Rent - Orbit Encore Series 2022

Back by popular demand, Orbit’s Summer Encore series gives way to staged readings, fosters new works of theatre, and presents special projects commissioned by Orbit featuring local and Broadway talent.

This season’s offering was a fully produced production of Jonathan Larson's Rent with Broadway’s Eric Sciotto as guest director!

Based loosely on Puccini's La Boheme, Rent follows a year in the life of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York's Lower East Side, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. The physical and emotional complications of the disease pervade the lives of Roger, Mimi, Tom and Angel. Maureen deals with her chronic infidelity through performance art; her partner, Joanne, wonders if their relationship is worth the trouble. Benny has sold out his Bohemian ideals in exchange for a hefty income and is on the outs with his former friends. Mark, an aspiring filmmaker, feels like an outsider to life in general. How these young bohemians negotiate their dreams, loves and conflicts provides the narrative thread to this groundbreaking musical.