Chip Becker as Mark Cohen and John Dawson as Roger Davis rehearse for "Rent" in the University of Kentucky movement studio. Copyrighted photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.
One of the obvious answers to the question “How are we going to pay the rent?” is work. And amidst the excitement of staging Central Kentucky’s first locally-produced version of Rent, director Tracey Bonner sometimes has to remind her cast that there is a lot of work ahead.
Thomas Gibbs as Benny.
“We need to do our work and build the fun back in,” Bonner says to the cast Wednesday night, still in the midst of her first week working with the ensemble she selected in April.
The first two weeks of rehearsal were music director Mark Caulkins guiding the cast through the score. The cast also traveled up to Cincinnati to shoot video footage that will be used in the SummerFest production July 21 to 25 in the Arboretum on Alumni Drive.
Caulkins says the fact that most of the cast came in with much of the score committed to memory was both a good thing and a bad thing. A certain familiarity helped smooth rehearsals, but he has also had to orient people who were maybe used to singing along to the melody in the car to singing harmony and help some singers unlearn mistakes they had memorized.
Emanuel Williams as Angel! Dumott! Schu-naaarrrd!
Bonner had to occasionally deal with the pure giddiness of young actors getting to really play parts and sing songs they had idolized for years. And while yes, as the director she did need to make sure singers were not thinking it was enough to belt the tunes like they were singing in the shower, she didn’t want to let that sense of fun get too far away.
“I love the way you all are bonding,” she said. “This is going to be a blast.”
