Rent rehearsal sneak peek.

I spent the evening of my birthday at the Rockwell Club to catch the special sneak peek of a Rent rehearsal. I was invited to usher for it when Peachy had texted me last week, but I had to decline because my plans for the day was pretty tentative until the day before.

I was planning to just be a mere spectator of the event, so I sat in the very end of the row of chairs while the cast was rehearsing a couple of songs. When the bloggers and press people starting coming in, Jon-Jon then distributed the press kits, and even handed one to me. Ooh, I get a press kit too? Okay, hahaha. It would be fun to blog about it, anyway.

While the cast was still rehearsing as the media people watched, Toots then asked if he could take my chair and if I could transfer and sit next to the bloggers. I willingly obliged, and asked Bek for a pen so I could scribble away.

So Robbie then gave a bit of opening remarks, a brief summary and background of Rent, then introduced the cast.

When one member of the audience asked the theater newbies about their first-time venture into the business, I actually liked what Nicole Asensio had said. Her 3 biggest challenges were commitment [of the actors], support [from the cast], and discipline, which, according to her, has a big difference between performing in theater and in bands (which was her initial forte).

Even more interesting was when Robbie talked about the casting, because most or some of you may have heard news on how casting was made. He had said that it would've been easier to cast veterans for the lead roles, but it's harder to find those at the age that the characters are in. Hence the reason he casted theater veterans in the ensemble, and somewhat fresh people as the leads. It provided opportunities for new people to come out, to be discovered, and to be trained.

Of course, one common question was "What can the audience expect from this production?" When it comes to the staging, Robbie had said that they can't veer away too much from the original, as it might not work if it was modernized. The musical was set in the 1990's, hence it can be considered a "period piece," but more elements will be added in terms of staging. Hmmm... I hope we won't be disappointed then, Rob. =)

Having mentioned that Rent is set in the 90's, there are a lot of people in the cast who never really got to experience what it was really like in the 1990's, as they were possibly still too young to remember. Robbie then mentioned that they have this sort of "immersion of 90's stuff." Fred had also added, "It doesn't have to be a memory... It can be an experience... There are other ways to get into a character... materials and stuff."

And yes, the eternal question... "Why Rent?" Haha, I've been hearing from Peachy that most of them, and yes, including Robbie, was against it from the very beginning, and they admitted it again at the sneak peek. The musical was already gasgas and over-exposed when it was first staged here. And I myself have to admit that it became even more overrated when the film version came out. But Robbie had a good answer. Maybe in our generation, we got tired of it already. But people who were too young will now be able to appreciate it.

Hmmm... interesting. My ears perked up when they had mentioned immersion. Ang masasabi ko lang, please don't just rely on the 90's stuff that's being provided. Get to know the world of the play, like Sir Dennis had told us before. Masaya ang mundo na yan. I loved the 90's, and it's fun to look back and research on. Hahaha, I dunno, I'm still trying to hype myself up "because it's Rent."

By the way, I was amused at the fact that Nicole (who will be playing Mimi) looks so much like Hilary. They could pass of as sisters, hahahaha.

Anyway.


Catch 9 Works Theatrical's production of Rent at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza on all weekends of February 2010. For tickets, call 557-5860 or Ticketworld at 891-9999.