OSF Opens WATER BY THE SPOONFUL Tonight

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will open Quiara Alegría Hudes's Water by the Spoonful, directed by Shishir Kurup, March 30 in the Thomas Theatre. Preview performances are tonight, March 26, March 28 and 29.

Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize, this beautifully-told story is about Elliot, recently returned from serving in Iraq and now at home dealing with some inner demons that have followed him back. He and his cousin Yazmin are caring for his ailing adopted mother, Ginny, the matriarch of Elliot's extended Puerto Rican family. Ginny has raised Elliot since Odessa, Ginny's sister, could no longer care for him. In an apparently unrelated story, a group of recovering addicts are seeking connections in an online chat room. The links between the stories are revealed in time, but each is part of a larger story: disconnected to one degree or another, they all come to find acceptance and healing.

When this play opened off-Broadway in 2013 The New York Times critic, Charles Isherwood, wrote: "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."

Director Kurup writes of the play, "In Water by the Spoonful, the family becomes the piece that stands in for the whole of American society in all its striving, trauma and addiction. The play attempts to uncover what price this triumvirate exacts from the individual, the family and the society as well as the resilience it fosters."

The cast of Water by the Spoonful features Daniel José Molina as Elliot Ortiz, Nancy Rodriguez as Yazmin Ortiz, Vilma Silva as Odessa Ortiz, Barret O'Brien as Fountainhead, Bruce A. Young as Chutes&Ladders, Celeste Den as Orangutan, and Barzin Akhavan as A Ghost, Professor Aman, Policeman and Ensemble.

Scenic design is by Sibyl Wickersheimer, costumes by Raquel Barreto, lighting by Geoff Korf and composer and sound design by John Nobori. Tom Ridgely is the Phil Directing Fellow, and Lydia G. Garcia is dramaturg. Voice and text director is Rebecca Clark Carey, U. Jonathan Toppo is fight director and stage manager is Moira Gleason.

OSF gratefully acknowledges the Production Sponsor for Water by the Spoonful, Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards, and Production Partners Sandy Farewell, Harvey and Isabel Kibel and Edward P. Wobber and Linda M. DeMelis.

The production runs through June 20 and re-opens from September 4 through November 2.

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