Young cast takes on mature-themed ‘Rent’ / LJWorld.com

Archive for Monday, July 27, 2009

July 27, 2009

Past Event

Summer Youth Theatre ’09

When: Thursday, July 30, 2009, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Lawrence Arts Center, 940 N.H., Lawrence
Cost: $6.50 - $8.50
More on this event....

Young Lawrence actors are getting a dose of grown-up theater through the production of “Rent: School Edition” this month.

The show, which opens Thursday, is part of the Lawrence Arts Center’s Summer Youth Theatre. Actors say they’re excited to do a contemporary musical — “Rent” debuted on Broadway in 1996.

“I would have never thought that I’d get to do this show at this age,” says Jake Leet, 16, a soon-to-be sophomore at Lawrence High School, who plays Roger. “You know, normally it’s the old stuff.”

Ric Averill, the show’s director, says it’s a larg cast, with 42 students as part of the ensemble.

“In this show, I would have accepted any part because the ensemble gets to do so much — it’s always on stage,” Leet says. “Every character, no matter how small of a part, has so much of a background already.”

“Rent” tells the story of a group of artists living in dilapidated conditions in New York City’s East Village in the late 1980s. Nearly all of the principal characters are HIV-positive.

Averill says the center and the cast understand this isn’t a fluffy bit of elementary fare. He says this edition is edited to be more appropriate for both the actors and the audience, but that the coming-of-age message of the original, which runs in line closely with the opera “La Bohème,” is intact.

“I love the piece almost more for its beautiful kind of description of the passage through Bohemia — it’s kind of a coming-of-age piece for young artists and young people,” Averill says. “Just that kind of exploration of young artists discovering themselves, discovering their life path, discovering their loyalties and their loves.”

Jordan Gaches, 15, a soon-to-be sophomore at LHS who plays Angel, says that idea certainly resonates.

“It’s the age when people start to figure out who they are,” Gaches says. “I feel like a play like this helps people see different aspects of Bohemia and how it affects their life and how they think of themselves.”

Discussion

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27 July 2009
at 5:58 p.m.

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lorim (Anonymous) says…

Actually, only 4 of the 8 characters are HIV-positive. I am very curious to see what the “youth version” of Rent looks like. Good luck to Jake and the rest of the cast.
27 July 2009
at 6:03 p.m.

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beatrice (Anonymous) says…

I'd prefer the youth version of Death of a Salesman.
28 July 2009
at 10:10 a.m.

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bluedawg79 (Anonymous) says…

It's good to see them take on this subject. Their generation hasn't been exposed to the truths and myths of HIV as strongly as generations past were.
28 July 2009
at 12:46 p.m.

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frankiej65 (Anonymous) says…

Jake's a soon-to-be Junior, not Sophomore.