*

Long before Stew started Passing Strange — long before Man in Chair took pen in hand — there were the grand old men of Do-It-Yourself Stardom, Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen, a pair of industrious, determined thirtysomethings writing their own tickets to Broadway.

Back then (four years ago) — they dared not use the B-word. They were just a couple of chronically "at liberty" chorus kids who sat down one fine day in Bell's living room and started writing themselves a show. A "civilian" from one of their day jobs suggested they submit an entry to the annual New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), so they used that as a creative impetus and got cracking. On the real and inhibiting chance that they wouldn't make the cut, they got the promise of a lift-off gig downtown at Manhattan Theatre Source so that, as Jean Hagen squeaked in Singin' in the Rain, "our work ain't been in vain for nothin'."

[title of show] got its title of show from an entry blank. "It truly was on the form for the New York [Musical] Theatre Festival — name, address, phone number, title of show," recalls Bell. At that time they were stymied for a title, and such corny, cloying contenders as Two Dreamers and Broadway Dreams were breathing heavily down their necks, so, in a moment of inspired desperation, they went with the pre-existing heading, "with the idea that, hopefully, on some level, [title of show] represents whatever you want it to be, whatever you would title the show. You do it for us. You do the work for us, but we own the copyright. It could be like Insert Your Dream Here."