(Albany, NY): The Theatre Program of the University at Albany’s Department of Music and Theatre is pleased to present Rent, Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer and Tony award-winning landmark rock musical. Five public performances will take place at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center on the uptown University at Albany campus from March 2 to 5, 2023. The schedule includes performances on Thursday, March 2 at 8pm; Friday, March 3 at 3pm; Saturday, March 4 at 2pm & 8pm; and Sunday, March 5 at 2pm. 

For a quarter of a century, Rent has inspired audiences to choose love over fear and to live without regret. The storyline follows a year in the lives of a diverse group of artists and friends struggling to follow their dreams without selling out. Rent received its world premiere off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop on February 13, 1996 to ecstatic reviews and then transferred to Broadway on April 29, 1996. Tours of the show have crisscrossed the country continuously since 1996 when it won the Tony Award for Best Musical as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Rent has been translated into every major language and has been performed in 27 countries across six continents.

Directed by guest artist Chuck Kraus in his first ever production at UAlbany, the student cast features a group of eight principal performers plus an ensemble of sixteen.  Kraus is the Managing Director at Playhouse Stage Company (formerly Park Playhouse) where he has directed productions of Always… Patsy Cline, Godspell, Little Shop of Horrors and Urinetown.

“Pain, struggle, heartache, sickness, loss will happen to all of us. That these traumas happen to us is not unique. What has the chance to be unique is how we decide to respond,” explains Kraus.  “Rent is about the response. It is about the small acts of defiance. In a world that so often feels off the rails, the act of creation is in and of itself revolutionary.”

Musical direction for the UAlbany production is by Michael Lister with choreography by AshleySimone Kirchner, both of whom are on the faculty of UAlbany’s Department of Music and Theatre. Kirchner is also Associate Artistic Director at Playhouse Stage Company.

“Rent is an iconic piece of theater,” claims Lister. “Its relevance is timeless, and the theme of family - both the ones in which we are born and the ones we create for ourselves - is a theme that still resonates today.”

“It is a story about demanding freedom,” explains Kircher, “about celebrating one's true self and their art. About creation and living life to the fullest despite your circumstances.”

Advance tickets are $20 for the general public and $17 for students, senior citizens and UAlbany faculty-staff.  Tickets purchased on the day of the show are $25 for the general public and $22 for students, seniors and UAlbany faculty-staff.  All tickets must be purchased on-line from the UAlbany Performing Arts Center’s site at www.albany.edu/pac.  Information and assistance can be obtained by contacting the UAlbany Performing Arts Center’s main office at (518) 442-3995 or [email protected].