The Cleveland State University Department of Theatre and Dance opened its fall season with a 30th anniversary celebration of the renowned musical, “Rent.”

Set in New York City’s East Village in the mid-to-late 1980s, Jonathan Larson’s rock musical follows a year in the lives of young artists and musicians as they navigate the struggle to survive, create art and cope with the HIV/AIDS crisis and its consequences.

The show is a modern rock adaptation of Giacomo Puccini’s 1896 opera La Bohème.

“Rent” is a fictional story that touches on the very real history of the AIDS crisis and covers themes that are still just as powerful and relevant today as they were in the 1980s.

The musical uses an iconic score and detailed set design to convey a message of resilience, community and living life to the fullest. 

The set design is built to reflect the grittiness and harshness of the Lower East Side, helping tell the story of what people were going through at the time, Associate Professor of Theatre and Dance Dave Stoughton explained on a Vikings Voices Extra podcast. 

Bringing back the group that put together last year’s production of “Starmites,” “Rent” features director Sheffia Randall-Nickerson, musical director Maria DiDonato and choreographer Errin Weaver. 

Bringing history to the stage

The cast of “Rent” went beyond memorizing a script and researched the topic thoroughly. 

Ensemble member Jaylen Binns expressed how impressed he was by the research that went into making this musical. 

Along with their own independent research, Binns praised the intimacy coordinator for the show, Toby Vera Bercovici, who brought connections to people involved in AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), a grassroots political activist group that was significant in the early days of AIDS. They were able to give information on what having AIDS really meant at the time, an approach that impacted Binns. 

“They understood what AIDS meant and instead of allowing it to be a ‘death sentence’, they kept living.” 

Members of the creative team also shared personal experiences from the time, giving the cast additional insight into the fear and discrimination surrounding the disease.

“AIDs was such a grossly misunderstood and miseducated disease that sparked so much fear and social outcasting,” Binns said. 

A story that still rings true

Although the context has changed, the themes of “Rent” still ring true today.

Through the music and completely unapologetic portrayal of underrepresented communities, “Rent” offers a story that extends far beyond its original setting.

Stoughton expressed how special it is that these are issues we deal with in Cleveland as well, that this is not just a New York story. 

Rent is special in the theatre world because in a time when society was plagued by severe stigma and unrestrained homophobia, it brought those communities under the bright stage lights. “Rent” brings layers of their lives to the stage: their hopes, dreams, fears and joys. 

The musical shows that, above all, these were real people, just like those sitting in the audience. That even people we don’t know deserve love and respect.

In an interview with Viking Voices Extra, Malik Montgomery, playing Roger Davis, hoped that is what the audience would take away most from the show. 

“I hope that people who don’t really see these things going on can feel a sense of empathy and understanding,” Montgomery said. “That they walk out with a heart that’s more open to understanding other people’s struggles and pain.”

For the cast, the musical’s experience extends to the lives of college students. Binns explained that young adults often get so caught up in everyday life that they forget to reflect on the experiences happening around them. 

“As college students, myself included, we don’t really think about how much time we have on this earth; we just go through the motions day by day,” Binns said. 

“Rent” expresses the idea that survival is more than just getting by. Survival is learning to lean on one another. Finding ways to genuinely live and find joy with what is in front of us. 

Director Sheffia Randall-Nickerson shared a similar hope in the Viking Voices Extra podcast, saying that she hopes the audience leaves entertained as well as feeling deeply connected to their community. 

“Rent” is for those who want to look deeper, those who feel alone in a crowded room or those fighting to survive in the face of tragedy and the harsh realities of the world.