stew sez

Rodewald and I have a running joke about how little our lives are understood by many of the folks
closest to us. Especially for those who didn’t make it to Berkeley, it seems to be difficult for some of our peeps to get a handle on things. We can tell from their questions and comments that the majority of our friends and relatives simply haven’t a clue as to what the hell we are doing. Of course, we should be used to this chasm of misunderstanding by now since we’ve been navigating it for the better part of our lives. But the difference between now and then is when you are in a rock band people THINK they know what you are doing. This is because they are well versed in all of the myths surrounding rock and roll life. They’ve seen a hard day’s night and that thing you do and they know jimi and janis overdosed so they assume they’ve got your life pretty much figured out, yessiree. But the whole theater thing escapes them utterly. This is understandable to a degree because very few people in america outside of new york know or care anything about theater to begin with. So there aren’t even enough theater myths in circulation these days to give folks even a stereotypical idea of what’s going on with us.

My favorite thing someone said once when they heard we were doing a theater piece was “Wow, so like for “Re-Hab” are you gonna have 50 Rockettes kicking in unison with needles hanging out of their arms?” Actually, that’s a great image and we’ll probably do that someday. But that smart joke kinda shows you what people think about when they think “theater.” Theater plays virtually no part in america’s ringtoned, youtubed world. So folks ignorance on the subject is actually totally forgivable. It’s as if Rodewald and I have receded even deeper into a shadow world which only becomes real and explainable when it is at it’s most unreal i.e. on stage..which is to us, of course, real.