HEDWIG RETURNS
MARCH 14 - 16 ONLY!
A HISTORIC RETURN TO THE NEW M&T BANK EXCHANGE AT THE FRANCE-MERRICK PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
HOME OF THE HISTORIC HIPPODROME.
The cast of RENT featuring Jeremy Allen Crawford (Mark) and Carter Crosby (Roger), along with Artistic Director Sean Elias, join CBS News WJZ Baltimore in the studio to discuss the critically acclaimed and award-winning production on stage now at Iron Crow Theatre.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILSON FREEMAN
This groundbreaking Obie-winning Off-Broadway smash that took Broadway by storm in its Tony Award®–winning 2014 revival also won multiple awards for its hit film adaptation. It tells the story of “internationally ignored song stylist” Hedwig Schmidt, a fourth-wall smashing East German rock ‘n’ roll goddess who also happens to be the victim of a botched sex-change operation, which has left her with just “an angry inch.”
This outrageous and unexpectedly hilarious story is dazzlingly performed by Hedwig (née Hansel) in the form of a rock gig/stand-up comedy routine backed by the hard-rocking band “The Angry Inch.” Using songs and monologues, Hedwig tells her story, which began in the former East Berlin where as Hansel he meets Luther, an American GI who promises to take the young man to the States on the condition that he change his gender. After the bungled operation, Luther abandons the newly named Hedwig in a Kansas trailer park, where she turns to music and meets geeky Tommy Speck, whom she takes under her wing and soon falls for. Tommy steals her songs, achieves rock star fame, and Hedwig is once again cast aside. She decides to demand redress and stalks Tommy’s world tour, performing in the T.G.I. Fridays that are situated next door to his stadiums.
Hedwig describes her life’s search for “The Origin of Love” and her other half. It’s a rocking ride, funny, touching, and ultimately inspiring to anyone who has felt life gave them an inch when they deserved a mile.
“Shamelessly enjoyable! Electrically tuneful and furiously funny. An unqualified pleasure."
— The New York Times
“Best rock musical ever!”
— Rolling Stone
“Trask’s songs have everything: melody, swagger, piano, wit, electric guitar, harmony, fun, and angst.”
— The New Yorker
“…reinvigorate[d] with welcome bursts of theatricality…make it, again, feel genuinely fresh.”
— MD Theatre Guide
“A thrilling, stunningly realized,
fully inhabited production. Baltimore small theatre at its best!”
— WYPR
“Skillful direction…Revitalized…This production has moments that you simply should not miss.”
— DC Theatre Arts
“…an overwhelming swirl of light, action, sound, and emotion, it should be a discordant cacophony, but instead it’s gorgeous chaos.”
— BroadwayWorld Baltimore
“…purchase tickets to see this wonderful theatrical production that will make you laugh, cry and reflect. Do it today!”
— TheatreBloom
CAST
HEDWIG/TOMMY GNOSIS
LEONID GRINBERG*
YITZHAK & HEDWIG U/S
CANTER IRENE O’MAY*+
+ denotes Iron Crow Theatre Resident Artist
* denotes Member, Actors’ Equity Association. The professional union for actors and stage managers in the United States.
-
Jack is excited to be making his Iron Crow Theatre debut! Jack is an actor and director currently based in his hometown in the suburban Baltimore area. Jack has spent the past few years in Philadelphia where some recent credits include: Desmond Channing (Diva! Live From Hell), Philly Fringe Festival 2024; Chaim (Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story), Curio Theatre Company; Wilbur u/s (Charlotte’s Web), Arden Theatre Company. Jack is also the co-founder of OJ Productions, a Philadelphia-based theatre company where he directed their productions of Romeo and Juliet and Little Women. When not acting you can find Jack serving eggs and coffee by day and serving looks by night. Up next: Brad Majors in The Rocky Horror Show with Iron Crow Theatre. Many thanks and love to his family and close friends who are his biggest supporters. Follow for more! @jcktylor_ and www.jcktylor.com
YITZHAK U/S
CERA BAKER
CREATIVE TEAM
TEXT BY
JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL
HE / HIM
MUSIC DIRECTOR
MICHELLE HENNING
SHE / HER
MUSIC BY
STEPHEN TRASK
HE / HIM
DIRECTOR
SEAN ELIAS*+
HE / HIM
STAGE MANAGER
RIVER HANSEN+
THEY / THEM
ASST. STAGE MANAGER
JACK TAYLOR
HE / HIM
LIGHTING DESIGN
THOMAS P. GARDNER+
HE / HIM
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
BRUCE KAPPLIN+
HE / HIM
PROJECTION DESIGN
SOUND DESIGN & ENGINEER
ZACH SEXTON
HE / HIM
+ denotes Iron Crow Theatre Resident Artist
* denotes Member, Actors’ Equity Association. The professional union for actors and stage managers in the United States.
ASST. DIRECTOR
ALLISON BRADBURY+
SHE / HER
COSTUME DESIGN
TIFFANY ZELLNER
SHE / HER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILSON FREEMAN
Welcome to the Season of the Unorthodox! We are so excited to welcome you back to the theatre for our most daring season yet, and what other show to start with than the musical that dared to defy American musical theatre itself, RENT! What always struck me about RENT was the true depths of despair in which these characters are living - both emotionally and physically.
Today, RENT carries a sense of deep history, nostalgia, and sometimes rigid expectations. Most revivals largely adhere to the musical’s original Broadway staging from 1996. For me, these staging conventions often overshadow the musical’s intent to exist as a form of agitational propaganda. RENT was created as a vehicle to highlight the socio-political upheaval of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the devastation of the early days of the AIDS epidemic, and to serve as a warning of what happens when we lose sight of our shared humanity. It also serves as a testament to the ways that love and living in community can defy great odds.
It was important for me to re-envision this piece in a way that would allow what gets lost in the production’s “baggage” to be experienced anew. What emerged was a staging and theatrical language that resists the allure of nostalgia, and urges our audiences to confront uncomfortable truths while inspiring us all to be agents of change in our own communities.
Without you, our audience and supporters, Iron Crow Theatre, could not exist. Thank you for supporting queer theatre and small professional theatre here in Baltimore. I promise you that it means so much to so many here in Maryland and across the country: those we love and those we’ve lost.
Warmly,
Sean Elias, M.A., B.F.A.
Director, RENT
Artistic Director, Iron Crow Theatre
“What emerged was a staging and theatrical language that resists the allure of nostalgia, and urges our audiences to confront uncomfortable truths while inspiring us all to be agents of change in our own communities.”
— SEAN ELIAS
Director, RENT
RUN TIME:
Approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.
CONTENT:
This production includes sexual themes, irreverent humor, simulated violence and intercourse, discussions of gender identity, explicit language, and references to trauma, disease, and death. The production design features loud sound effects, haze, props that create sounds similar to gunshots, and bright, strobing, and reflective lighting effects. Viewer discretion is advised.
M&T BANK EXCHANGE AT THE
FRANCE-MERRICK PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
401 W FAYETTE ST.
BALTIMORE, MD 21201
SUNDAY, JANUARY 21
Iron Crow Theatre is honored to partner with Free State Justice, Maryland’s leading state-based non-profit, working to improve the lives of Maryland’s LGBTQ+ communities through free legal services, legislative advocacy, and education and outreach programs. Join us during pre-show for a special conversation on decriminalizing HIV with special guest Delegate Kris Fair in partnership with FreeState Justice.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 26
This date marks the 28th anniversary of the first performance of RENT at New York Theatre Workshop which is also the day after Jonathan Larson tragically passed away. Join us for a Seasons of Love Sing-Along after the show to honor Jonathan Larson’s legacy. Lyrics provided.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4
This date marks what would have been Jonathan Larson’s 64th birthday. Join us pre-show for a special Happy Birthday Sing-Along for Jonathan and after the show for one final Seasons of Love Sing-Along to honor Jonathan Larson’s legacy and the closing night of RENT. Lyrics provided.
THE NATIONAL AIDS MEMORIAL
Iron Crow Theatre is honored to have received special permission to display a block of the National AIDS Quilt in our lobby and to be a supporter of the National AIDS Memorial’s efforts to bring the Quilt to communities across the United States to raise greater awareness and education about HIV/AIDS and to remember those lost to the AIDS pandemic.
WHOSE STREETS? OUR STREETS!”: NYC 1980 - 2000
New York City streets were turbulent and often violent as residents responded to the AIDS epidemic and social changes in their city, as well as to national and international developments. What began as part of our production’s dramaturgical research has now been brought to life in the Baltimore Theatre Project’s gallery through a partnership with the Rochester Institute of Technology. 37 photographers documented ordinary New Yorkers as they rallied, marched, and demonstrated. The exhibition was curated by Tamar W. Carroll, Meg Handler, Mike Kamber, and Josh Meltzer.
