experience. The aforementioned means of communication have replaced personal social interaction and in Quiara Alegia Hudes play she demonstrates their omnipresence in our digital world.
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The play\u2019s construction is a fascinating jigsaw puzzle intermingling present day personal action, internet connectivity, out of body experiences, didactics and symbolism. The symbolism of course involves water beginning with the \u2018spoonful of water\u2019 and ending with a Puerto Rican waterfall. (Marvelous projections by Erik Scanlon on Erik Flatmo\u2019s three level split set).
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In an early scene Quiara Hudes, a trained musician and composer who wrote the book for the Tony Award winning In the Heights\u201d, <\/em>introduces Yazmin (Sabina Zuniga Varela), cousin to Elliot and a music composition professor. Using John Coltrane\u2019s music as examples, she lectures the students (the audience) on the meaning of dissonance. The tone is set for very dissonant relationships.
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Elliot, a wounded Iraqi War veteran would be actor, works in a menial job in a sandwich shop and is the caretaker for his dying aunt who raised him. \u00a0He has his own demons from the war experience. When the aunt dies, Elliot and Yazmin search for his birth mother who gave him up as child.
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In a parallel story taking place in the digital world , the birth mother Odessa (Zilah Mendoza), known as Haikumom online, functions as a leader in a chat room dedicated to recovering \u2018crack-head\u2019 drug addicts. The members of the chat room trust her guidance and are unaware of her own demons.
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\u00a0\u00a0The other members of the chat room are \u201cOrangutan\/Madeleine\u201d (Anna Ishida); \u201cChutes & Ladders\/Wilkie\u201d (Anthony J. Haney) and \u201cFountainhead\/John.\u201d( Patrick Kelly Jones). Orangutan is in Japan. She had been given up by her mother, adopted and raised in Maine but has returned to Japan to discover her roots. Chutes & Ladders is a middle-aged black man, lives in San Diego and works in a dull office job. \u00a0\u00a0Fountainhead is a former leader in the digital world who has kept his addiction secret from his family. There is seventh character that occasionally roams on stage, is the Arabic \u2018Ghost\u2019 in Elliot\u2019s imagination and does not fit very well into the intricately constructed play.
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The acting of the each major actor is distinctive, believable and memorable under director Leslie \u00a0D Martinson\u2019s\u00a0 tight control as she moves them like chess pieces on Flatmo\u2019s unique multi-level set amongst brilliant projections and dissonant music. Running time 2 hours 25 minutes with an intermission. Highly recommended.
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CAST: Miles Gaston Villanueva as \u201cElliot\u201d; Sabina Zuniga Varela as \u201cYazmin\u201d; George Psarras as \u201cProfessor Aman\/Ghost\u201d; \u00a0Zilah Mendoza as \u201cOdessa\/Haikumom\u201d; Anna Ishida as \u201cOrangutan\/Madeleine\u201d; Anthony J. Haney as \u201cChutes & Ladders\/Wilkie\u201d; Patrick Kelly Jones as \u201cFountainhead\/John.\u201d
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Artistic Staff: Scenic Designer,Erik Flatmo;Costume Designer,Anna R. Oliver;Lighting Designer,Steven B. Mannshardt;Sound Designer,Gregory Robinson;Projections Designer,Erik Scanlon;Dialect Coach,Kimberly Mohne Hill;Casting Director;Leslie Martinson;Los Angeles Casting Director, Julia Flores;Stage Manager,Randall K. Lum;Assistant Stage Manager,Stephanie Schliemann.<\/em>
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Kedar K. Adour, MD<\/strong><\/p>\n

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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WATER BY THE SPOONFUL: Drama by Quiara Alegria Hudes. Directed by Leslie Martinson. TheatreWorks, Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro Street, Mountain View. (650) 463-1960 or visit…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-kedar-k-adour"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"