To open its 15th season of producing musicals with a moral, Youth Musical Theater Company (YMTC) is presenting Jonathan Larson’s celebrated masterpiece, Rent.
This show is loosely based on Puccini’s La Boheme. Set in Lower Manhattan’s East Village during the turmoil of the AIDS crisis, it chronicles the lives of a group of struggling artists over a year’s time. The score boasts such Broadway favorites as the gorgeous “Seasons of Love.” In 1996, Rent received four Tony Awards, including Best Musical; six Drama Desk Awards; and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Its Broadway run lasted 12 years.
During rehearsals, the show’s co-director, Jennifer Boesing, noticed how deeply the young cast related to the story, even though Rent is now a period piece. “Perhaps the show’s demand to connect and stay awake,” she observes, “is more relevant now than ever, in this increasingly digitized and disconnected world.”
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Rent features a cast and crew of 30 performing arts students from cities throughout the Bay Area, including three from Piedmont High: Claire Fraser and Jacob Kwong (both actors) and Joshua Bouris, an apprentice sound technician. The students are led by a team of professional directors and designers including Co-Directors Boesing and Simone Kertesz, Music Director Diana Lee, and Choreographer Janet Collard.
Performances:
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Sunday, 11/3, 5:00 p.m.
Thursday, 11/7, 7:30 p.m. (Pay-What-You-Will Performance)
Friday, 11/8, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, 11/9, 2:00 p.m. (Audience Talk-Back post-show)
Saturday, 11/9, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, 11/10, 2:00 p.m.
Where: Performing Arts Theater, 540 Ashbury Avenue, El Cerrito. Near El Cerrito Plaza BART.
Ticket Prices: $16–32. Student, senior, teacher, military, and group discounts are available. Purchase tickets at https://www.ymtcbayarea.org or at the door, which opens one hour prior to performance.