The Springfield Theatre Centre closes out 2024 with the Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical RENT, directed by LaDonna Wilson. This joyfully rebellious, Nineteen Nineties riff on the Italian opera, La Boheme, is ready in New York Metropolis’s East Village through the top of the AIDS/HIV epidemic. The story follows a gaggle of younger artists grappling with homelessness, habit and illness whereas craving to create and join in a world that casts them apart. RENT reworked Broadway with its uncooked set design and emotional, rock-anthem storytelling. The band performs onstage alongside the actors, as if the viewers has stumbled right into a late-night jam session within the East Village. Although it has been 30 years since its premiere, RENT’s message is extra related than ever.
Wilson directed one of many first highschool variations of RENT within the nation at Champaign Central Excessive Faculty. When requested why she needed to convey it to Springfield so a few years later, she stated, “This present has at all times had a particular place in my coronary heart. I’ve a buddy and former pupil who contracted HIV, and we have had loads of loss in our group – together with some family and friends whom we have misplaced to AIDS. This story is necessary to inform.”
With the present divisive political local weather usually bearing on RENT’s themes of social injustice, financial disparity and the combat for equality, this manufacturing feels particularly well timed.
“We’re nonetheless coping with the stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS, and that of being an unhoused particular person,” stated Reggie Guyton, who portrays Collins within the present. “The extent of disrespect that unhoused individuals need to take care of, even in our personal metropolis, is terrible. My hope is for individuals to absorb RENT’s message of compassion and group and take into consideration how that applies to the place we dwell, as a result of we management the place we dwell,” stated Guyton.
The present itself conjures up that sense of group, having drawn forged members from throughout central Illinois. Mia Maliyah, who performs Mimi, commutes nightly from Champaign to rehearse.
“I fell in love with the story of RENT, and I used to be completely shocked with how mature the theater scene is in Springfield,” she stated. “That is my first present right here, and I really feel so lucky to be round this stunning group of artistic individuals.”
RENT additionally drew in lots of newcomers to the Springfield theater scene. Nick Francesco, who performs Mark, moved to city solely a yr in the past.
“I noticed just a few exhibits on the Hoogland and was impressed with the manufacturing worth, so I went for it. Quite a lot of private tales from the forged have provide you with this present, so I’ve gotten near them. It has been an excellent expertise,” stated Francesco.
RENT can also be immersing the group into the manufacturing by partnering with space organizations comparable to The Phoenix Middle and the Illinois Division of Public Well being to offer PREP info, alternatives for HIV/AIDS testing and a coat assortment within the Hoogland Middle for the Arts foyer.
At its core, RENT is a narrative about love and residing within the current second, a message we may have now greater than ever. Daniel Maughan, who performs Roger, believes the present offers a timeless sentiment that trendy audiences will nonetheless recognize.
“The general message is the track “No day however right now” – that each day is a present and never one thing we’re assured. Primarily, we’re ‘renting’ every day, and it is as much as us to resolve how we dwell that day and the way we are able to make the most effective of it,” stated Maughan.
The emotional resonance of RENT, with its themes of loss and love within the face of adversity, takes on a particular poignancy through the holidays, a time when Wilson believes audiences are significantly open to its message.
“I’ve at all times considered RENT as a Christmas musical as a result of it begins and ends on Dec. 24. It’s a ‘love all people, motive for the season’-type of present. It is an expertise that may contact your coronary heart. You do not need to miss it,” Wilson stated.
