Bravo!
ALL THAT
E W ’ S G U I D E TO T H E P E R F O R M I N G A R T S
MICHAEL TEAGUE,
MEGHAN SMALL
AND ALLIE
MURAKAMI IN
WATER BY THE
SPOONFUL
JAZZ
University Theatre takes on the
rhythms of Pulitzer-winning
Water by the Spoonful
T
heresa May, associate professor of Theater Arts at
the University of Oregon, is directing University
Theatre’s current production of Quiara Alegría
Hudes’ Pulitzer-winning drama, Water by the
Spoonful. The play tells the story of an Iraq War
veteran readjusting to civilian life.
May says the play is about two intersecting worlds.
“One is the world of a Puerto Rican family in Philadelphia,”
she tells EW. “The other is a world of online members of
an addiction chat room and support group.”
“It’s about connection, it’s about community, it’s about
family,” May continues. “It’s about the way that we parent,
the way we sometimes parent people who are not our
children. We parent backwards in time. We parent
sideways. We parent our neighbors.”
May says she’s attracted to plays that tell stories of
underrepresented members of our society. “That’s a
priority for me,” she adds. Hudes is a Puerto-Rican
American playwright. “It has very interesting roles for
students, and it has something to say that’s worth saying,”
May says.
“The play is in a sense ‘jazz as a play,’” she continues.
“It has the rhythms of jazz, and one of the main characters
is a professor of jazz.” The structure of the play, she notes,
borrows from free jazz. “In this play, the playwright is
taking two stories that don’t necessarily go to together and
crashing them together and you get some really interesting
dissonance as well as resonance.”
Water by the Spoonful runs Jan. 21-31 at University
Theatre. — William Kennedy
‘In this play, the playwright is taking two stories that don’t necessarily go to together and crashing them together
and you get some really interesting dissonance as well as resonance.’ — THERESA MAY, UO ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF THEATER ARTS
COTTAGE THEATRE
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eugeneweekly.com • January 21, 2016
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