A mixture of musical
styles (though mostly rock), the piece
plays like one long, elegant song.
Narrated by Stew and accompanied by a
three-person band (including Rodewald on
the bass and vocals) and an acting
ensemble of six talented brown actors,
the musical recounts the trials and
tribulations of Youth, a character
representing Stew’s younger,
unsophisticated, unfettered self of over
twenty years ago.
A naïve, determined, upper-class black
man, Youth struggles to find the “Real”
of his identity by trekking from a
comfortable, stifling life in L.A. to
the free-spirited, artistic environs of
Amsterdam and Berlin, as he meaningfully
interacts with his home-base black
community, devoted mother, and a dearth
of Europeans. Ultimately, they all help
him jostle the struggle to find his
sense of self and of blackness onto the
stage.
So how does such a musical incite and
invite societal change?
First and foremost, the production
signifies change on the professional
horizon. The positive merits of the show
are unarguably impeccable. Stew’s and
Rodewald’s material audaciously uses wit
and humor to explore a potentially
cerebral theme as the entire cast
strives for excellence in the service of
a unique story. More rock-and-roll
concert than musical, Passing Strange
provides audiences with an almost
anti-Broadway experience not seen since
the debut of Rent nearly twelve years
ago.
In a town that more than accommodates
the Great White Way (originally named
for its bright, white lights but having
since taken on the de facto connotation
of an obvious racial tendency), this
piece employs a gifted cast of color who
refreshingly plays fully developed
characters of all backgrounds.
Developed at Joe’s Pub and previously
produced at both Berkeley Rep and the
Public Theater in NYC, the play affords
these theater artists a professional
experience that is more than an exercise
in color blinded casting. The Real of
this situation is that these artists can
move their careers forward in ways not
routinely available to them outside of a
regional Shakespeare festival.
But the more profound change the musical
simultaneously signifies and creates is
in the search for self-identification.
In a time when we could very well elect
a black president accused of not being
“black enough,” this musical calls to
mind the very questions we all ask
ourselves and each other about the
significance and nuances that comprise
identity with regard to race, class,
sex, and gender.
Those familiar with Lacanian theory
understand the vortex into which the
interpretation of a musical about the
Real can propel. But the account resists
this thrust by focusing the search on
Youth’s experiences of what it means to
pass. For most people of color and/or
ethnically diverse backgrounds in the
United States, passing is a way of life,
an experience synonymous with making it
in the white (or mainstream) world.
Stew’s play explores the inverted
process of what he describes as, “black
folks passing for black folks.”
The most important lesson the musical
teaches, then, is that despite our
collective desire to move past identity
constructs as markers of oppression,
they are the reality we are supporting
and living out.
Take for instance the moment of
humorous, poignant social commentary
when Youth creates a teenage punk band
in order to celebrate his inner angst
and love for rock music in songs like
“Sole Brother,” in which he shouts, “I’m
at war with ghetto norms!”
As an artist who lives the distinctly
American identity construct of being
Latina, I can more than relate to this
condition. But as I sat in the audience,
I found myself more than relating and
instead exploring my own relationship
to, and participation in, the ritual of
passing.
No matter how politically incorrect it
is, Stew and Rodewald’s piece puts the
onus of psychological oppression on
those very oppressed, simultaneously
burdening and blessing them (us) with
the power to make change.
The genius of this conceit is best seen
when Stew and Youth interact on stage,
bringing to life the illusory act of
literally looking at one’s self. Stew
resolutely tells Youth that he wants
more than the Real – a sense of meaning
and belonging, those ostensibly elusive
states of being that American people of
all colors perpetually seek.
This message is continuously planted in
profound assertions throughout the
piece, right in the places following an
intense musical number, when one simply
wants to clap or breathe or recollect
and instead is more deeply enticed into
its world. It is the kind of experience
that does not let go until one is
changed.
So despite the overtly hackneyed nature
of the medium, musicals do charge the
soul in the places our everyday lives
obscure and suppress. And when a musical
like this comes along, full of insight
and talent, you pay attention to its
message and know that something
meaningful in our society will follow
and is already underway for such a
production to exist.
Because regardless of what happens this
November, it is clear that those of us
on the ground are changing and are
eagerly committed to even more change.
Stories and story tellers are coming out
from under their intellectual prisons
and not only exposing histories of the
past, but how they intend to create the
present and inspire the future. There is
a shift in power and god willing, it is
not a passing phase.
In the end, the real change Passing
Strange indicates is a gradual, but
sincere understanding that no matter how
many identities people like Stew perform
or they (we) pass for, in order to be
any kind of real, there must always be
an audience.
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Editha's Blog
Editha Rosario's Bio
Editha
Rosario is a writer, theater artist, and nonprofit
administrator. A native of Chicago, she is of Puerto
Rican and Filipino descent. Editha received a
Bachelor of Science in Theater from Northwestern
University and a Master of Arts from New York
University, where she studied playwriting,
performance, and feminist studies. Her performance
credits include Working, Catch 22, Quake, and The
Hairy Ape with American Theater Company; Othello
with Journeymen Theatre Company; and The Messenger
with Teatro Vista at the Goodman Theatre.
Editha has served as the Executive Director of INTAR
Theatre, the country’s oldest Latino theater
company, and recently produced and directed a staged
reading of her play, Every Man: A Morality Play, at
the Red Room in Manhattan . She is a company member
of American Theater Company in Chicago, a board
member of EarSay, Inc., and a member of the PRIMER
Network. Currently, she is the Director of Giving
for Housing Works and teaches high school writing
classes part-time. She resides in Harlem in NYC.
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