Interview La vie des enfants: the children's version of Rent

Near the end of its 12-year run on Broadway, Rent had lost a significant amount of the initial punch of its incendiary tale of young, bohemian lovers and artists—set against a backdrop of New York’s East Village riddled with drugs, disease, and destitution—despite the issues remaining relevant. But the still-contemporary work remains fresh for the uninitiated and offers a deeply layered narrative that can be difficult to fully digest for many. That isn’t stopping Broadway Kidz Wisconzin from tackling the production—with a cast ranging from 14 to 19 years old. The A.V. Club talked with BKW director Michael Stanek and executive director Barb Davis about the challenges they and their able cast of kids faced in bringing Rent to the Overture Center’s Playhouse Theatre (Aug. 5-8), and got a chance to speak with some of the main characters.

The A.V. Club: This is heavy material dealing with profound emotions. Do you think high school students have the experience to relate to it?

Michael Stanek: One of the reasons I picked [Rent] is because so many kids are already doing shows at their schools and community theaters, but they’re not doing shows like this, that is, like you’re saying, so profound and heavy in material. MTI, the company that licenses the show, has junior versions that you can do. They have a Rent: School Edition and a lot of the typical shows that kids want to do, and then they clean it up. I already knew that they had that so it wasn’t like I was going to have to deal with a show that had not ever been cleaned up before. Basically, as far as cleaning it up, we’ve cleaned up the language and the one orgy kind-of scene. I used the school edition as a reference for setting the show. I didn’t want to take out everything; I took out all the f-bombs and the goddamns, but as far as shit, we say shit and we say ass because those are things they hear.

Otherwise I look at it and it’s just a really beautiful story. It’s about love; men loving men, women loving women, and heterosexual couples. I think death is the hardest thing for them to relate to, but then also the idea of these bohemian artists trying to survive in New York City and do what they want to do, choosing that lifestyle because they love it so much versus doing the traditional.

AVC: Last year in California, the Westboro Baptist Church protested a high school production of Rent. Have you had any objections so far or does being separate from a school help you circumvent those issues?

MS: That does help, not being associated with schools. But also we’ve had a lot of support. The negative that we get is typical with any show where you have show parents and stage moms and dads.

Barb Davis: I agree. I think it’s because we’re not affiliated with the schools and we can step outside that box.

AVC: Do you think that helps to draw kids to your program?

BD: Definitely. We have kids from all over.

AVC: Did you have this in mind when you started your company?

MS: At the time we started the company I was working more with adults, but I wanted to get back to working with kids and trying to make a difference. First, to do shows and get them involved and secondly, to do shows like Godspell and Rent and things that are not just fluff, that deal with real issues.

BD: Before offering a role to someone, we said, “Are you going to be uncomfortable kissing another boy?” And they’ve been great, no awkwardness at all.

MS: I feel like they come in and they get that we’re here to put on this show and to work. They really have a professional attitude.

AVC: Do you think the more professional environment contributes to that?

MS: Absolutely. From the first time they meet us until we start rehearsals, they get that it’s going to be a higher level and that they’ll have to step up. We don’t spoon-feed them.

BD: [Stanek] has really high expectations for the kids and they love that.

MS: But they’re not used to that at first. We have to have our moment where we have our “Come to Jesus” meeting, where we sit down and we’re like, “Okay, guys. We’re doing a show here. Expectations are here and we’re not there; we’re not even close.” But once I had it, it changed and then what happens is that they start to see the work. And then they get that it’s good and they are all on board.

BD: They support each other and love each other and they work so hard to be the best that they can be.

MS: They bond so quickly, almost to a point where it gets disruptive in rehearsal because they’re chit-chatty. I’m sitting there trying to block a scene and they’re like, “Are we going to eat later?” and I’m like, “We are not talking about dinner right now when we’re blocking the death scene.”

AVC: You two seem very familiar with the material. Has it taken on any new meaning through working with children?

BD: Did you just watch it once?

AVC: Yeah, just once.

BD: The next time you watch it you’re going to get more out of it, as did we. We learn something new every time we watch and we encouraged the kids to also read it or watch it to understand the material and their role.

MS: I told the kids from the beginning that in our production of Rent, we’re going to try to tell this beautiful story and make it as clear as possible for anyone who’s never seen it. What [the kids] know so well about this material is the music because they love it. But I’m not even sure that they always are aware of what the underlying meaning of these songs are.

AVC: It seems like there’s a lot of virtue in the production that probably gets lost on some people because they focus too much on some of the more incendiary qualities.

MS: Which is why people protest.

AVC: Do you think some of that can be softened through a children’s production?

MS: Definitely. It’s been such a short rehearsal process that it’s been so much of throwing the material and the blocking at them, and now we have to take the time to fine-tune the moments and tell the story. And they get disappointed because sometimes they want to be crass and raunchy, because it’s fun. They get it now that we don’t have to throw things in people’s faces to get the point of the story across.

Cast discussion

AVC: A production like this involves a lot of acting, singing, and choreography. Are there areas you excel in and others you don’t necessarily?

Bridgette Well (age 19, Maureen): I’m not in many of the huge group dance numbers, but a lot of things for my character are out there and fun. So I get to come in and make crazy choices and do whatever I think is fitting. It’s fun to have a part where you can be creative.

AVC: Like the protest performance?

BW: I kind of came up with all the little quirks and things I wanted to do and then [Stanek] tweaked some things and told me which choices worked. Mostly I just came in and did it.

Danny Well (age 17, Mark): A big thing is that I'm used to directors giving you the emotions you want to portray, where as [Stanek] is more of an open director. He always says he’s there to guide you but you’re the one who’s supposed to make the choices. I really like that.

Jared Norton (age 18, Roger): Singing is definitely the easiest for me, and the acting part of it is more rewarding when you finally understand your character well enough that you can make choices as your character. It’s really a cool feeling, but that’s more difficult to achieve than just singing a song.

Dylan Callas (age 17, Benjamin Coffin III): I’d say I’m most familiar with singing, acting I can do if I have to but I’m not that good at it, and dancing I completely suck at.

Kaleigh Prange (age 18, Mimi): I’ve been in things like this since I was really little, but the acting aspect of things may not be my forté,

AVC: Has working with this material been a big adjustment?

KP: I was familiar with the show but I had never done it before. I had never had to do something that’s pretty deep or this heavy.

DC: I’ve never had such a short timeline. I’ve always had at least three months, and this was barely a month and a half. I’ve never had to do anything this fast or this far away. I’ve always done stuff at my high school [in Clinton].

Luke Landgraf (age 17, Tom Collins): This show has definitely been a challenge for me, but I’ve really enjoyed it so far.

KP: It’s fun to do things that are adult.

DC: Things that we normally get in trouble for at home, like language, we can openly say this and express ourselves.

AVC: So the advantage to this it that you can do things you can’t do in high school.

DC: In high school you probably have to go through your school board and you’re limited in what you can do. In my high school there’s absolutely no swearing whatsoever, no lewd gestures. It’s all G-rated basically.

BW: It’s just a really meaningful show and it’s so different from pretty much any other musical, because a lot of traditional musicals are kind of campy, whereas Rent is much more in-your-face and realistic. It’s very deep and immersed in people’s lives which I think is so important and special. It’s such a beautifully written piece and even the speaking lines are written in the rhythm that you would speak if it’s underscored with music.

KP: It kind of consumes your life while you’re in it. We all talk about it all the time. This is going to sound super-dumb, but our Facebook statuses are like, “Rent, Rent, Rent, Rent.”