Trumbull High School's RENT Offered Stage at Goodspeed

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, Trumbull High School had their spring musical, the school edition of RENT, halted by school administrators. At the end of last month, first-year principal Marc Guarino called a Thespian Society meeting and announced that their planned production of Jonathan Larson's hit rock opera would be cancelled. Since then, the Board of Education has decided to support the principal's decision to cancel the show.

But the show must go on! In response to Trumbull High Thespian Society president Larissa Mark's social media efforts to keep RENT alive, Connecticut's famed Goodspeed Musicals has now offered to let the students put on their production at the Goodspeed Opera House.

"It breaks my heart to know that just as musical theater is gaining popularity with young people, such a passionate group of students may be prevented from sharing their message with the community," Michael Price, executive director of Goodspeed Musicals, said in a statement. "Goodspeed stands in strong support of the students' efforts to do challenging work at their high school, and, if that's not possible, we'd be honored to offer a platform to lift their voices."

Larissa Mark helped "organize a bunch of students with petitions to go around. In the course of two days, we collected 1,516 signatures, which is about two-thirds of our school. On Wednesday, I handed [the principal] the original copies of the signature sheets and surveys we'd done to the Trumbull community. We had asked whether people would support RENT and gave them a chance to make comments. We got over 400 responses and an almost overwhelming number of yesses."

Since the Facebook page has gone live, nearly 7,000 individuals have 'liked' the page, proclaiming their support. For Trumbull's RENT Facebook page, click here.