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,