Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre continues its 50th anniversary season on June 30 with RENT—the groundbreaking 1996 musical about falling in love, finding your voice, and living for today. The show runs Thursdays-Sundays and select Wednesdays at 8:30pm from June 30-July 23. Tickets are $22 and are available at summergarden.com.
Exuberant, passionate, and joyous, RENT is a pop culture phenomenon. With a book, music, and lyrics by the late Jonathan Larson, RENT won the Tony Award for Best Musical and Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and is one of Broadway’s longest-running shows. Based loosely on Puccini’s La Boheme and set in the East Village of New York City, RENT follows a year in the life of a group of impoverished young artists. Struggling to survive and create under the shadows of addiction and HIV/AIDS, these young bohemians negotiate their dreams and conflicts through rocking songs and a gripping story.
Returning to direct RENT is Andy Scott, director of ASGT’s 2015 production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Andy is a graduate of Greensboro College with a BA in Theatre Directing. Favorite directing credits include The Mousetrap (Johns Hopkins University), Are You Ready to Get PAMPERED!? (Dixon Place), The Brothers Savage (Manhattan Repertory Theater), Carve (Greensboro College Mainstage), Pieces of Fire and Miss Julie (Greensboro College Lab), and projects with the Powerhouse Apprentice Company and the National Theater Institute. Andy received a departmental award (Best Direction) and a SDC Student Directing nomination from the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival. He has been an assistant director at Triad Stage and Powerhouse Theater, and worked with the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Roundhouse Theatre, and the North Carolina Theatre Conference, among others.
Andy says, “I am humbled and excited to be warmly welcomed back to ASGT this year. I love how the ASGT Board encourages collaboration among the artists, and how open they are to unconventional ideas. RENT turns twenty in 2016, but still embraces challenges of today and tomorrow. It is exuberant in its style, tragic in its humanity, and uplifting by message. Directing this work at ASGT will bring unique challenges that I’m thrilled to tackle.”
RENT is rated R and contains mature thematic material including drugs, sexuality, and some language. Parental discretion is advised. For tickets and more information, visit the brand new summergarden.com powered by Liquified Creative, or call 410/268-9212.
ASGT is an outdoor community theatre presenting musical theatre (featuring live music) in a unique, outdoor setting in historic Annapolis. New volunteers are always welcome. To get involved, visit summergarden.com or e-mail [email protected].
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