Making "Rent"

2010-01-18T04:28:00.001-08:00

First (of many) Official Poster

2009-12-09T03:49:00.001-08:00

Ensemble

2009-12-01T23:57:00.000-08:00

The cast rocked its first public appearance last November 27 at the Ghirardelli Square Christmas tree lighting ceremony. The cast sang Seasons of Love to an enthusiastic holiday crowd, and passed its first test as an ensemble with flying colors.

If you missed that performance, you can catch them at the Macy's Toys for Tots Event on December 11, where they will sing Seasons of Love, Will I, and What You Own.

First look at Rent's marketing campaign

2009-11-19T17:37:00.000-08:00

Up on the roof, filming

2009-11-18T03:16:00.000-08:00

November 16: The Rent gang lined themselves up on the roof, ready for their closeups, to shoot video footage for the musical's promo campaign. The San Francisco air was crisp and had a holiday air about it, perfect weather for "Christmas Bells Are Ringing." But tonight was all about the Rent anthem, Seasons of Love, which the cast pre-recorded over and over before filming.

The shoot went spectacularly without incident. Even a near mishap with a falling umbrella spotlight was averted because of Chris Morrell's laser-like reflexes. All told, the theater gods smiled at this shoot, which put the cast in the mood to horse around, mug for the photographer's camera, and get all huggy with each other.

The cast looked great in their East Village grungerie, and sounded even better. Jujuana Williams and Jami James, featured soloists for Seasons of Love, rocked their solos in a performance worthy of opening night. That the cast can sound this good this early brings tremendous excitement to what is yet to come. No doubt, there was a lot of star quality on the roof that evening. And enough vocal power to blow the roof off the Magic Theater when the show opens in January.

Put your "Rent" face on

2009-11-17T11:04:00.000-08:00

Salvador puckers up, San Francisco, November 2009.

November 16: Shooting day for the Rent promo video, a big day for the cast. The video shoot takes place on the roof of the rehearsal space, the San Francisco skyline as a backdrop, on a terribly chilly night. Luckily for the cast, they are decked in winter clothes, their costumes for the play. In the meantime, hair and makeup. Everyone put your Rent face on and pimp it up for the camera!

Cast channels "Glee"

2009-11-17T02:03:00.000-08:00

"Rent" meets "Glee" as Jenna, Enrico, and videographer Al sing "Don't Stop Believing" while waiting for the video shoot. With the "Rent" backup dancers!

Seasons of love, colors of "Rent"

2009-11-14T02:18:00.001-08:00

Rehearsal scrapbook, November 13, 2009.

November 13: Winter comes early to San Francisco as the cast of Rent rummages through jackets, coats, scarves, boots and caps to recreate the musical's chilly yuletide scenario.

Costume designer Cherilyn Chang (shown right) will be responsible for outfitting bohemia and bringing out the colors of Rent. The look will be decidedly young. Low-rent grunge, crass 80s materialism, and lower east side performance art attitude. The colors autumnal and somber, with jolting splashes of color. Color for hope and la vie boheme, the essence of Larsen's play.

Expect to see a lot of the Rent cast during the holidays as they bring Seasons of Love to the season of gift-giving. The cast has been invited to grace several holiday events across the city, including the Christmas tree lighting ceremony at San Francisco's Ghirardelli Square. Details soon!

The cast of "Rent"

2009-11-05T15:26:00.000-08:00

The cast of "Rent"

2009-11-03T13:28:00.000-08:00

Luke Chapman (Mark)

Jenna Davi (Mimi)

Enrico Banson (Roger)

Alex Rodriguez (Angel)

Jessy Knudsen (Maureen)

Anthony Rollins-Mullens (Collins)

Aubine Wise (Joanne)

Ruben Oriol Rivera (Benny)

Anthony Michael Knott (Ensemble)

Holly Nugent (Ensemble)

Chris Morell (Ensemble)

Jujuana Williams (Ensemble)

Marion Bordon (Ensemble)

Corinne Fimbrez (Ensemble)

Jami James (Ensemble)

Salvador Real (Ensemble)

In the meantime . . .

2009-11-01T18:34:00.001-08:00

. . . The Royal Underground Theater Company wrapped up its triumphant production of Jekyll and Hyde last night at the Magic Theater in San Francisco. Congratulations to the cast and crew for a successful and well received run!

First reading

2009-10-31T15:12:00.001-07:00

The handing of the scripts had a ritualistic air about it; the reverence as palpable as the anxiety to read lines at last and make the journey real. The subtext was "this is really happening," and the first full reading and singing of the play betrayed the obvious: this cast knew Rent like the back of its hand. So the real thing begins. In the next series of posts, we will finally introduce the cast and the creative team.

In the meantime, we're off to watch the Halloween performance of The Royal Underground production of Jekyll and Hyde, which closes today, taking with it memories of many standing ovations and glowing reviews from the Bay Area press. Kudos to the J&H cast and crew for staging a great show!

Fun and games

2009-10-30T18:01:00.000-07:00

Last Monday's rehearsals started with fun and games, theater style, which meant lots of physicality, horsing around, and hearty laughter. It's preparation. An actor prepares by loosening up his instrument: body, voice, imagination. Silliness plays a big part of it; being a goofball means shedding inhibition. One exercise made the actors look like outcasts from a So You Think You Can Dance audition. Zero for artistry, 10 for bravado.

The next exercise had the actors literally twisted in knots of touchy-feely togetherness, like a human pretzel with 14 pairs of limbs. The object of the game was to untangle themselves out of their predicament, wordlessly, until their knotted bodies unraveled to form a full circle. It was, of course, a noisy affair in spite of many protests from the production manager. Go tell an actor to stay quiet for long. Won't happen.

After what seemed like an eternity of Extreme Twister, the circle was formed, the cast heaved a sigh of accomplishment, and the game ended with, what else, a round of applause.

The final exercise was a pairing game to bring the actors who portray the lovers and best friends from the play to get to know each other better. In this last set of pictures, the actors who will play lovers Angel and Collins, best friends Mark and Roger, and former lovers Mark and Maureen huddle in tête-à-tête for fifteen minutes of intimacy that their characters can draw from when the time comes. Fun and games, for sure. It's also how an actor prepares.

Day one: getting to know you

2009-10-25T16:29:00.000-07:00

The rehearsal studio for Rent is situated in the heart of the low-rent, high-funk hoods of San Francisco's Mission District. With its bodegas and cervecerias, the Mission is Latino country, home to immigrants, painters, dancers, musicians, actors. Artists flock to the Mission for cheap rent, other artists, and the multicultural allure of el barrio. This is as close as one gets to Manhattan's Alphabet City, the setting of Jonathan Larsen's musical, right before the East Village "fell into the Gap." But the Mission is changing too as its residents are edged out by the creeping tide of gentrification and higher rent. For the cast members of Rent, to walk the streets of the Mission is to get into character.

October 19: The cast meets officially for the first time to get to know each other better. A question is posed -- "tell us your memories of Rent" -- and hilarity ensues. Actors, above all, are storytellers. To listen to an actor tell a story is to get eyes, hands, gestures, sighs, deep breaths, voices in many octaves. In short, a performance.

When the first keys of the piano are struck for vocalization, one immediately remembers that these fine talents are, first and foremost, accomplished singers. A quick and dirty rendition of "Seasons of Love" that starts in unison morphs instinctively, magically, into a glorious harmony of altos and mezzos and basses, as if this cast has been singing together forever. It's the first goose bump moment for this observer; many more are expected.

"Seasons of Love," the opening song of Act II, is the poem of the play, a meditation on time, and the ephemera of the infinite number of moments that make up a life. Pictures attempt to contain ephemeral moments into stillness, to freeze them and then restore them when memory fails. When all this work becomes a memory for these artists, they can take another look at these pictures and, hopefully, remember their Season of Rent with fondness.

A "Rent" of our own

2009-10-20T18:59:00.000-07:00

This blog is ostensibly a behind-the-scenes look at a new production of Rent in San Francisco by The Royal Underground Theatre Company, the little Bay Area theatre group that could. The blog is called Making Rent, but it may well be called Reimagining Rent because that's what we're about to do: create a Rent of our own. The production promises to be the first new staging in America of Jonathan Larson's exuberant ode to youth. It's daunting, for sure, to refashion this little musical that became a behemoth; but we're terribly excited about it.

Hopefully the blog will also tell the story about how a group of Rent-heads finally stopped singing "Seasons of Love" in the shower to sing it live on stage for other Rent-heads. In the next four months, you will get to meet the cast and the creative team behind the production. In pictures, and in their own write. It promises to be one hell of a journey and we hope you come along with us.