Photo Flash: Meet the Cast of Savannah Summer Theatre Institute's RENT, Opening Tomorrow

The Savannah Summer Theatre Institute, now in its sixth season, will present Jonathan Larson's Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning musical, RENT, at the Savannah Country Day School the last two weekends of July. Check out a first look at the cast below!

Based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohéme, RENT follows a group of struggling young bohemian artists, many living with AIDS, in New York City's Alphabet City during the late 1980s. Spanning one year in the lives of a group of friends, each grapples to maintain their identity and non-conformist bohemian ideals among rapidly rising rent prices and declining living conditions. Jonathan Larson's explosive rock opera was enormously popular on Broadway, running 12 years and inspiring a renewed love of musical theater in a younger generation of theatre-goers. Savannah Summer Theatre Institute's production of RENT features local and out of town talent, with 18 cast members from 13 different schools coming from 8 states and 2 countries.

This year SSTI will be bringing in Will Chase to work with the cast of RENT. Chase is a 2013 Tony Award Nominee for The Mystery of Edwin Drood and has been seen on Broadway in numerous shows, including Aida and The Full Monty. Recently he has also had starring roles on TV's Rescue Me and SMASH. Will Chase was also the last person to play Roger in the Broadway production of RENT.

RENT will be performed July 19 & 20 and July 26 & 27 at 7:30pm and July 21 & 28 at 2pm in the Savannah Country Day School Jelks Auditorium. Tickets ($15 Adults; $10 Students) are available at the door and online at www.savannahsummertheatre.com. The Savannah Country Day School is located at 824 Stillwood Dr. in Savannah, Georgia.

Photos Courtesy of SSTI