MAKING IT TO MADISON
THE CREATORS OF BROADWAY'S PASSING STRANGE COME TO LINE BREAKS
WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY | 7PM | FREE
My generation has never quite felt invited to the theatre. The earliest plays I can remember were filled with audience members three times my age and a few notches up on the economic ladder. My mother, determined to expose me to invigorating and transformative art, would frequently drag me by my reluctant hands to Northern California’s hub for new stage productions, the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. There I witnessed a number of plays that massaged my creativity, but with each experience I grew more and more certain that none would succeed at turning my imagination upside down. In the fall of 2006, my mother took me to see a new production at the Berkeley Rep called Passing Strange, and I have never watched theatre the same since.
From Los Angeles to Amsterdam to Berlin and back, Passing Strange takes musical theater on a whole new trip. Singer-songwriter and performance artist Stew brings us a daring original musical that takes the audience on a journey across boundaries of place, identity and theatrical convention. Stew, a popular performer at Joe's Pub, was commissioned by the Public Theater of New York to develop this heartfelt and hilarious story of a young bohemian who charts a course for “the real” through sex, drugs and rock and roll. Loaded with soulful lyrics and overflowing with passion, the show takes us from black, middle-class America to Europe’s communities of radicals and musicians on a journey towards personal and artistic authenticity.
While this generalized descriptions gives you a brief summary of the hit Broadway production Passing Strange, nothing can capture the monumental experience of the show. Passing Strange was born in the minds of two of our headliners for this year’s Line Breaks Festival, Stew and Heidi Rodewald. Stew and Heidi were LA-based touring musicians with their band The Negro Problem for more than 10 years before embarking on a theater project. After its start in New York, Passing Strange found its way to California’s Berkeley Rep, then back to New York’s Public Theater and eventually to a Broadway transfer at the Belasco Theater, where its run earned four Tony nominations and one Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. Passing Strange shook the ground of the performance world and continues to resonate through the Spike Lee’s film version of the show’s final Broadway performance. We’re honored to bring Stew and Heidi here to UW-Madison for this year’s Line Breaks and look forward to all Madison-area art, music and theater lovers being able to experience their genius first-hand.
We caught up with Stew and Heidi briefly in New York after seeing their amazing new production Making It, and asked Stew a few quick questions about his upcoming visit to Madison.
Rafael Casal: What are 6 words that come to mind when you think of the word "art"?
Stew: Seeing the world through other eyes.
RC: What do you hope people get from your performance in Madison?
Stew: A melody or two they can take home with them ... a line that pops into their head a week after they've seen us that suddenly makes sense ... one of our CDs ... and most importantly, a good seat.
RC: There are a lot of student-artists here at UW-Madison who are looking into new aesthetics and creative ways to break the mold. Any words of advice for how to challenge the norm?
Stew: I wouldn't lose any sleep over whether I was challenging the norm or not. After all, if you're not a part of the norm, your very presence within it is a challenge to it. The only question then is, are you up for the challenge? Because the real challenge to being an artist in America is how you'll survive while trying to be yourself for a living. And the only way you'll be up for that challenge is if Art is not something you merely want to do, but rather something you need to do – something you can't live without doing. When you've reached that point, everything else flows and those of us crazy enough to still be here will say, “Welcome to the struggle and, not to mention, the most fun you'll ever have.”
The majority of game-changing, norm-challenging artists past and present had to suffer either poverty, judgmental families who questioned their sanity, personal life meltdowns, or all of the above – and often at the same dinner party. All this static comes with the territory. But if as I stated earlier, if you need to make Art, the struggle turns into a dance. Sometimes the dance gets rough, but it's still a dance.
Stew and Heidi will be performing at the Wisconsin Historical Society on Monday, April 19, as well as participating in Tuesday night’s “20 Questions,” our discussion series taking place all week with our headliners. On April 20, they will be joined by one of our other amazing guest artists, writer/performer Colman Domingo, formerly a cast member of Passing Strange. Join us for both amazing nights of music, poetry, performance art and discussion brought to you in part by the stories and songs of one of the great creative duos of our time: Stew and Heidi Rodewald.
By Rafael Casal, Creative Director OMAI/First Wave
