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SPILL

Written by Leigh Fondakowski and directed by Weston Twardowski

Friday, April 11 - Saturday, April 12, 2025
Moody Center for the Arts | Lois Chiles Studio Theater

On the 15th anniversary of one of the largest environmental disasters in history, the Moody Center for the Arts presents the Houston premiere of SPILL, a documentary play about the tragedy of the Deepwater Horizon explosion as told by the Gulf Coast residents who lived through it. Written by the award-winning playwright Leigh Fondakowski (The Laramie Project, I Think I Like Girls), SPILL vividly stages the events leading up to the disaster and the long personal and environmental consequences of its aftermath across the Gulf Coast.

On April 20, 2010, a massive explosion ripped through the Deepwater Horizon rig off the coast of Louisiana. The accident left 11 workers dead, many injured, and triggered the largest oil spill in history. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with those impacted by this tragic event, SPILL memorializes how Deepwater Horizon changed lives, the region, and the oil industry. SPILL invites audiences to consider the precarious balance of danger and beauty found on the Gulf Coast. 

SPILL is made possible through the support of the Moody Center for the Arts, Rice’s Center for Environmental Studies, the Rice Arts Initiatives Fund, Rice's Humanities Research Center, Rice’s Center for Coastal Futures and Adaptive Resilience (CFAR), the Rice Office of Sustainability, the Rice Green Fund, and the Rice Department of History, and the Rice Sustainability Institute’s EcoStudio.

Tickets will be available for three performances as well as a separate event featuring a conversation playwright Leigh Fondakowski.  Please see the registration button to make a selection. All itemized events require separate registration. 

Performance Times + Dialogue with Fondakowski

Friday, April 11, opening night, 7- 9:30 pm

Saturday, April 12, Dialogue with Leigh Fondakowski, 1 - 2 pm 

Saturday, April 12, matinee performance 2 - 4:30 pm

Saturday, April 12, evening performance 7 - 9:30 pm