Water by the Spoonful (Revised TCG Edition)

By Quiara Alegría Hudes

“How many plays make us long for grace? Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Hudes is such a rare play; it is a yearning, funny, deeply sad and deeply lyrical piece, a worthy companion to Hudes’s Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue. The play infects us with the urge to find connection within our families and communities and remains with us long after we’ve left the theater.” –Paula Vogel, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of How I Learned to Drive

 

“Hudes’s writing is controlled and graceful. Each of the play’s 15 short scenes is perfectly balanced, the language both lyrical and lucid.” –Richard Zoglin, Time

 

“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.” –Charles Isherwood, New York Times

 

Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Water by the Spoonful is “a rich, brilliant montage of American urban life that is as dazzling to watch as it is difficult to look away from” (Associated Press).

 

Somewhere in Philadelphia, Elliot has returned from Iraq and is struggling to find his place in the world. Somewhere in a chat room, recovering addicts forge an unbreakable bond of support and love. The boundaries of family and community are stretched across continents and cyberspace as birth families splinter and online families collide.

 

Water by the Spoonful is a heartfelt and poetic meditation on lives on the brink of redemption and self-discovery during a time of heightened uncertainty, “as startling and innovative and human on the page as on the stage” (Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-Winning author). Hudes’s cycle of three plays began with Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue (Pulitzer Prize finalist) and concludes with The Happiest Song Plays Last.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Release date: Jul 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781559368773

Book preview

Scene One

Swarthmore College. Elliot and Yaz eat breakfast. Elliot wears a Subway sandwich shop polo shirt.

ELLIOT: This guy ain’t coming. How do you know him?

YAZ: We’re on a committee together.

ELLIOT: My shift starts in fifteen.

YAZ: All right, we’ll go.

ELLIOT: Five more minutes. Tonight on the way home, we gotta stop by Whole Foods.

YAZ: Sure, I need toothpaste.

ELLIOT: Yaz, you gotta help me with my mom.

YAZ: You said she had a good morning.

ELLIOT: She cooked breakfast.

YAZ: Progress.

ELLIOT: No. The docs said she can’t be eating all that junk, it’ll mess with her chemo, so she crawls out of bed for the first time in days and cooks eggs for breakfast. In two inches of pork-chop fat. I’m like, Mom, recycle glass and plastic, not grease. She thinks putting the egg on top of a paper towel after you cook it makes it healthy. I told her, Mom, you gotta cook egg whites. In Pam spray. But it has to be her way. Like, That’s how we ate them in Puerto Rico and we turned out fine. You gotta talk to her. I’m trying to teach her about quinoa. Broccoli rabe. Healthy shit. So I get home the other day, she had made quinoa with bacon. She was like, It’s healthy!

YAZ: That’s Ginny. The more stubborn she’s being, the better she’s feeling.

ELLIOT: I gave those eggs to the dogs when she went to the bathroom.

YAZ (Pulls some papers from her purse): You wanna be my witness?

ELLIOT: To what?

(Yaz signs the papers.)

YAZ: My now-legal failure. I’m divorced.

ELLIOT: Yaz. I don’t want to hear that.

YAZ: You’ve been saying that for months and I’ve been keeping my mouth closed. I just need a John Hancock.

ELLIOT: What happened to trial separation?

YAZ: There was a verdict. William fell out of love with me.

ELLIOT: I’ve never seen you two argue.

YAZ: We did, we just had smiles on our faces.

ELLIOT: That’s bullshit. You don’t divorce someone before you even have a fight with them. I’m calling him.

YAZ: Go ahead.

ELLIOT: He was just texting me about going to the Phillies game on Sunday.

YAZ: So, go. He didn’t fall out of love with the family, just me.

ELLIOT: I’m going to ask him who he’s been screwing behind your back.

YAZ: No one, Elliot.

ELLIOT: You were tappin’ some extra on the side?

YAZ: He woke up one day and I was the same as any other person passing by on the street, and life is short, and you can only live in mediocrity so long.

ELLIOT: You two are the dog and the owner that look like each other. Ya’ll are The Cosby Show. Conundrum, Yaz and William make a funny, end of episode. You show all us cousins, maybe we can’t ever do it ourselves, but it is possible.

YAZ: Did I ever say, It’s possible?

ELLIOT: By example.

YAZ: Did I ever say those words?

(Professor Aman enters.)

AMAN: Yazmin, forgive me. You must be . . .

ELLIOT: Elliot Ortiz. Nice to meet you, I appreciate it.

AMAN: Professor Aman. (They shake) We’ll have to make this short and sweet, my lecture begins . . . began . . . well, talk fast.

ELLIOT: Yaz, give us a second?

YAZ: I’ll be in the car. (Exits)

ELLIOT: I’m late, too, so . . .

AMAN: You need something translated.

ELLIOT: Just a phrase. Thanks, man.

AMAN: Eh, your sister’s cute.

ELLIOT: Cousin. I wrote it phonetically. You grow up speaking Arabic?

AMAN: English. What’s your native tongue?

ELLIOT: Spanglish. (Hands Aman a piece of

Reviews for Water by the Spoonful (Revised TCG Edition)

[Raul Aguilar · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Such a beautiful written play . You emerge in it . She’d a few tears . Yes ! It’s that good.

[Natty Sapong · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read your book. That’s the great thing about an amazing novel, you can read it over and over and get something new out of it. ... If you have some great stories like this one, you can publish it on Novel Star, just submit your story to [e-mail] or [e-mail]

[Lily Lee · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The story is powerful; I like how it was presented. Good job writer! If you have some great stories like this one, you can publish it on Novel Star, just submit your story to [e-mail] or [e-mail]

[golu · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Emotional but inspiring story for crackers. Loved reading it. Would recommend to all of the sobers who'd wish to bring some happiness and inspiration in their lives

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

 In an effort to read more Pulitzer-prize-winning plays I checked this one out. It’s written by the woman who co-wrote In the Heights. It explores the topics of addiction and grief. What makes a mother? It’s part of a series and I found myself wanting to read more while also not completely pulled into the story. Like most plays, I’m sure it works better on stage, especially the chat room scenes.

[payam6tommy · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Pulitzer Prize for drama?!
Are you kidding me?!
Are you fucking kidding me?!
one of the most ordinary plays I've ever read