Discussion+of+Water+by+the+Spoonful+-+Adelman

4. The videos that you were assigned to see regarding __Water by the Spoonful__ provide some revealing things about the purpose, development, and presentation of the play on stage. Comment on each of the videos that were assigned to be seen that help shape your opinion about the work. Knowing what you now know about production of a play from the work you’ve done on your final projects, what were some things you wish you could have seen that would have helped you to better understand __Water by the Spoonful__ and the production of it?


 * Comments on each video:**

__The playwright speaks about the play's meaning in connection with the Hartford Stage Company production.__

The story takes place spatially spread far apart, but emotionally very close. It shows different families that are dealing with very different problems, and how people from these different walks of life can and cannot communicate with one another. It is a story of the different types of families in the modern era: families that can be online, adopted, or in the traditional sense of the word.

__Further observations by the playwright.__

The play takes the spirit of Jazz, a long and winding story that takes many different twists and turns along its path. The play also tries to take the dichotomy of harmony and discord; something which she thinks makes the play distinctly human.

__Playwright's opinions about the characters.__

She tries to have a wide array of characters to cover the different people of America including workers, teachers, distant mothers, abandoned children, and other characters that represent the diversity of America.

__Director of the Hartford production speaks about the play.__

The two main people who the play focuses on show the differences in people's lives. One of these protagonists is Elliot a former soldier who tries to assimilate back into everyday life and his relationship with his ivy-educated cousin Yaz. These two though opposites seem to complement each other well, acting almost like brother and sister. Then there is Odessa who is the founder of the online chat room, and the play highlights the dichotomy between her normal life and her online persona which acts as a rock for people in recovery through her website.

__Oregon Shakespeare Festival trailer advertising the production__

Starts off with Jazz while showing different people, and their online personas above the screen. Then shows these different islands where people seem to all be in the same chat room but in different locations. Very dramatic and enticing trailer, I think that shots between the chartroom and the real life added to the suspense that the commercial was trying to portray (however, I wonder just how suspenseful the play would actually be to viewers)

__OSF dramaturg discusses the play__

Says that one of the most impressive things about this play is the parallel to the play writes personal experiences. Another interesting fact is that each of the three plays takes inspiration from different kinds of music. This person also loves the writer’s ability to make seemingly clashing ideas and people come together into harmony like jazz.

__OSF director discusses the play__

Jazz is like Life: there is an overall, necessary structure but there is also improvisation that comes with it. He believes that that improvisation is needed because of the automated nature of our lives today. He wants the play to have an emotional impact to the heart about people trying to reach each other but also an analogy to the audience of themselves, to open their minds.

__Scene from the Chicago premiere__

I liked this set up a lot better than that of the Oregon Theater. It spotlighted different scenes going on together in real space and then allowed for blocking to have Orangutan cross over in front of where the other two people were, meshing the spatial distance made possible by the islands off light on stage, with the emotional proximity that these people were engaged in. This was done by spotlighting the actress and allowing her to cross the vast darkness that had originally separated the two polices. This is very cool and well done.

__Another scene from the Chicago premiere__

Very powerful seen showing the personal interactions between online acquaintances. The actors did a good job of showing the mixed emotions of knowing but not really knowing the other person.

__Scene from a Lyric Stage Company, Boston__

I really liked how when they had the third member join the chat there was a "bing" and the spotlight popped onto him. In the next seen they also had fountainhead sit in-front of Odessa and it seems also like a shrink sitting behind her patient while the spotlights emphasized the spatial distance between them.

__Strange opinions from NY theatre critics???__

I think they were very honest about how it is intriguing yet also complex and different. They also talked about the confusion about how the parallel stories are connected and how the play goes between a chat room and real life. However at the end they said that they finally made sense of what was going on when the characters finally met each other. However they also said that they think it would have been better as a movie and that is something with which I would agree with.

Some questions that I wish they had answered are why they decided to stage the production the way they did. There seemed to be three different types of the online scenes: the floating islands, the vertical spotlights, and the weird staging that it seemed the New York production had from the one picture that it showed. would also have liked to see how they transitioned from the chat room to real life. This is especially true for the Oregon Production because I would like to know if they used the islands that they used for the chat rooms for the scenes in real life as well. I also was wondering if they kept the other actors not currently in the chat room still barely visible onstage to show that they were doing things while other action was taking place.

Another question that I wish had been discussed is whom this play is intended for. While they do say that the characters represent all of the US, I was wonder who their target audience would be. Since the play does involve a lot of technology, yet is still a slower production, I think it would have to be targeted almost exclusively to the 30s and maybe 40s crowd. I believe that this age group is the only one old enough to see this type of play but also the only ones young enough to follow the technology aspect of the play (and the confusion that comes from meshing the online and real world).