Commenting on a summer teen theater workshop production is akin to writing about high school plays. Friends and family constitute
95 percent of the audience, and extended applause between songs and standing ovations afterwards are a given.
So rather than offer critical commentary on the Park Tudor Summer Stock Stage production of “Rent,” I prefer to applaud the workshop’s organizers in their gutsy choices. In past years, productions included challenging work, including “Titanic” and “Urinetown,” along with more audience-happy fare such as “Beauty and the Beast.”
Beyond their appeal to its pre-sold audiences, such teen productions are also a good place for casting people to scout potentially hirable young talent. To those who missed “Rent,” I’d suggest keeping an eye on Cory McConville, who offered a soulful, well-sung Roger, and Anita Rogers, a stunner with a sweet voice, who owned the stage as Mimi (even if she didn’t seem terribly sick in the end).
Your thoughts?
So rather than offer critical commentary on the Park Tudor Summer Stock Stage production of “Rent,” I prefer to applaud the workshop’s organizers in their gutsy choices. In past years, productions included challenging work, including “Titanic” and “Urinetown,” along with more audience-happy fare such as “Beauty and the Beast.”
Beyond their appeal to its pre-sold audiences, such teen productions are also a good place for casting people to scout potentially hirable young talent. To those who missed “Rent,” I’d suggest keeping an eye on Cory McConville, who offered a soulful, well-sung Roger, and Anita Rogers, a stunner with a sweet voice, who owned the stage as Mimi (even if she didn’t seem terribly sick in the end).
Your thoughts?
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Anyway, I'm glad you wrote about the PT Summer Stock Stage's production of Rent because more than one friend of mine worked on it and I was sad to have to miss it. Reading about it is the next best thing.
What I would LOVE is if a bunch of theatre-fan teens in the Indianapolis area got together and started their own blog or forum or something on which they wrote about each other's high school shows in a thoughtful, specific, public (ie, courteous) way.
Hope Baugh
Indy Theatre Habit
According to MTI, which licenses the show;
This adaptation has been carefully done, working with the Larson estate to retain the dramatic intent of the groundbreaking rock musical, and consists of minimal changes to language and the removal of one song (CONTACT) to make it possible for many schools to perform this piece.