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berkeley

hi,
we’ve been in berkeley for a month or so… and getting groovier by the minute…. me, heidi (who co wrote the music and musical directs), annie dorsen (director co creator) spurney (co-musical director, guitar/piano hero of joe’s pub fame), marc doten keyboards (negro problem/stew longtime family member) and russ kleiner – young groove pimp extraordinaire from new york…cast members Daniel (B.D.) Breaker, Eisa Davis, De’Adre Aziza, Chad Goodridge, Rebecca Jones and Colman Domingo, we’re all here working on this thing called passing strange that me and heidi and our director annie dorsen created. our cast is amazing and you’ll hear more about all them a bit later….and then there’s karole armitage living legend who did the choreography…and then theres pod-pimp dave korins who did the set and then there’s the flourescent freak daddy kevin adams (lighting designer)…stage manager cyd cahill tells us what to do and we like it.

i’ve always wanted to live in the bay area. and what a nice excuse for being here. it’s such a beautiful groove. we live on shattuck and walk to the theater every morning to rehearsal…once the show officially opens we’ll have our days back to ourselves…then we’ll be real bay area residents…we’re exhausted now from all the long hours of rehearsing…

we just finished our 3rd preview – at least i think it was our 3rd. we had some big fun tonight. we got the first taste of what it could feel like once we get warm. we’ve got a ways to go but there’s going to be a point where the actors and musicians become one and when that hits it’s gonna be church fo’ real…when you come to the theater bring a fan with a picture of vanilla jesus on it and one of them old lady purses with some old life savers stuck to the bottom and just sit a spell…tap your foot and nod your head to and fro…ah, but you don’t hear me though…we’re artists… so don’t hate…just pass the collection plate…

this is the hardest i’ve ever worked in my life…and i’d be fibbing if i said every minute of it was pure joy…but when we are live and in the groove or just fooling around at rehearsal trying to make each other laugh all the hustles and hassles fall away and it’s all more than good…the cast is teaching me on a regular basis a multitude of lessons about art and life…annie and heidi continue to be more than i could ever put into words and and the band smokes…and you can’t get a bad meal around here…and there’s a bar on the corner…holler…whether you hear me or not…

love,
/stew

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