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align=center><FONT face=Georgia><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">Ensemble’s ‘</SPAN></B><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">Water by the
Spoonful</SPAN></B><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">’ adds gravitas by the tbsp
when a tsp would do</SPAN></B></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN></B> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt"
align=center><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'><FONT
face=Georgia>Bob Abelman</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'><FONT
face=Georgia>Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning
Journal</FONT></SPAN></I><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></SPAN><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face=Georgia> </FONT></SPAN></B><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
<P class=clay-paragraph style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Georgia><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ">Quiara Alegría Hudes, who studied music
composition at Yale, is known in musical theater circles as the woman who wrote
the book for the Tony Award-winning “In the Heights” and is </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ">the </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">librettist/lyricist
</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ">for the <SPAN style="COLOR: ">new musical,
“Miss You Like Hell,” which opened Off-Broadway last year. She also wrote
“<EM><SPAN
style="BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in">The
Good Peaches,” which received the inaugural 2016 Roe Green Award and a world
premiere production at the Cleveland Play House, accompanied by the 55-piece
Cleveland Orchestra.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></SPAN></EM><EM><SPAN
style="BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in"></SPAN></EM></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=clay-paragraph style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT
face=Georgia>On the side, Hudes <EM><SPAN
style="BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in">earned
</SPAN></EM>the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for “<SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic">Water by the Spoonful,” the </SPAN>second
installment of her Ortiz family trilogy, which is currently on stage at Ensemble
Theatre.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT
face=Georgia>Even her writing in this dramatic work is lyrical.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And the dissonant cords of the late jazz
great John Coltrane, which play in the background, serve as a musical metaphor
for the tousled lives of the recovering addicts and the returning soldier who
populate this play.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=clay-paragraph style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=clay-paragraph style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT face=Georgia>It is the lyrical,
free-flowing nature of “<SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic">Water by the
Spoonful” </SPAN>that gets sadly overshadowed in this otherwise engaging
Ensemble production, replaced by a tablespoon of gravitas when a teaspoon would
more than suffice.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
face=Georgia><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'>For
more of this article, go to </SPAN></I><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/</FONT></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>