RENT (School Edition)
Location: Ojai, CA
Type: Theater
RENT School Edition: Audition Notice
RENT
A musical in 2 acts: Book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson. Based on Puccini’s La Bohème
Auditions:
When – July 20th & 21st, 3-6pm and July 22nd & 23rd 6-9pm
Where – OYES, 316 Matilija, Street, Ojai, CA. 93023
Who – All ethnicities, Ages 14 to early/mid-20s.
What – Prepare 16 bars of an upbeat authentic pop/rock/gospel song to sing without piano, or bring CD, phone, MP3 Player or Ipod. Strictly no musical theatre or country western tunes! Bring a headshot and resume. Also be prepared to fill out an audition application.
How – Call to book an audition through Kytriena Payseno 805-901-4130
Call Backs:
There will be Call Backs on Sunday, July 26th 5-7pm. Wear dance clothes, bring water and be prepared to sing some songs from the show.
Performances:
Oct 2nd-25th
Friday’s- 7pm
Saturday’s- 2:30 & 7pm
Sunday’s- 3pm
The story integrates contemporary music and dance to tell an emotional tale about a community of young artists who celebrate life while struggling to make it in New York’s East Village. Based on Puccini’s La Bohème, RENT is a modern day story of love and loyalty that utilizes pop, rock ‘n roll, R&B and Latin, to single-handedly reinvigorate Broadway. It focuses on the lives of Mark, a film-maker, whose girlfriend, Maureen, a drama queen performance-artist-turned-lesbian, leaves him for another woman, Joanne who is an attorney. Mark lives with his roommate Roger, a struggling musician who just wants to write “one great song” before he dies of AIDS. One day he meets Mimi, an S&M dancer also with AIDS, and who is addicted to heroin. They fall in love. Mark and Roger’s ex-roommate Tom Collins, a philosopher, who has just returned from M.I.T meets and falls in love with Angel, a Latino street-drummer/drag queen. They also have AIDS. Mark and Roger are continuously hounded by their ex-roommate Benny, who is now their extremely wealthy landlord begging them for the rent. It focuses on a year in their lives, and their struggles of paying the rent, eviction, death, drugs, and living one day at a time.
List of Characters:
- Mark Cohen: A struggling Jewish-American documentary filmmaker and the narrator of the show. He is Roger’s roommate (and also once Collins’, Maureen’s, and Benny’s); at the start of the show, he was recently dumped by Maureen.
- Roger Davis: A once-successful but now struggling musician and ex-lead singer and rock guitarist who is HIV positive and an ex-junkie. He hopes to write one last meaningful song before he dies. He is having a hard time coping with the fact that he, along with many others around him, knows that he is going to die. His girlfriend, April, killed herself after finding out that she was HIV positive. He is roommates with Mark.
- Mimi Márquez: A Hispanic-American club dancer and drug addict. She lives downstairs from Mark and Roger, is Roger’s love interest, and, like him, has HIV. She is also Benny’s ex-lover.
- Tom Collins: An anarchist professor with AIDS. He is described by Mark as a “computer genius, teacher, and vagabond anarchist who ran naked through the Parthenon.” Collins dreams of opening a restaurant in Santa Fe, where the problems in New York will not affect him and his friends. He was formerly a roommate of Roger, Mark, Benny, and Maureen, then just Roger and Mark, until he moves out.
- Angel Dumott Schunard: A young transgender woman and street percussionist with a generous disposition, who has AIDS; Collins’ love interest.
- Maureen Johnson: A performance artist who is Mark’s ex-girlfriend and Joanne’s current girlfriend. She is very flirtatious and cheated on Mark (presumably with Joanne). Larson considered Maureen a lesbian, despite her relationships with men, and he specifically identified her as “lesbian” in the script itself.[17]
- Joanne Jefferson: An Ivy League-educated public interest lawyer and a lesbian. Joanne is the woman for whom Maureen left Mark. Joanne has very politically powerful parents (one is undergoing confirmation to be a judge, the other is a government official).
- Benjamin “Benny” Coffin III: Landlord of Mark, Roger, and Mimi’s apartment building and ex-roommate of Mark, Collins, Roger, and Maureen. Now married to Alison Grey of the Westport Greys, a very wealthy family involved in real estate, and he is considered a yuppie scum and a sell-out by his ex-roommates. He at one time had a relationship with Mimi.
- Mrs. Cohen: Mark’s stereotypical Jewish mother.
- Alexi Darling: The producer of Buzzline, a sleazy tabloid company that tries to employ Mark after his footage of the riot makes primetime.
- Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson: The wealthy parents of Joanne Jefferson
- Mrs. Davis: Roger’s confused mother
- Mrs. Marquez: Mimi’s Spanish-speaking mother
- Mr. Grey: Benny’s father-in-law who wants to buy out the lot.
- The Man: The local drug dealer whom Mimi buys from and Roger used to buy from.
- Paul: The man in charge of the Life Support group.
- Gordon: One of the Life Support members.
- Steve: One of the Life Support members.
- Ali: One of the Life Support members
- Pam: One of the Life Support members
- Sue: One of the Life Support members. As notated in the script by Larson, the roles of all of the Life Support members are encouraged to take on the name that someone in the cast (or production) knows or has known to have succumbed to AIDS. In the final Broadway performance, Sue is renamed Lisa.
- Squeegee Man: A homeless person who chants “Honest living!” over and over during “Christmas Bells”.
- The Waiter: A waiter at Life Cafe.
- The Woman with Bags or Homeless Woman: A woman who attacks Mark for trying to help her during “On the Street”.
- The Preacher or The Pastor: The Preacher kicks Collins out of the church because he can’t pay for Angel’s funeral.
- Junkies, Leap of Faith Back-ups, Homeless, Bohemians and Vendors
Produced by: Krista Kim
Directed by: Kytriena Payseno
Musical Director: David Gorospe
Choreographed by: Kytriena Payseno and Krista Kim
Payment: Non Paid
City or Location of call: Ojai, CA
Please submit to: kat@ojaiyes.org by 2015-07-18
This casting notice was posted by: Ojai Youth Entertainers Studio
