David Cromer to Direct ATC and About Face Theatre's RENT

American Theater Company (ATC), together with About Face Theatre, announced today that David Cromer will direct the spring 2012 production of Jonathan Larson's Rent. The co-production is slated to open June 7, 2011 at ATC, 1909 W. Byron, and will close the company's 27th season.

East Village. 1990. American Theater Company teams up with About Face Theatre to create a fresh look at Jonathan Larson's 1996 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning rock opera. At the end of the 1980's, a group of Bohemian artists struggle to find life, love and art in a brutal economy and the height of the AIDS crisis. Director David Cromer will bring a staggering reality to this landmark musical.

"I'm thrilled to welcome David back to ATC. I don't think I've ever had a director say, 'You've got to let me direct the show you're directing.' And then think, 'Yes. Perfect. Absolutely.'," says Artistic Director PJ Paparelli. "Bonnie and I wanted to produce Rent at our companies because we wanted to bring a stark reality to this musical, a reality that accurately depicts life in the Village in 1990."

"The forces at work in Rent are just so exhilarating," says David Cromer. "What's richer than exploring that time in your life when you're freezing cold, and terrified, and in love, and completely broke and inspired, and besieged. And hopeful, and hopeless, and somehow strong enough to survive all (or most of) that?"

"Rent blew open a nationwide discussion of struggling artists and LGBT people living and dying in the shadow of HIV/AIDS," adds About Face Artistic Director Bonnie Metzger. "About Face and American Theatre Company are partnering on this explosive new production to ask, what does it mean to be a citizen of the United States of America? Do we all have equal rights, no matter our sexuality or our HIV status? What can we ask of our country and of each other?"

 

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