Passing Strange  | 

PASSING STRANGE, which Stew starred in and co-wrote with Heidi Rodewald, premiered at Berkeley Rep and the Public Theater (2006/2007) before transferring to Broadway in 2008. The show has been honored with the Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical and the 2008 Obie Award for Best New American Theater Piece, as well as a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. Stew also received Tony nominations for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Orchestrations. Stew is the critically acclaimed singer, songwriter, founder, and leader of The Negro Problem, a pop-rock combo from Los Angeles whose works include “Post Minstrel Syndrome” (1997), “Joys and Concerns” (1999), and “Welcome Black” (2002). Along with Heidi Rodewald, he cofounded the Afro-Baroque cabaret ensemble known as STEW. Their works include “Guest Host” (2000), “The Naked Dutch Painter” (2002), and “Something Deeper Than These Changes” (2003). He was an artist-in-residence at the California Institute of the Arts (2004-2005), Sundance Theater Lab (2004-2005), Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab (2005), and Sundance Director’s Lab (2005). Stew is also the composer of “Gary Come Home” for the “SpongeBob SquarePants” cartoon.

Heidi Rodewald has spent over a decade as a performer, arranger, producer, and composer for both The Negro Problem and the multi-disciplinary ensemble known as Stew. She cowrote the musical PASSING STRANGE, which premiered at Berkeley Rep/The Public Theatre (2006-2007) and then transferred to Broadway in 2008, where it was nominated for seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Orchestrations. The show has been honored with the Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical and the 2008 Obie Award for Best New American Theater Piece. She composed music for Karen Kandel’s PORTRAITS: NIGHT AND DAY (2004) and cowrote with Stew the screenplay “We Can See Today,” Sundance Screenwriters Lab/Director’s Lab (2005). She wrote and performed with seminal female punk band Wednesday Week.

Annie Dorsen is a theater director working at the intersection of algorithmic art and live performance. Dorsen is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Spalding Gray Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant to Artists Award, and the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. She is the co-creator of the 2008 Broadway musical Passing Strange, which she also directed. Spike Lee made a film of her production of the piece, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009, and was released theatrically by IFC in 2010. She recently completed a J.D. from NYU School of Law, where she concentrated on tech policy and civil rights. Currently, she is Guest Curator for Art and Technology at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Zhailon Levingston is a Louisiana-raised storyteller, director, and activist who codirected Cats: The Jellicle Ball, an immersive reimagining of the classic musical that premiered in 2024 at New York City’s Perelman Arts Center and earned him an Obie Award (co-Directing), as well as Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for Outstanding Direction of a Musical. Now playing on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theater, Cats has received 9 Tony Award nominations, including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Direction of a Musical for Zhailon alongside co-director Bill Rauch. Zhailon’s first “Broadway” job was selling tickets to Broadway shows in Times Square. In 2017, he sold concessions for multiple Broadway theaters. At 27 years old, he became the youngest Black director in Broadway history, directing the Broadway production of Chicken and Biscuits. His other directing credits include Wonderful Town at New York City Center Encores; Reconstructing at Brooklyn Academy of Music (co-directed with Rachel Chavkin); Little Miss Perfect (Olney Theatre Center); Patience at Second Stage Theatre; and Table 17 at MCC Theater (Lortel Award nominee for Outstanding Direction) and Los Angeles’ Geffen Playhouse (NAACP Theater Award nominee for Best Director of a stage play). Levingston is the board chair of the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, Artistic Director of Inheritance Theatre Project, and co- created a ‘Theatre of Change’ course at Columbia University School of Law that is still being taught today. Once a year he returns to his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana to direct theater as a way to stay connected to his roots.