DEKALB, Il, Sept. 4, 2024 – Stage Coach Players (SCP) presents Jonathan Larson’s Rent, a musical filled with passion and exuberance and abounds with creativity. Set in the East Village of New York City, the iconic rock musical Rent is loosely based on Puccini’s opera La Boheme, and opens on Sept. 19, 2024, and will run for two weekends at Stage Coach Players Theatre.
Cortney Jo Newby (Jekyll & Hyde) directs the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning musical. Abi Mogge vocally directs; Rex Meyer is pit director; and the show is stage managed by Angela Schiola.
Jonathan Larson’s Rent follows a year in the life of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York’s Lower East Side, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. The physical and emotional complications of the disease pervade the lives of Roger (Cory Schreiner, SCP debut), Mimi (Anaya Evans, Cabaret), Tom (Ryan Marcotte, Mamma Mia!) and Angel (Grant Milam, Beauty and the Beast). Maureen (Shannon Becker, Little Shop of Horrors) deals with her chronic infidelity through performance art; her partner, Joanne (Tamara Heath, SCP Debut), wonders if their relationship is worth the trouble. Benny (Denis Vorobyev, SCP Debut) has sold out his Bohemian ideals in exchange for a hefty income and is on the outs with his former friends. Mark (Jordan Christopherson, SCP Debut), an aspiring filmmaker, feels like an outsider to life in general. How these young bohemians negotiate their dreams, loves and conflicts provides the narrative thread to this groundbreaking musical.
Chelsea Banks, Daerielle Balika, Cody Bratcher, Evan Ewing, Leigh Foulk, Karla Gulke, Kelly Hart, Brian Heffernan, Cheri Heinz, Ryan Hoffman, Kaitlin Jacobson, Jon Jaworowski, Angel Larson, Kevin Loeper, Meg McGarry, Brooke Montavon, Skylar Montavon, Patrick Murphy, Jackson Nielsen, Isaiah Panke, Kasey Pennington, Riley Powers, Jason Reed, and Denver Starznski round out the cast.
Rent was workshopped at New York Theatre Workshop in early 1993 with a staged reading and more followed until its official opening off-Broadway in 1996. The musical quickly garnered popularity and enthusiastic reviews. It continued to receive wide critical acclaim and remained a Broadway smash for twelve years making it currently the eleventh longest running Broadway show.
As important as Rent was in 1996, its relevance today is as valid. “It’s sad that this show is more relevant today than I think it was back in 1996,” Newby stated, adding, “The amount of struggles that we are still facing almost 30 years later from addiction to poverty to disease. Rent is not only about these struggles, but it’s also about outcasts and minorities, and the LGBTQ plus community. It’s for everyone who feels alone and afraid, even though they’re aware that they are millions of people who feel the exact same way.”
Since its earliest performances, Rent has been a cultural phenomenon and has spoken to those who felt like social outcasts. McGarry said, “The importance of Rent and the effect that its popularity had on societal acceptance, grace and understanding of a maligned and monstrously misunderstood population of beautiful humans and love cannot be understated.”
Newby said she’s dedicating Rent to the memory Jeff Hall, a member of SCP who helped ensure that Rent was brought to the SCP stage. “Even though he is no longer with us on earth, he is with me every step of the way, trying to bring his ideas and mine together and collaborate on something gorgeous and profound has been the best part of this whole process.”
Rent is sponsored by Luke Butler Improvements in DeKalb. This production of Rent includes extreme and explicit language, intimate relationships, and adult and sexual themes.
Performances for Rent are Sept. 19 – 21, 2024, and Sept. 26 – 28 with a curtain time of 7:30 p.m. along with matinee performances on Sept. 22 and 29, 2024, with a curtain time of 2:00. Tickets for adults are $25 each. Tickets for children 12 and under and seniors are $23 each. For more information about upcoming productions and auditions, visit the SCP website at www.stagecoachplayers.com.
