Jersey Arts Podcast

'Rent' Moves into the Pioneer Productions Stage in Morristown

• ArtPride New Jersey

Share episode

Today, we’re talking all things "Rent." Pioneer Productions Company of Morristown will be bringing the larger-than-life rock opera to a more intimate setting.


With music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson, the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical is quickly approaching its 30-year anniversary. The show first premiered on Broadway 29 years ago in 1996.

Set in New York City’s East Village amid the AIDS crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, RENT tells the unforgettable story of a group of struggling artists navigating love, loss, identity, and the cost of living. With a raw, electrifying score and timeless message, RENT celebrates the power of community, chosen family, and living without regret.
Today, Gina is chatting with Director Shanna Levine-Phelps and actors Jade Delos Santos and Connor McDowell about the behind-the-scenes efforts it takes to bring such an iconic show to life.

Thanks for listening!

  • Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player.

The Jersey Arts Podcast is one medium of Feature Stories on Discover Jersey Arts (jerseyarts.com), where articles and videos also cover New Jersey’s vibrant arts and entertainment scene.

Discover Jersey Arts is presented by ArtPride New Jersey. The program was co-founded by, and is currently supported by funds from, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Additional support for JerseyArts.com content is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

  • Subscribe to the Discover Jersey Arts' weekly e-newsletter to have stories delivered to your inbox.
  • Follow and contact us @jerseyarts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:

This is Gina Marie Rodriguez and you're listening to the Jersey Arts Podcast. Today we're talking all things. Rent. Pioneer Productions Company of Morristown will be bringing the larger-than-life rock opera to a more intimate setting With music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson. The Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical is quickly approaching its 30-year anniversary. The show first premiered on Broadway 29 years ago in 1996. Set in New York City's East Village amid the AIDS crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Rent tells the unforgettable story of a group of struggling artists navigating love, loss, identity and the cost of living. With a raw, electrifying score and timeless message, rent celebrates the power of community, chosen family and living without regret. Today I'm chatting with director Shanna Levine-Phelps and actors Jade Del os Santos and Connor McDowell about the behind-the-scenes effort it takes to bring such an iconic show to life to bring such an iconic show to life.

Connor McDowell:

Hi, my name is Connor McDowell and I'm playing Mark in Rent for Pioneer Productions.

Jade Delos Santos:

Hi, my name is Jade Del os Santos. I'm playing Joanne in Rent for Pioneer Productions.

Shanna Levine-Phelps:

Hi, I'm Shanna Levine- Phelps and I am the director of Rent for Pioneer Productions.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Shauna, as the director, how are you approaching this particular rock opera?

Shanna Levine-Phelps:

That is actually a very good question. This is the biggest musical I've ever directed. It's one of the biggest musicals Pioneer's ever done. Probably Hair you know, jade was actually in that as well however many years ago was maybe our other big musical, and though Pioneer's been around for a while, we still kind of learn as we go. So, that being said, we make a, a schedule. I have an amazing um stage manager who's you know went through everything, went through everybody's out dates, figured out who was going to be where when we went through with the music director and we brought her in first to go over music and then, kind of at end, the choreographer, because Rent is pretty much all sung and lots of dancing, and so I was kind of figuring out where my place is as the director within this.

Shanna Levine-Phelps:

And Rent is actually, if not my favorite musical of all time. It is definitely one of them, and I wanted to kind of come at it from the angle of character development, of who these people are, who they are to each other, how they fit into this world and why. Because for me, and I mean for a lot of people, rent is a huge spectacle and I actually don't want to play it like a spec, a big spectacle. You know, pioneer likes to bring things in, kind of make it our own little world and I want everyone to be living in that world. And really one of the biggest things we've been talking about is don't anticipate, because everybody knows Rent, everybody knows the next line that someone's going to sing.

Shanna Levine-Phelps:

You know in the big songs of Vivo and Rent, and if you're actually living in the moment, it's important to not anticipate what the next person is saying. Listen to what they say and see how that makes you feel as your character and really pay attention to who these people are now, where they came from and where they want to go, which is kind of crazy, because 90% of them have a disease that back in 1996 was a death sentence. How did that affect them? It's oh, this is like a huge question, but I'm gonna try to make it. Basically. I really my angle is the characters and how they're living in this world and what it means to them and how that relates to everybody else on stage and in the audience. I think that that's as precise as I can make it.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

I think that was excellently said.

Connor McDowell:

And.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

I do apologize for throwing you under the bus with the hard question right at the top, but I think you I mean I think it's great that you jumped right into shouting at your crew you know your team and there's so much work that goes into a musical right. It's not just the actors are front-facing, but there's so much work that goes on before you get on your feet. And I'd love to hear maybe a little bit more about your choreographer and your stage manager, who's wonderful, and your team. A little bit about them and how it is for the actors working with them as well.

Shanna Levine-Phelps:

So my choreographer her name is Erica Stubler actors working with them as well. So my choreographer, her name is Erica Stubler. She's amazing. I've never worked with her before. She's actually never worked with Pioneer before, but she's seen a few of our things. She was friends with a few people and when my original choreographer had to kind of bow out, you know, we started talking and she's so easy to work with. This is actually her first kind of solo choreographer position. She's, you know, worked in many other shows and she's kind of assisted and she's been dance captain. But this was like her big premiere as solo choreographer and she dove into it with.

Shanna Levine-Phelps:

You know, all of these songs they have movement, they have dance, they have all these things going on, and so I was like, basically, I just said go with it, do what you're going to do, and we're going to see how the actors, how it works for them, how it works for them while singing. We had to scale some things back. We had to change some things back. We had to change some things because when you get into the space, not everybody fits. It's a very large cast on a very small stage. It's like we're going to use levels, we have scaffolding, we have all of these, you know, stairs going up the platform and it's a lot of things going on and a lot of moving pieces, but she's very, very easy to work with for me. I don't know how it is for the actors. To be perfectly honest, I'm not a dancer, so you know, I don't know how hard it is for them to work with Erica, but it's very easy for me to work with her. She says something, if I agree, I'm like, yeah, sure, let's go with it. But I always say I reserve the right to change it if I, if it's not working for me or for whoever's on stage.

Shanna Levine-Phelps:

Um and my stage manager, she actually I've known her for a very long time. Um, I've worked with her in shows and I've also worked with her elsewhere as a stage manager and she's been a stage manager for pioneer before as well and she, um actually worked on the lion king on broadway and the west end as a stage manager and she just she knows a lot of things. I actually think it's hard for her to kind of scale it back to work, you know, in a non-professional way, working with everybody's's schedules. This is not their job. They're not going to, you know, they can't always be there. They have other things that they're coming from, they have other commitments, they're volunteering their time.

Shanna Levine-Phelps:

It's just a lot to kind of get it together. We have lots of meetings about what we're going to do next, so-and-so just called. They can't make it, we're going to have to pivot to doing something else. It's a lot of that, but that all kind of goes with the territory and I'm just really I feel very lucky that we get along and there hasn't been, you know, much of like we haven't butt heads with each other. Know, they seem to let not. Let me have the final say, I mean as the director, but you know it's like I'm like oh, how do you feel about this? Or like, well, you're the director.

Connor McDowell:

I mean, what do you think it looks like?

Shanna Levine-Phelps:

and I'm like no, that's great, that looks great, you know. So it's. It's been very copacetic to work with them. They've. It's been a lot of fun.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

I'm certainly glad to hear that this would be a miserable process. If not, I've had a miserable time working with other choreographers, so well, congratulations, then, to Erica on her first solo gig, and she gets a shout out on the Jersey Arts podcast. So yeah, there you go. From the actor's perspective, what is it like working with Erica? And because this is a sung through show, I can imagine that there is a lot of movement, as Shauna was saying.

Connor McDowell:

So, from your perspective, how's that going? So working with Erica has been really great for me, because this is my first show in about two years because I had two knee surgeries, so Erica has been really great with just making me feel comfortable and safe while, uh, while moving, so, um, like if my knee starts hurting. She's not like judgmental or anything. She's been very uh uh kind throughout the entire experience. She's also a very good choreographer. I didn't know that this was her first uh gig as a choreographer, a solo choreographer. That that's awesome. She's great. I love working with her. Yeah, yeah, she's awesome.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

That's fantastic. Basically, you're like the Patrick Swayze of this cast.

Connor McDowell:

I don't know if I would go that far, but thank you, thank you.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Well, I'm praying that everybody understood that reference, Jade. What has your experience been?

Jade Delos Santos:

Well, specifically with Erica, I mean, just by like meeting her at first, incredibly warm and energetic, which is like exactly like what you want from a choreographer, you know, like I know some people like it, you know, maybe like more chill, maybe like nonchalant, but her energy is just really like infectious and that's that really helps get all of the like over 20 year old adults into gear, because we're all very tired and we're all like working full-time or part-time, we're traveling to get there.

Jade Delos Santos:

So the fact that she not only has this infectious energy but she also like generally um starts our like, either like choreography rehearsals or just rehearsals in general where we're going to be moving a lot. She either starts it with, like we do a warm up to music or she, you know, has us do the beginning of La Vie Boheme, the really important table choreography. She's like all right, let's run it, let's do's do it. You know she's on top of getting us to feel ready and excited and I think that that is a that's something innate rather than, you know, a skill. I think it can be made into a skill, but she just has that down pat well, I guess our audience can certainly expect a killer, killer dance show.

Shanna Levine-Phelps:

Well, jade and Connor do a tango. So tango, maureen. Yes, and it's amazing.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

I love that. I so I will admit, and this goes along with a theory that I have and maybe you guys can weigh in on this theory. I feel that whichever you see first is what you will love most as an audience member. So in my case, I saw Rent the Movie before I saw Rent the Stage Show. Now, as sacrilegious as it might sound to say that one loves Rent the Movie more than Rent the stage show, I wonder where you all sit in that particular boat Stage show movie. Everybody's going to say the stage show, I'll go first.

Shanna Levine-Phelps:

Okay, and this is because I saw the original Broadway cast on Broadway in 1996, and it changed my life Like no, and it changed my life like no joke changed my life and I am I am always one that's kind of prone to liking the stage version more than the movie. It's just kind of, I think, the way I'm wired. But, that being, I didn't hate the movie, because sometimes when you love the stage show so much, you hate what they do with the movie, and I didn't. And it gave me the feels like the stage you know performances give, I think. But I haven't watched the movie in a very long time, but you know I did watch it a lot when it first came out and I, like I said before, I watched it with my kids. You know they loved Angel, they, you know they loved all like the dancing and because I couldn't show it to them in person, I was able to show them the movie so they could understand, kind of, where my love for the show came from.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

I do want to add that I also am a person who typically favors the stage show, and that's why this theory stands out to me, because I guess maybe it's that usually I see the stage show first, but because I didn't, in this case, I had a very different viewing experience. I also did not have the pleasure of seeing the original Broadway cast, which I think must have been amazing, but some of them obviously returned for the movie. Most of them, Except well, except for Mimi right, it was Rosaria Dawson was the newcomer there.

Shanna Levine-Phelps:

Mm-hmm.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

That said let's ask everyone else.

Shanna Levine-Phelps:

Side note though, I do want to say when I saw it in 1996 on Broadway, I saw it with Jade's mom. I just need you to know that Jade and I go way back.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

I love that little tidbit, thank you. Thank you for sharing. That is a whole new layer. Well then, you know what Jade. You get the question next what is your relationship to the movie versus the stage show?

Jade Delos Santos:

Well, I'm also a person who saw the movie first. Um, I think it affected my mom in the same way that it affected shauna when they saw it. And I was raised in a very thespian household, um, so you know, we had musicals on all the time and, um, one of the movies that my mom would like pretty much religiously make me watch was like rent, and I enjoyed it. Like it wasn't like I was like, oh, I don't want to watch rent, I loved it. Um, I never actually saw a staged version of it until I was like, uh, in my early like I think like 21, I'm 21. I'm yeah like about because my godfather, um, was in the show as Roger, I I believe, in Hackettstown um, at the community college, yes, and he was awesome. So that was like the first time I ever saw it staged.

Jade Delos Santos:

So the songs that weren't in the movie I was like finally able to see. And, honestly, for me it kind of feels like the movie and the show are like two different attitudes and I think at this point I think I like the stage more than the movie, even though I grew up on it. Like it's very close though, because you know this was a show. That is like kind of almost unfinished because of the circumstances which it was written and put on, you know like, and I wonder if the movie was kind of a way to make it a new draft, essentially like get like breathe a little bit more abstract, where I think the movie kind of grounds the, the story and the characters and the situation. So they both have their strengths but now that I've been able to, now that I'm experiencing one and I've watched the other for so long, I I think I do like the stage version, if only because of the song Halloween. I think the movie really missed out on putting Halloween in it.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Well, I will say that that was one of the glaring differences, because I had seen the movie first. When I saw the stage show, I had no idea that it was a rock opera, so I had no idea that it was sung through, that there was going to be dialogue. I was very confused and once I adjusted to that I was like, oh okay, this is confused. And once I adjusted to that I was like, oh okay, this is awesome, this is great. It just it was like I got smacked in the face with this is different. And then my body had to like catch up to dancing to new music. On to Connor. What is your take on these two?

Connor McDowell:

So I actually have a very interesting experience with Rent.

Connor McDowell:

So I first saw the movie when I was 13 years old and I had to sneak it because I wasn't allowed to watch it because, yes, it was rated PG-13, but my mom was still like, no, not right now, not right now.

Connor McDowell:

So I had to sneak it and I saw it and I was like this is incredible and I fell in love with it and then I started sharing it with my friends and then some other friends started watching it and we all fell in love with it. And then eventually I was in a production of rent when I was 15 years old as Mark, but we may or may not have purchased the rights, but we may or may not have purchased the rights, so it was an illegal production of Rent, but it really made me fall in love with the stage show. And, from an acting perspective, I really love the fact that it's fully sung through. I love the challenge that that brings, especially from an acting perspective, because in a lot of shows that are fully sung through, acting can kind of feel secondary, but I love trying to to bring that to the forefront.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Uh, in doing in doing the full stage show wow, and I got a confession out of you too. I didn't even have to try. But that said, since you brought it up, what is it like playing Mark? I mean, what do you do to prepare for such a role, especially because, like you said, it is kind of well, not kind of, it is a challenge. So how do you prep?

Connor McDowell:

So it has been hard, just because he does so much uh, he's constantly talking and singing throughout the entire show, so, uh, memorization is definitely, um, something that I've found a little bit more difficult than usual when it comes to preparing for a role, just because I want to make sure everything is, you know, exactly as written, and I'm not uh messing with anything. I'm not messing anything up, but specifically from like an acting preparation standpoint, I figured the easiest way for me to get closer to Mark was to uh do some research on, um the directors that are mentioned in uh La Vie Boheme and throughout the show, and then watch some of the movies that those directors have made. So that's kind of what I've been doing uh, recently is uh is watching some of the uh the films. Like, I've watched, uh, akira Kurosawa. I watched High and Low recently, which was fantastic. Um, so, yeah, that's recently, which was fantastic. So, yeah, that's that's kind of what I've been doing Outside of you know memorization and prepping.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

That is wonderfully thorough and you're opening your mind to a whole new world of cinema. That's excellent.

Connor McDowell:

Yeah, I love it. It's, it's incredible.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Jade. How about you for Joanne? What's your prep?

Jade Delos Santos:

Well, when I found out that I got the part, I really wanted to just kind of consume all the Joanne that existed on the internet. So I basically just kind of looked at everyone's performances. I kind of figured out what was the common thread or the common threads between them all and then I thought, ok, how am I going to be different enough without breaking that thread? Because Joanne, for when I was a kid, was like one of my dream roles. Because, you know, like I was born in 1999, so like back in like the early 2000s, when the movie came out and when I saw it there were just there wasn't Hamilton, yet, you know, there wasn't um things on Broadway.

Jade Delos Santos:

I remember like being eight and saying to my mom like god, I want to play Annie so bad.

Jade Delos Santos:

And then realizing it's probably not happening, you know, but like seeing Joanne exist on screen and knowing that she existed on stage was something that like really touched me and I was like that's something that I can aim for.

Jade Delos Santos:

So, honestly, I think my prep started like way back back when I was a child and then I've been thinking about it and ruminating on it and I think now when I approach the role, it's challenging because Joanne is supposed to be kind of the straight man, that dynamically, without just kind of joining in on the madness. So for me it's the way that I've been relating to it is through neurodivergence. I've been relating it to just kind of my own experiences, like with very chaotic friend groups, and I've just been making the process of the prep like very personal and really adding my own flair as much as I can before it becomes like too too much and then I pull it back. But yeah, definitely prep work has been studying, thinking about like how much I think about Joanne, like for my whole life, and then, you know, really trying to execute it in a really respectful and fresh way.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

I am honestly so fascinated by hearing an actor talk about their process, so this is really exciting for me and I love that this show for each of you has been in your life so long, like we said it's been. We're just under 30 years for the anniversary of the Broadway show, so prepping, prepping for this show, since you're eight, sounds wonderful for me, and I know that we're not being quite literal, right, you weren't an eight year old saying, ah yes, one day, one day, I will understand what it is to break up with a woman and then have to share her with her ex boyfriend. But on that note, what is it like working with one another? And do you craft? Do you cross craft? Talk to one another about what it was like having dated Maureen and I am speaking to our audiences that you know, know the plot of Rent, and I hope that you do so, connor, what has your takeaway been from working with Jade on this?

Connor McDowell:

What I found most helpful is Jade and I have become actually quite close friends throughout this process so we just find ourselves laughing and having fun together a lot of the time throughout rehearsals. So bringing a lot of that energy, especially to Tango Maureen and just being very comfortable with each other, I feel like, has brought an energy to the song that just makes it a lot, of, a lot of fun to do, especially with with Jade. I've really enjoyed working with Jade.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

I'm very glad to hear that I I want to know from each of you what is it that you're excited to share with audiences? What? What is your favorite part about putting on a show and waiting to hear that reaction?

Shanna Levine-Phelps:

That is a very good question, I think what I'm most excited about. First of all, I'm very, very, very excited about this cast. I just cannot. I know that you're always directors, always like, oh, this is my dream cast, they're so perfect, they're so this, they're so this, they're so that, and. But I have been wanting either to be in the show. First I wanted to be Mimi, then I wanted to be Maureen and now I am more drawn towards Joanne. It's just a thing as you age, it's what happens.

Shanna Levine-Phelps:

But these humans in this show they're just lovely people. It's lovely to be with them all the time. Yes, we're tired. Yes, sometimes it gets a little frustrating, you know. Yes, people talk when other people are on stage and blah, blah, blah. But in general, I have thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed the people.

Shanna Levine-Phelps:

I've enjoyed these actors and I've enjoyed being able to share my thoughts on Rent and them, all of them, connor and Jade and I mean especially Connor and Jade they've really taken it to heart. They're very grounded on stage, which is just a beautiful thing. It's one of my favorite things when actors can really live on stage in the world that they create and be really truthful. But all of these people, they they're here because they want to be here there. They took these parts because they want to portray them. They've taken, you know, my thoughts on the, on rent, as kind of like its own universe, its own place in time.

Shanna Levine-Phelps:

And yes, it's a period piece because, you know, I, I grew up, you know, when I was little. That's when the AIDS epidemic, you know, came about. I was, I was born in the 70s, so you know, like that, I really grew up with that. So being able to kind of share what it was like in real time for me and and then, you know, broaden that and have all all of these actors take where they are in their lives and what these things mean to them, and and put it together is just so beautiful. Um, they're just so. I don't, I, I'm gonna, I'm good, I'm gushing, but they're beautiful. The whole cast, all these people, and I just want everybody to see them. I want everybody to see how they have created Rent and that it's important and it's important to them and it's important to us, and I just want everybody to see it because they're amazing.

Jade Delos Santos:

So a big thing for me I'm a voice teacher as well as a beginner piano teacher and a big thing for me is that when I see my students and they're like I want to sing this song from Waitress, I want to sing this song from Lion King or Ragtime Parade, whatever I see, there's like so much like excitement and like hope in their eyes because these are roles that they want to like embody and they really want to like perform one day.

Jade Delos Santos:

And I think that a lot of my older students are going to be coming to the show, um, or so they say, but hopefully they do. And I think what I want to give them as like myself and also as a cast, is I want to give them that like hope of that. Like you know, we do not look like what you know. Professionalism always looks like and, um, what exists in the, in the, in the mainstream, you know, on on broadway, on broadway west end, wherever um. And I want to give them that sense of hope that they, they can do it, they can be on that stage, they can be in these kinds of roles, um, that's and that's for everybody, not just the kids I I teach, but for any adult who gave up on their theatrical dreams, or anyone like that. That's what I want to give people in any performance, but with this cast most especially.

Connor McDowell:

That was a really beautiful answer answer um, so, uh, I feel like we've created a very uh intimate production of rent. A lot of productions that you see are very, they can feel very distant, you know, because, uh, you know you're just watching on a flat stage, but we have a, we have a thrust, we have a catwalk in our, on our set, and it it really it feels like it brings in the audience in a way that you usually don't see for a show like this, and I I really love that and I hope that people come to the show and they really do feel that sense of that, that sense of intimacy, because I feel like interpersonal intimacy is something that we are really lacking, uh, societally right, which is, you know, I hope that this kind of helps foster a sense of community.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

You can check out Pioneer's production of Rent at the stage at Fellowship Hall in Morristown, running Fridays through Sundays, beginning June 13th through the 22nd. For tickets and more information, be sure to visit PioneerProductionsCompany. org. If you liked this episode, be sure to review, subscribe and tell your friends. A transcript of this podcast, links relevant to the story and more about the arts in New Jersey can be found at JerseyArts. com. The Jersey Arts Podcast is presented by Art Pride New Jersey, advancing a state of creativity since 1986. The show was co-founded by, and currently supported by funds from, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. This episode was hosted, edited and produced by me, Gina Marie Rodriguez. Executive producers are Jim Atkinson and Isaac Serna-Diaz, and my thanks, of course, to Shanna Levine Phelps, Jade Delos Santos and Connor McDowell for speaking with me today. I'm Gina Marie Rodriguez for the Jersey Arts Podcast. Thanks for listening.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Gina Marie Rodriguez

Host
Head Shot

Maddie Orton

Host