Water by the Spoonful drama comes to Fayetteville

Staff Report

Fayetteville’s Theatre Squared is bringing Quiara Alegria Hudes’ drama Water by the Spoonful to the Studio Theatre at Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios. The play, the second part of a trilogy, “depicts the everyday struggles of several people, some tied together by family, others tied together by addictions,” says drama expert Wade Bradford. The first portion of Hudes' trilogy is titled Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue. The final part of the cycle, The Happiest Song Plays Last, premiered in spring of 2013. Water by the Spoonful won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

In the play, former soldier Elliot Ortiz is back from Iraq, working a Subway shop in Philly, and hoping to turn his winning smile into an acting career. Somewhere, four strangers in an internet chat room seek support facing their demons. When these real and virtual worlds collide, reality splinters, and life itself is at stake in this acclaimed, provocative, and unexpectedly humorous journey to redemption. 

The play drew critical acclaim. “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,” wrote 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

Performances will be at the Studio Theatre at Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios, located at 505 W. Spring St., in Fayetteville. Water by the Spoonful  opens October 15, and continues through November 8. Performance times are Wednesdays 7:30, Thursdays 7:30, Fridays 7:30, Saturdays 2:00 and 7:30, Sundays 2:00. Tickets range from $15 to $30, with special deals available for persons under 30, and can be purchased online at www.theatre2.org, or at the Walton Arts Center box office, which is temporarily located in the lobby of the Nadine Baum Studios.

The Gayly – October 7, 2015 @ 12:40pm.