#  Stew Stewart 

Professor of the Practice of Musical Theater Writing

 

 

 



   ![Headshot of Stew Stewart](/sites/g/files/omnuum6821/files/styles/hwp_4_5__320x400/public/2025-07/stew-portrait.jpg?h=e3a33ffd&itok=i1w7ZiOH) 

 



 





 

 As a Tony Award and two-time Obie Award winning playwright/performer, Stew is a critically acclaimed singer/songwriter and veteran of multiple dive-bar stages. Stew’s classes are hothouses of multi-disciplinary, self-challenging experimentation which encourage celebratory transformation via myth-making. His courses are equally informed by the spontaneous immediacy of rock-club survival tactics and the human grandeur of theater. As an instructor, Stew strives to demystify the creative process for students, while simultaneously inviting them to create myths out of their truths, so that those truths might go deeper and shine brighter.

 **WORKS**

 MAYBE THERE’S BLACK PEOPLE IN FORT GREENE: Written for Spike Lee’s TV show “She’s Gotta Have It.” 2019

 A CLOWN WITH THE NUCLEAR CODE: Written for Spike Lee’s TV show “She’s Gotta Have It.” 2018

 RESISTING MY RESISTANCE TO THE RESISTANCE: Metropolitan Museum of Art 2017

 MOSQUITO NET (NYUAD Arts Center, Abu Dhabi 2016);

 NOTES OF A NATIVE SONG: Commissioned by Harlem Stage. (performed worldwide) 2015 to present.

 WAGNER, MAX!!! WAGNER!!!: Commissioned by &amp; debuted at Kennedy Center, DC 2015

 CHICAGO OMNIBUS commissioned by &amp; debuted @ Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago 2013

 CALIFORNIA ANALOG: Commissioned by the University of California, Los Angeles, 2012

 BROOKLYN OMNIBUS: Commissioned by &amp; debuted at the Brooklyn Academy of Music 2010

 MAKING IT: commissioned by &amp; debuted at St Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn 2010

 SPIKE LEE’S PASSING STRANGE (film) 2009

 PASSING STRANGE: Tony for Best Book of a Musical. Broadway. 2008

 PASSING STRANGE: Obie: Best New Theater Piece &amp; Best Ensemble. Public Theater NYC 2007

 PASSING STRANGE: World Premier. Berkeley Repertory. 2006

 STEW &amp; THE NEGRO PROBLEM have released 12 critically acclaimed albums between 1997 &amp; the present.

 Stew is the composer of “GARY COME HOME” of SPONGE-BOB SQUAREPANTS fame, which, honestly, is all anyone cares about anyway.



 

 

 





 

 

- ## People
    
     [Standing Committee on Theater, Dance &amp; Media](/people/standing-committee) [TDM Faculty](/people/art-faculty) [Past Visiting Faculty](/people/past-visiting-faculty)