Rent Pre
Jasmine Henry
25 October 2012
THEA 101
Perticone
RENT Performance Response
The lobby display was designed to look like the streets of New York. There were girls dressed like prostitutes, a girl was portrayed as a homeless person living inside of a box and a brick wall-like bulletin boards giving dramaturgical information. The information included the production history like how RENT had its first staged reading at New York Theatre Workshop in 1993. The show opened in January 1996. This particular board also showed critiques from theatre critics like Ben Brantley and reviewers. Another board was about Jonathan Larson’s life and others explained what AIDS is, excerpts from an interview with Larson and information about the director of the school production, Courtney Self and her beliefs on the End of the World. There was also old looking, dinged out papers or posters saying things like “Eviction Notice.” The lobby display introduced the world of RENT by recreating the streets of New York with skanky dressed women, homeless people, trash and the posters showing eviction notices. During the “Light My Candle” scene, Mimi, a young, seductive, Hispanic woman knocked on Roger’s door to ask him to light her candle because she was out of matches and her lights went out. He lit it once but she sneakily blew nit out so that she could stay there longer and continue to talk to him, Her objective was to get Roger’s attention and interested in her. Her tactic was to continuously blow out her candle so that she could stay longer. She also used her sex appeal to keep Roger mesmerized, like when she bent over to look for her stash for example. Mimi’s obstacle was Roger’s thoughts and memories of his deceased girlfriend Allison. He kept saying how Mimi reminded him of her. This held him back because he didn’t want to live in the past but he was also hesitant to move on. I interpret Mimi’s strategy as being sexy and consistent. She was consistent with blowing out her candle
25 October 2012
THEA 101
Perticone
RENT Performance Response
The lobby display was designed to look like the streets of New York. There were girls dressed like prostitutes, a girl was portrayed as a homeless person living inside of a box and a brick wall-like bulletin boards giving dramaturgical information. The information included the production history like how RENT had its first staged reading at New York Theatre Workshop in 1993. The show opened in January 1996. This particular board also showed critiques from theatre critics like Ben Brantley and reviewers. Another board was about Jonathan Larson’s life and others explained what AIDS is, excerpts from an interview with Larson and information about the director of the school production, Courtney Self and her beliefs on the End of the World. There was also old looking, dinged out papers or posters saying things like “Eviction Notice.” The lobby display introduced the world of RENT by recreating the streets of New York with skanky dressed women, homeless people, trash and the posters showing eviction notices. During the “Light My Candle” scene, Mimi, a young, seductive, Hispanic woman knocked on Roger’s door to ask him to light her candle because she was out of matches and her lights went out. He lit it once but she sneakily blew nit out so that she could stay there longer and continue to talk to him, Her objective was to get Roger’s attention and interested in her. Her tactic was to continuously blow out her candle so that she could stay longer. She also used her sex appeal to keep Roger mesmerized, like when she bent over to look for her stash for example. Mimi’s obstacle was Roger’s thoughts and memories of his deceased girlfriend Allison. He kept saying how Mimi reminded him of her. This held him back because he didn’t want to live in the past but he was also hesitant to move on. I interpret Mimi’s strategy as being sexy and consistent. She was consistent with blowing out her candle