'Rent' cast looks forward to answering questions

Published: Monday, December 1, 1997

Monday, December 1, 1997

FORUM: Actors will be on campus to respond to students' interrogations

By Cheryl Klein

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

After months of creating spiritual and vocal harmony in the season's biggest sung-through musical, the cast of "Rent" is finally going to talk.

Not that they haven't been doing just that on television and in the papers, but this time they're right on campus - at Ackerman Grand Ballroom, on Wednesday at noon, courtesy of Campus Events. And they're ready to answer the questions every Bohemian groupie has been dying to ask.

"I think a lot of people are going to be curious about how Angel walks around in those pumps every night," speculates ensemble member Brent Davin Vance. He is referring, of course, to "Rent's" most publicized character, the sassy-but-sweet drag queen who plays the drums, sews his own outfits and battles AIDS.

It is this mix of playful defiance and social consciousness that has made the show a hit with young people around the country. Teen-agers and twentysomethings camp out for rush tickets regularly, creating a bond between the cast and crowd that is found in few other productions.

"We're all around the same age, the cast and especially the quote unquote 'groupies,'" Vance says. This positions members of Wednesday's forum as experts on the subject of getting a start in show business.

"I'm hoping to get some really interesting questions that would have mattered to me when I was in college," says Kenna Ramsey, who plays Joanne, a lawyer who puts her career on hold to be a stage manager for her diva girlfriend, Maureen. "I was in an arts program. I would have really appreciated to know what it's like to be a working performer," she added.

Since "Rent" chronicles the lives of a handful of struggling artists in New York's East Village, the lives of cast and characters often run eerily parallel. Though Ramsey says she's lucky to have never worked outside the performing arts, she admits that "I could totally be working at a record store in a year."

Such is the easy-come, easy-go nature of the profession. Writer Jonathan Larson worked at a local restaurant for years before gaining a foothold as a composer and finally turning in his apron when "Rent" took the stage. Yet his sudden death just before opening night serves as a continuous reminder of life's fragility and the "no day but today" credo that echoes across "Rent's" eclectically decorated stage.

Though some critics have dismissed the show as unpolished, Vance says, "People have to realize when they watch 'Rent,' what the beauty is, is that 'Rent' has been solidified as a work in progress."

With input from actors and musicians across the nation, several casts have now left an indelible mark on the show, each performer interpreting his or her character differently, thanks to the freedom director Michael Grief encourages on stage.

Julia Santana plays Mimi, a 19-year-old AIDS-infected heroin addict and exotic dancer who endears herself to the audience with her passionate attitude and throaty voice. Though Santana's Mimi has been compared to Daphne Ruben-Vega's Mimi on Broadway, Santana says that any similarities are coincidental, or at least cultural.

"She's Latin and all the other Mimis, I think, are African American or part this, part that," says Santana, who never saw Ruben-Vega perform. "I think culturally that's just natural for Latin people to react a particular way to certain situations. (For example), the way Mimi deals with things emotionally."

Santana keeps in mind the community she's answering to. "When I do interviews, I try to do interviews that are geared toward Latin communities and encourage them to come and see theater ... There's not that much theater there for Latin people," Santana says. "How many times can you go see 'West Side Story,' you know?"

Community outreach, in addition to a multi-cultural world view, seems to have become a battle cry for "Rent," a show which features a poignant scene at an AIDS support group meeting and toasts "anyone out of the mainstream."

In addition to several organized, all-cast benefit appearances, many members of the ensemble do charity work on their own time. It may be encouraging to the show's young fans to know that "Rent's" political awareness continues offstage and, if the cast has anything to say about it, into the future.

"In 30 years, I hope how we feel about life now doesn't change, so when we do get to be in the position of president or governor or those kinds of policy-making positions, we don't lose the heart we have now," Vance says. "I think it's the whole thing with society telling us what's right and what's wrong and eventually we get so tired of it we succumb and become these zombies. We become Stepford citizens and do what our parents did."

"Rent," however, is certainly not your parents' rock opera. Though repeatedly compared to the 1968 psychedelic songfest that was "Hair," many of "Rent's" prevailing themes are fairly basic, timeless and placeless.

"I'm from Northern Virginia," Ramsey says. "I didn't grow up in a place so much like the Village, but the friendships are definitely reflective of my life."

Vance is a native of Detroit, but lost two friends to AIDS within the past few months, making the HIV-positive status of the four principle characters all the more real. And while Santana did grow up in New York City, witnessing her share of struggle, she also points out that taking the initiative is often the first step to an improved quality of life.

"I know what it's like to hang out in the East Village and see 17-year-olds begging for money, standing in front of a store that has a 'help wanted sign,'" Santana says. "You want help? Go in there and apply for a job."

While "Rent" takes on its share of weighty social issues (AIDS, art, homelessness, sexual orientation and capitalism, to name a few), its brightly colored funkiness says just as much about the times it documents. And the score is stacked with witty allusions, eye-catching dance numbers and reminders of just how crazy the cast can get on stage.

"We have fun. It's not even work. We go in and play for two and a half hours a night," Vance says. Off stage, the cast travels in packs, absorbing as much of Los Angeles as they can before the show's January closing date. And, in addition to the plethora of admirable community contributions, they're not about to "pooh-pooh" a little mindless fun. After all, Vance says of the cast's field trips of choice, "We've been to almost every mall there is."

FORUM: The cast of "Rent" will hold a question and answer session Wednesday in Ackerman Grand Ballroom. Admission is free. For more information, call Campus Events at (310) 825-1958.

Ahmanson Theatre

Joanne (Kenna Ramsey) and Maureen (Leigh Hetherington) sing "Take Me or Leave Me."

Ahmanson Theatre

Mimi (Julia Santana) asks Roger (Christian Mena) to light her candle in a scene from "Rent."