Dartmouth Department of Theater: RENT
Performance
Department of Theater

Rent

book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson
February 18 - 27, 2022

This event occurred as part of the 21/22 Theater Department season. This is an archived view.

The groundbreaking and iconic Pulitzer Prize-winning musical that shaped a generation—and taught us all to measure our life in love.

21/22 Theater Department

Book, music, and lyrics by Jonathan Larson
Musical arrangements by Steve Skinner
Original concept/additional lyrics by Billy Aronson
Musical supervision and additional arrangements by Tim Weil
Dramaturg Lynn Thompson

First seen at Dartmouth as part of New York Theatre Workshop's annual summer residency! Based loosely on Puccini's La Bohème, Jonathan Larson's Rent follows a year in the life of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York's Lower East Side, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. An exuberant, passionate and joyous story about falling in love, finding your voice, and living for today. 

Carol Dunne, director
Kevin Smith, musical director
Keith Coughlin, choreographer
Michael Ganio, scenic designer
Laurie Churba, costume designer
Dan Kotlowitz, lighting & projections designer
Brendan F. Doyle, sound designer
 
Originally produced in New York by New York Theatre Workshop and on Broadway by Jeffrey Seller, Kevin McCollom, Allan S. Gordon and New York Theatre Workshop.

The February 25th performance will have open captioning.

This performance contains discussion of suicide and drug use.

Presented by special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials also supplied by MTI.

Laurie Churba (costume designer) has worked extensively in New York City and throughout the regional theater circuit as a costume designer in theater, television and film for over 25 years. She was on the design team at Saturday Night Live for 11 seasons, where she designed costumes for live skits, commercial parodies, short films and celebrity photo shoots. She has also designed various independent films. Broadway credits: The Price. Regional theaters worked: Mark Taper Forum, Huntington Theater, Old Globe, Williamstown Theater Festival, Berkshire Theater Festival, Arena Stage, Syracuse Stage, Geva Theater, Westport Country Playhouse, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Goodspeed Opera House, Northern Stage. Churba teaches costume design and contemporary theater practice at Dartmouth. lauriechurba.com

Keith Coughlin (choreographer) has worked as a performer, director, choreographer and master class teacher across the country. A member of the Dartmouth Department of Theater faculty, he has been involved in numerous department theatrical productions (Into the Woods, Cabaret, Urinetown, Chicago, Spring Awakening and Hairspray). He also serves as the Executive Artistic Director of the New London Barn Playhouse. Under his direction, the Playhouse has won critical acclaim with multiple "Best Professional Production of a Musical" awards from the New Hampshire Theatre Alliance (NHTA). Individually, he is a five-time NHTA winner for "Best Choreography." Special thanks to my family and friends for their unending support. Sarah, Samuel, Oliver and Luna, I couldn't do it without you.

Brendan F. Doyle (sound designer) is a sound designer, engineer, and artisan working primarily in live performance applications: theatrical sound design, live music, and bespoke audio objects. He holds a MSc in Sound Design from the University of Edinburgh, and a BFA in Theatre Design and Technology from Emerson College. His work has been heard in theatres, concert halls, bars, basements, and other venues around New England and Scotland. He is a proud member of IATSE Local USA 829.

Carol Dunne (director) is a senior lecturer of theater at Dartmouth and the producing artistic director of Northern Stage, a professional theater in White River Junction, Vermont. At Dartmouth, Dunne has directed Cabaret, Chicago, Hairspray, Angels in America, Eurydice, Hair and The Rocky Horror Show. In 2010, she was awarded Dartmouth's Distinguished Lecturer Award. She runs the Northern Stage/Dartmouth Experiential Term, which was launched in 2013 to give Dartmouth theater students a professional residency with Northern Stage. Since then, 25 students have taken part, with 15 becoming either full or part time company members of the theater after graduating. Dunne received the Helen Gurley Brown Genius Award in 2017 and is the director of the BOLD Theater Women's Leadership Circle, a $1.75 million annual program to propel women to artistic leadership in the theater. She was recently honored as one of three finalists for the Zelda Fichandler Award. She holds a BA from Princeton and an MFA in Acting from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She teaches Acting I, II, and Acting for Musical Theater.

Michael Ganio (scenic designer) serves on the faculty at Dartmouth while maintaining a professional career in the American theater. He is currently involved in the design of the new outdoor Courtyard Theater at Northern Stage in White River Junction, Vermont. For that company he recently designed A Midsummer's Night Dream, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare and Million Dollar Quartet. Pre-pandemic he designed Only Yesterday for Northern Stage at 59E59 Street Theatre in New York City, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur for American Players Theatre, Hamlet for the Clarence Brown Theatre/Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, and Oslo for The Repertory Theatre of Saint Louis. His work has been seen nationally at Milwaukee Repertory, The Denver Center, The Center Theatre Group, Chicago Opera Theatre and Portland Opera, among other American performing arts companies. A member of the United Scenic Artists Union Local 829, his work can be seen at MichaelGanio.com.

Dan Kotlowitz (lighting and projection designer) is the Leon E. Williams Professor and Chair of Theater. He was also the Chair from 2011-2013 and Director About the Creative Team of Theater from 2003-2011, and has been a Melville Strauss and Petit Family Fellow. In 2008 he was awarded the John M. Manley Huntington Memorial Award for outstanding teaching and research. He has designed lights for over 250 professional productions in New York and at regional theaters across the country, most recently The Importance of Being Earnest at the Berkshire Theatre Group, and Only Yesterday in New York. He also designed the projections for Esai's Table for JAG Productions and the Cherry Lane in New York (Cherry Lane production was shut down due to COVID). He is currently designing Spamalot for Northern Stage and Dracula for the Berkshire Theatre Group. His design work for performance artist Diamanda Galas has been seen nationally and internationally. At Dartmouth, he teaches Lighting Design, Composition and Design, and Creativity and Collaboration. He is the very proud father of Dylan and Izzy.

Kevin A. Smith (Musical Director) is native of Omaha, Nebraska and holds degrees from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Southern Illinois University. Musical Supervisor at McLeod Summer Playhouse, Carbondale, Illinois. New York City credits include: Romeo & Bernadette (Amas); A Little Night Music (Theater 2020); Next to Normal (Three Act Theater). National Tours: Miss Nelson is Missing, Miss Nelson Had a Field Day, Stinky Cheese Man, The Little Engine That Could. Regional credits: The Sound of Music, Mamma Mia (Northern Stage); Gypsy, The Drowsy Chaperone, 9 to 5, Into the Woods, Sister Act, Singin' in the Rain, Bring It On, Hairspray, Spamalot, The Sound of Music, Chicago, Annie (McLeod Summer Playhouse). At Dartmouth College: Into the Woods, Cabaret, Urinetown. At Columbia University: Ragtime.

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