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Teen actors keep up with 'Rent'
(by Bob Abelman - February 25, 2009)
Teen actors keep up with 'Rent'
"When we teach our students," noted Tom Fulton, executive director of the Fairmount Center for the Arts in Russell, "they learn about the power of reaching -- reaching for something beyond themselves, something greater than any single one of them can be."
That objective was realized this past weekend, when the Fairmount Performing Arts Conservatory, the theater division of the Fairmount Center, opened its two-week run of "Rent: School Edition." The cast, comprised largely of high school students, tackled subject matter beyond their years and comfort zone, accepted the challenge of performing a complex pop-rock opera beyond their limited experience and gave a performance that transcended expectations.
Jonathan Larson's musical follows a year in the lives of seven friends pursuing the Bohemian lifestyle in New York City's East Village, where starving artists reside in condemned buildings alongside the homeless. HIV-AIDS, drug addiction and their physical and emotional consequences pervade the lives of these individuals and lead to some truly somber moments in the show. Yet "Rent" is an uplifting, bittersweet celebration of life.
The show gained critical acclaim and won a Tony Award for best musical when it opened on Broadway in 1996. It closed 12 years later. Shortly thereafter, a moderately sanitized version of the show was released and has been performed at schools and community youth theaters across the country. Although some profanity and sexually explicit material has been removed, the intensity of its subject matter and characters remains, which can be quite a challenge for high school performers to realize and convincingly reproduce.
Under the direction and choreography of Sean Szaller, the Fairmount troupe tapped this intensity and, in the spirit of Mr. Fulton's vision, generated something greater than any one individual player.
Amidst the occasionally uneven performances and technical glitches typical of every amateur production, there were stunning moments of absolute brilliance and cohesion not typically found at this level of production. These moments seemingly came out of nowhere and left the audience grabbing for a program to make sure that this was, in fact, an amateur production performed largely by teenagers.
True to the spirit of the conservatory, most of these moments came during ensemble numbers that showcased the incredible voices of the collective cast, including local performers Katy Lucas from Bainbridge, Shelby Berger from Chagrin Falls, Nikki Leavitt from Pepper Pike and Miles Sternfeld from Moreland Hills. The vibrant "La Vie Boheme," which ends Act 1, and the poignant "Seasons of Love," which opens Act 2, soared.
Some of these moments were generated by individual performers who had the sheer courage to seek them out. The love song "I'll Cover You," sung by a terrific Carlos Cruz, as the cross-dressing Angel, and his lover Tom Collins, played by Joel Durr, is one example. Another, the hilarious "Over the Moon," featured an audacious Codie Higer from Solon, who played avant-garde performance artist Maureen.
Yet another, an Act 2 song entitled "What You Own," displayed the unbridled exuberance of Jesse Markowitz from Orange, who played Mark, a struggling documentary filmmaker and the narrator of the show, and Andrew Parmelee, as his best friend, Roger.
"The moment they've begun to reach," suggested Mr. Fulton, "their lives will never be the same."
Witness the transformative power of live theater in this Fairmount Performing Arts Conservatory production. Five performances of "Rent: School Edition" remain, to be presented this weekend at the Mayfield Village Performing Arts Center.
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