‘Passing Strange’ opens Reclaiming the Right conference

“Reclaiming the Right to Rock: Black Experiences in Rock Music” kicked off its conference Wednesday with a free screening of “Passing Strange,” a filmed performance directed by Spike Lee of the award-winning Broadway stage production.

The show, conceived by and heavily influenced by the background and relationships of playwright/rock musician Stew, chronicle the journey of a fictional black youth struggling to establish his identity and purpose from his middle-class upbringing in Los Angeles to his adventures in Amsterdam and Berlin. Spike Lee captured the performance during its final run on Broadway, at Stew’s request.

“In theater, they tend to not document work,” Stew said before the screening. “They tend to run a play for two weeks or two months or two years or ten years and then the play closes and it’s never seen again. And we come from the music world. In the music world, you document things. So we wanted a document of all this hard work we’ve done.”

Trish Hausman, former stage manager of “Passing Strange” and current house manager  for the Department of Theater and Drama, noted that the performance stood out as one of the best she’s ever worked with.

“When you listen to the music, he’s got a different sort of musicality,” she said. “His lyrics especially are very poetic and really speak to the human experience and black experience in a way that other artists just can’t. He’s got a really unique view of the world through his music.”

During a question and answer session following the screening, Stew, whose birth name is Mark Stewart spoke to an intimate crowd at the Whittenberger Auditorium about both his experiences and conflicts conceiving and producing the show from a unique perspective: the non-theater world.

“If the economy went to hell tomorrow, I could go out on a street corner and play,” he said. “A playwright can’t do that.”

He smiled wryly and said. “But it’d be funny if they tried.”

Senior Harry Watermeier voiced his approval of Stew’s appearance and acknowledged the hardships of seeing a play from conception to reality.

“I think in academia we’re so isolated. It’s so safe and so easy, compared to the professional world,” he said. “I thought he was great. I’m trying to become a playwright and for this you have to take the opportunity to see a professional like this.”

Stew then addressed the greater aspirations of the conference, identifying and understanding the black musician’s place in culture. He noted that while the roots of rock music are deeply nested in black culture, too often that link is not identified or credited.

“The truth is, we should take credit for it, should be proud of it,” he said. “Some people might have said it was wrong, but it’s ours.”