Question+4+JG

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?
 * Question 4:**

**Video 1:** Family we were born with versus the family we choose, and how each family communicates. Watching this video made me pay more attention to this theme in the script. **Video 3:** The character overview emphasizes that all of the characters are in different places economically. Despite these differences, they are all equal forces in the play. Parallel to how all the notes are equal in Coltrane's album //Love Supreme.// **Video 5:** I think the Oregon stage is the best way to present //Water by the Spoonful// compared to all the other advertisements I saw. The separated blocks really compliment the online scenes within the play. **Video 6:** In this video the dramaturg reveals that Hudes' has drawn a lot from her life for this play. I also realized that she is Yaz in the play, since they are both musically trained and have a close relationship with Elliot. This video also revealed that the play is actually part of a trilogy that it documenting Elliot's life. This information just gives a fresh perspective to the play and makes me think about what the future holds for Elliot.
 * Videos that shaped my opinion of the play: **
 * Video ** **2:** //Water by the Spoonful// actually reflects a jazz album. I found this video confusing at first, but then I was amazed at the similarities between the free jazz album, and Hudes' play. I thought this was a really cool approach to writing a play.
 * Video 4: ** Before this video I didn't know that Elliot was based off of a real person. Now I want to scrutinize the character even more carefully and speculate about what is real and what is fabricated to make the story-line more interesting.
 * Video 7: **The director, Shishir Kurup, describes jazz as improvisation within structure. I believe that is a great analogy for //Water by the Spoonful,// and life in general.
 * Video 11: **It was interesting to see what critics had to say about the production. In conclusion, they found the set underwhelming and the story-line confusing. Despite these complaints they still enjoyed the show's story-line. I agreed with the critics, because I think play would be very difficult to understand on stage.

**Response: ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The videos we watched for //Water by the Spoonful// reveal a lot about the plays development and presentation on the stage. They also reveal how the story connects to the playwright, Quiera Alergia Hudes. Through these videos we get a more in depth look from the eyes of Hudes, different directors and others that analyze the production.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The videos begin with Hudes explaining the different aspects of the play. In the first video, Hudes talks about the different relationship in the play. There is the family you are born with and the family you choose. //Water by the Spoonful,// compares these relationships and how messages are communicated in each one. There is also the factor distance in the online and “real” relationships. However, the distance in the online relationships is physical, while the distance between Odessa and her son Elliot is an emotional gap of pain and bitter anger. Hudes explanation made me think more about the script and how the distances in these relationships are shown. In her second video, Hudes explains that the play is based on jazz. At first I couldn’t understand what she was talking about, but as she explained I gained a lot of respect for her as a playwright. More specifically the play is based on //A Love Supreme// by John Coltrane. In his free-flowing jazz there is a crazy journey with many pitfalls, and twist. In the play, this is represented by the disjointed stories of the characters and the serious baggage each one carries. Like Coltrane’s album, //Water by the Spoonful// struggles with harmony and discord. The OSF dramaturg video, also shaped my opinion about the play as well. I didn’t realize that Hudes was a trained musician, and really did have a cousin named Elliot. Yaz seems to be based off of her in the play, and it makes me wonder how true the play is to her actual life. Her musical background also explains why she would base //Water by the Spoonful// off of an album, something I found interesting and unconventional. The dramaturg explains that the seemingly random stories in the play are like the disjointed notes of free jazz; furthermore, it’s not about resolution but overall sound. The fact that all notes are equally important is brought up in the beginning of the play by the directors and dramaturg in the video. I thought this was an extremely important point because it emphasizes that all the characters were equal, despite being in different places economically. Director Shishir Kurup goes on to explain jazz is gray, or improvisation within structure. This analogy defines life, especially the life of the characters within Hudes’ play. Out of all the trailers for the play I liked the Oregon stage and characters the best. The characters felt accurate and the separate squares really helped highlight the online relationship between Odessa and her followers.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">After watching the videos and completing my final project I have a couple opinions and about the plays production. I would definitely like to see more emphasis on the musical aspect, because that really peaked my interest. I also think that directors have to be very careful about their presentation of the online scenes. For example, the Boston projection had a cold, stark light over each character, and darkness around them in the online world. This gave a distant, interrogative vibe to me. However, I liked how all the other productions represented their online scenes. Staging is definitely very tricky for this production and requires a lot of careful thought. New York Theatre critics, AndrewAndrew, were underwhelmed by the staging in the production they viewed. In my opinion the Oregon production was the most successful in terms of staging, and that would be what I would go with if I was directing the play. However, I feel like the play is going to be a little foggy in the beginning regardless of what the director does. Figuring out the puzzle, and how the characters’ lives intertwine is part of the allure and entertainment of //Water by the Spoonful.//