i’m a terrible blogger. i should have posted the minute I left the Studio Theater that the DC production of Passing Strange KICKS ASS!
They paid us the biggest compliment they could have by making it their own sweaty, complex, funked-up, wonderfully messy, multi-layered, smart-ass, tear-jerking, wild animal of a show. And I’m not blowing my own horn by saying they were great cuz they did NOT
do “our” show at all! They did THEIR show. Within three bars of music they turned my into a mere spectator.
i’ll miss my train if I rave as hard as i’d like to about the direction, the sound, the movement, the lights, the set, the projections, the Everything.
But I have to say here that Jahi Kearse is a true artist. The brother grabbed the Narrator role by it’s collar, the role everyone (except moi) said could only be done by it’s originator,
and shook it til some new kinda funk came out. And I could not have been more thankful and appreciative. I learned more about PS by watching him than I did in my entire time doing the show. He took me to school on my own play so I gotta say Thank You Brother for that. All the back-handed compliments about how it could only work with that guy in the red shirt as Narrator have been put to rest by the dynamic Mr. Kearse. Because he is an artist, he knew it was all about making the experience real for HIM and only by doing that could he make it real for us. And now it’s up to the next brother (or sister!) to make it real again. The baton has been passed… but hold tight cuz it’s sweaty.
Last but not least, the band. I need to write a separate thing about them cuz they…ROCKED THE SHIT. I don’t know where to begin except to say they brought it, nailed it and never stopped. Like Mr. Kearse, they honored our work and expanded upon it. Or let’s say they honored our work BY expanding upon it. All i know is when the bass player pulled out a tuba and the guitar player pulled out a banjo on “The Black One” I was like “Oh, shit, these people mean bizzness.” And then I was like “SHIT, why didn’t WE do that???”
gotta make that train.
And you gotta make it to see PS at Studio Theater in DC.
Tell ‘um the fat guy in the red shirt sent you.
/s
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