{"id":96522,"date":"2025-09-30T08:58:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T15:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=96522"},"modified":"2025-10-02T09:11:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T16:11:16","slug":"myth-humor-and-urgency-ripple-through-plan-bs-just-add-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/myth-humor-and-urgency-ripple-through-plan-bs-just-add-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Myth, Humor, and Urgency Ripple Through Plan-B’s \u2018Just Add Water\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A scene: Two women walking through north Sugar House streets, pre-dawn, on cold winter mornings. Usual topics: the declining water levels of Great Salt Lake, what a lost flamingo and a seagull might have in common, the toxicity of lakebed dust, and how to write plays about all of this.<\/h4>\n

On our walks, the smarter woman, playwright Elaine Jarvik, recounts progress on the script she\u2019s writing with Matthew Ivan Bennett about Great Salt Lake. She\u2019s gotten a crazy idea for the plot: What if the lake were a woman, who sets off on a heroine\u2019s journey to explore the effects of her decline on her namesake city? And as two journalist-types, we had interesting conversations about the kind of questions a reporter might ask if she were to interview a lake.<\/h4>\n

Hearing the backstories of scripts as they are taking shape is just one of the pleasures of my regular walks with my friend Elaine. Last winter, I heard about Elaine and Matt\u2019s interviews with scientists that provided gravitas for their plot. I heard about their attendance at Save the Lake rallies at the Utah Capitol, where a simple slogan on a sign\u2014Just Add Water<\/em>\u2014offered the perfect title for their play.<\/h4>\n

Transition: Cut to the stage of Plan-B Theatre Company\u2019s Studio Theatre, where the production of Just Add Water<\/em>, directed by Penelope Caywood, will open on Oct. 2. The run continues through Oct. 19, with Thursday through Sunday shows.<\/h4>\n
\"Three

From left: Latoya Cameron, Alec Kalled, and Amona Faatau in Plan-B Theatre Company\u2019s production of Just Add Water. Image by Sharah Meservy.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Just Add Water<\/em> is Elaine\u2019s second play about the lake. She\u2019s also the author of Eb & Flo<\/em>, which Plan-B Theatre will tour to more than 100 elementary schools in the upcoming school year. It\u2019s the story of a fantastic flamingo and a sensible seagull, who become friends while learning about brine shrimp, brine flies, and decreasing lake water levels. And they sing! (Free ticket reservations here.<\/a> Request a performance of the play at your school here<\/a>.)<\/h4>\n

Both Plan-B plays are part of a dozen temporary installations by local, national, and international artists commissioned for Salt Lake City Arts Council\u2019s Wake the Great Salt Lake initiative (see here<\/a>). Like other Wake the Great Salt Lake installations, the story of \u201cJust Add Water\u201d is grounded in facts. The play addresses an urgent issue and tells a personal story, says Caywood, the director. \u201cIt\u2019s a piece that asks the audience to imagine with us and to imagine differently,\u201d she said of the show\u2019s minimalist \u201cBig Cheap Theatre\u201d presentation style.<\/h4>\n
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\"Actor

Actor Latoya Cameron embodies Great Salt Lake in Just Add Water, a new play by Elaine Jarvik and Matthew Ivan Bennett, directed by Penelope Caywood for Plan-B Theatre Company. Image by Sharah Meservy.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Actor Latoya Cameron has been charged with creating the human persona of the lake. \u201c<\/b>She can hold power and vulnerability in the same breath,\u201d Caywood says. \u201cWe\u2019ve talked about leaning into those contradictions and she\u2019s managed to make the lake both mythic and deeply human. She\u2019s a force\u2014both the actor and the lake.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Walking into the play, theatergoers should feel confident that the story is based on deep care and research, enriched by whimsical humor. \u201cMatthew and Elaine have built a script packed with real scientific detail and lived history,\u201d the director says. \u201cI hope people walk out having laughed, having felt something, and [will be] thinking about what Great Salt Lake needs and what role they can play in her future.\u201d<\/h4>\n

In an interview, I asked the playwrights how they came to embody the lake as the story\u2019s main character, as well as the art of collaboration and the complications of writing a play with \u201cripped-from-the-headlines\u201d urgency.<\/h4>\n