Jersey Arts Podcast · ArtPride New Jersey

'Rent' Moves into the Pioneer Productions Stage in Morristown

·31 min·2 clips

Connor McDowell says he sneaked the PG-13 movie at 13, then acted in an illegal production of Rent at 15.

1. Jersey Arts Podcast covers Pioneer Productions Company of Morristown's Rent, a musical moving into a more intimate setting at the stage at Fellowship Hall in Morristown. 2. Gina Marie Rodriguez speaks with director Shauna Levine Phelps and actors Jade De Los Santos and Connor McDowell, who are all part of Pioneer Productions' staging of Rent. 3. The episode asks how a large rock opera with a 1996 Broadway legacy can be reshaped around character, community, and a small performance space. 4. Shauna Levine Phelps says Rent is the biggest musical she has ever directed and one of the biggest Pioneer has attempted. 5. She describes working with a stage manager, music director, and choreographer in sequence because the show is "pretty much all sung and lots of dancing." 6. Shauna says she wants the production to center on "character development" and on who the characters are to each other. 7. She says Pioneer does not want to play Rent as a "big spectacle" and instead wants everyone to live inside the same world. 8. Shauna emphasizes the process note "don't anticipate," saying actors should not jump ahead to the next famous line in songs like "La Vie Boheme" and "Rent." 9. She points to the late-1980s and early-1990s AIDS crisis setting and says that about 90% of the characters have a disease that was "a death sentence" in 1996. 10. Shauna also says the production uses a thrust and a catwalk, which she believes creates an intimate audience experience. 11. Erica Stupler is introduced as the choreographer, and Shauna says this is her first solo choreographer position. 12. Shauna says Erica adapted movement because "not everybody fits" on a very small stage with a very large cast. 13. Jade De Los Santos says Erica is "incredibly warm and energetic" and starts rehearsals with warm-ups or the "beginning of La Vie Boheme." 14. Jade says the cast members are mostly adults who are tired, working full time or part time, and traveling to rehearsals. 15. Connor says Erica made him feel safe moving after two knee surgeries, which shaped his first show in about two years. 16. Connor says he plays Mark and that memorization is harder because the role requires constant talking and singing throughout the show. 17. The conversation compares stage and film versions of Rent, and Shauna says she saw the original Broadway cast in 1996 and later showed the movie to her children. 18. Jade says she grew up on the movie, saw a staged version around age 21, and now prefers the stage version partly because of the song "Halloween." 19. The tone is conversational, affectionate, and detail-heavy, with Gina pushing for process questions about rehearsal, casting, and adaptation. 20. Fans of Rent and local theater process stories will get the most from this episode, while listeners wanting a plot summary alone may skip it.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Jersey Arts Podcast