Category: LatinX

When Your Brain is Your Biggest Enemy

A Theater Review by Julinda D. Lewis

Presented By: The Firehouse Theatre on the Carol Piersol Stage

At: 1609 W. Broad Street, RVA 23220

Performances: November 6-24, 2024

Ticket Prices: $5.00 – $35

Info: (804) 355-2001 or firehousetheatre.org

Water By the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes (who also authors the book for the musical In the Heights) is the second work in a trilogy centered around a young Puerto Rican veteran named Elliot Ortiz. Water By the Spoonful is set Elliot’s hometown of Philadelphia, as well as Japan, Dan Diego, and Puerto Rico, several years after Elliot has returned home, limping from a wounded leg, and haunted by a mysterious apparition.

But it is more than a PTSD play. It is a play about addiction, recovery, mental health, and perhaps most of all, it is about family – the kind we are born into and the kind we choose. There’s the close relationship between Elliot and his cousin Yazmin, an adjunct professor of music at Swarthmore. There’s his estranged relationship with his biological mother Odessa aka Haiku-Mom, the administrator of an online forum for recovering crack addicts, and his close relationship with his aunt, Mami Ginny/Eugenia, who raised him due to his mother’s addiction. There is his relationship to his past, which sometimes manifests as hallucinatory images. There are also the relationships between Odessa and her online community, and between the members of the forum, known at first only by their screennames: Chutes&Ladders, Orangutan, and Fountainhead.

Director Katrinah Carol Lewis, Associate Artistic Director of the Firehouse Theatre, together with Co-Scenic Designers Vinnie Gonzalez and Todd LaBelle and Projection Designer Tennessee Dixon give life and visual impact to the multi-layered relationships and sometimes overlapping action. And I hope it is safe to assume that Jeremy Morris, who is credited with “Sound Consultancy” is largely responsible for the aural saturation with the creative discordance of John Coltrane-infused free jazz  

that underscores the production, most notably when Yazmin (played by Juliana Caycedo) is presiding in her professorial role.

Erich Appleby is gripping and authentic as Elliot, the protagonist. There are so many instances when he could have over-acted, but he approaches the brink and never takes that irretrievable leap. The interplay between the cousins, Elliot/Appleby and Yazmin/Caycedo is a thing of beauty; one often forgets they are acting.

When a crisis comes, in the form of the death of Mami Ginny, who never appears on stage, it simultaneously pulls the family together and tears them apart. Who’s going to pay for the funeral? Who’s going to deliver the eulogy? Will she be buried or cremated? Who gets her jewelry? What about the house? These are real questions that may, in fact, be quite triggering for some viewers.

Alana Dodds Sharp is often center stage in her role as Elliot’s biological mother, Odessa. (Why does that name sound so similar to “overdose” to me? Weird? Or premonition?) Her role as a nurturer and mentor is called into question on the death of her sister, and family secrets are revealed that shift perspectives and affect the outcome. Elliott spends most of his onstage time throughout the two powerful acts with his cousin Yazmin, but when it is time for the final bows, it is Appleby and Sharp who are featured as the leads.

Eric “Mr. Q.” Quander and Anne Michelle Forbes bring both levity and insight to their supporting roles as Chutes&Ladders and Orangutan, while John-Michael Jalonen as the late-comer, Fountainhead, plays a pivotal role in the dynamics of the relationships of the recovering crackheads. Finally, there is the versatile and mysterious Mahlon Raoufi who plays three roles, which require him to speak at least that many languages!

Water By the Spoonful takes its name from an incident in Odessa’s past, but it also represents the life-giving qualities of water. Sometimes even small sips – or a spoonful every five minutes – are enough to sustain life, while the lack of it guarantees death.

Not enough can be said about the modular set with its moving platforms and colorful strips of lighting, like directional signals on a runway or of the layered projections sometimes as subtle as an almost abstract map, sometimes as literal as moving images that support the onstage action, and sometimes as blatant as signage indicating the location of the actors.

It all comes down to an immersive theatrical experience that is intimate and familiar, instructive as a parable, and haunting in a way that you will not soon forget. You have until November 24^th to see it.

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Julinda D. Lewis is a dancer, teacher, and writer who was born in Brooklyn, NY and now lives in Eastern Henrico County, VA. When not writing about theater and dance, she teaches dance history at VCU and low impact dance fitness classes to seasoned movers like herself, and occasionally performs. Her most recent (ad)venture was the premiere of a solo work, The Waters of Babylon or Psalm 137 Revisited: a Post-Exodus Reflection in Movement Choreographed From Collective Memories for the debut of the Critical Race Theatre Project, right here in Richmond at RTP in August 2024.

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WATER BY THE SPOONFUL

Written by Quiara Alegría Hudes

Directed by Katrinah Carol Lewis

Cast

Odessa Ortiz                         ……….           Alana Dodds Sharp

Elliot Ortiz                             ……….           Erich Appleby

Yazmin Ortiz                         ……….           Juliana Caycedo

Fountainhead                      ……….           John-Michael Jalonen

Chutes&Ladders                 ……….           Eric “Mr. Q” Quander

Orangutan                            ……….           Anne Michelle Forbes

Professor/Ghost/Policeman  …….           Mahlon Raoufi

Production Team

Direction                               ……….           Katrinah Carol Lewis

Asst Direction/Dramaturgy……….          Kyle Trice Zabala

Co-Scenic Design                ……….           Vinnie Gonzalez/Todd LaBelle

Costume Design                  ……….           Keith Walker

Lighting Design                   ……….           Andrew Bonniwell

Projection Design                ……….           Tennessee Dixon

Sound Design/Stage Mgt  ……….           Grace Brown LaBelle

Asst Stage Management   ……….           Kennedy Shahan

Sound Consultancy             ……….           Jeremy Morris

Fight Choreography           ……….           Aaron Orensky

Run Crew                              ……….           Mikayla MacVicar, Jacob Simmon, Marcely (Mar) Villatoto

Booth Operator                   ……….           Chewie Lo Moore

Run Time: About 2 hours 20 minutes; there is 1 intermission

Tickets: $5 to $35

Info: (804) 355-2001 or FirehouseTheatre.org

Performance Schedule:

November 6 & 7: Previews 7:30PM

November 8: Opening Night 7:30PM

November 9: 7:30PM

November 10: Sunday at 2:00PM – Pay What You Will + Member Post-Show Mixer

November 15: 7:30PM

November 16: Saturday at 2:00PM & 7:30PM

November 17: Sunday at 2:00PM

November 21: 7:30PM

November 22: 7:30PM

November 23: Saturday at 2:00PM & 7:30PM

November 24: Closing performance Sunday at 2:00PM

Water by the Spoonful was originally commissioned by Hartford Stage, Michael Wilson, Artistic Director & Michael Scotts, Managing Director, through the AETNA New Voices Fellowship Program.

World Premiere by Hartford Stage, October 28, 2011

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Photo Credits: No photos available at the time of publication