![\"Kym](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/sut-z-stage-pappas.jpg\")
Kym Pappas is directing New Village Arts\u2019 production of \u201cRent.\u201d (Kym Pappas)<\/p>\nMore than three years after its 25th Anniversary Farewell Tour landed at San Diego\u2019s Civic Theatre downtown, Jonathan Larson\u2019s rock musical \u201cRent\u201d is returning for not just one but two regional productions.<\/p>\n
First up is \u201cRent\u201d at New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad, where the show will be directed by Kym Pappas, beginning preview performances tonight. Then, next spring in an NVA partnership with Diversionary Theatre, \u201cRent\u201d will be staged in University Heights under the direction of Diversionary artistic director Sherri Eden Barber.<\/p>\n
Kym Pappas is directing New Village Arts\u2019 production of \u201cRent.\u201d (Kym Pappas)<\/p>\n
\u201cThe story is so important that if we get to tell it on all sides of San Diego in the same year\u2019s time, that\u2019s fantastic,\u201d said Pappas, who remembers \u201cRent\u201d as \u201cthe first show I fell in love with\u201d and proudly describes herself as an \u201cOG Rent Head,\u201d a name for original fans of the musical that opened on Broadway in 1996.<\/p>\n
\u201cRent\u201d went on to win the Tony Award for Best Musical, a Pulitzer Prize for Drama and become one of the most enduringly popular shows touring and in regional productions since.<\/p>\n
Inspired by the Giacomo Puccini opera \u201cLa Boheme,\u201d \u201cRent\u201d tells the story in words and song of young artists in the East Village of New York struggling on fronts societal and personal during the rise of the AIDS epidemic.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s friendship and love that hold these young people together.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the heart of this story,\u201d said Pappas, \u201cis the community of friends, a chosen family. It\u2019s something we can all relate to.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sprawling 42-song musical score written by Larson \u2014 who died the day before the off Broadway premiere of \u201cRent\u201d began preview performances \u2014 features beloved numbers such as \u201cAnother Day,\u201d \u201cLight My Candle,\u201d \u201cChristmas Bells\u201d and \u201cSeasons of Love.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI lived in New York during that time (when \u2018Rent\u2019 emerged) when I was going to school there,\u201d said Elena Correia, music director for NVA\u2019s production. \u201cIt was an incredible score. Larson was brilliant at adapting the story to the \u201880s and the show was so important in helping so many people at that time in dealing with acceptance and bringing a voice to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Lena](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SUT-L-STAGE-RENT3.jpg\")
Lena Ceja as Mimi, left, and Josh Bradford as Roger in New Village Arts\u2019 \u201cRent.\u201d (New Village Arts)<\/p>\n
Both Correia and Pappas are embracing the goals of not just reflecting a community onstage but fostering one among the audiences at NVA.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s crucial in understanding the whole point of the show,\u201d Correia said. \u201cTo create the energy between cast and audience, to create a community and to come together.\u201d<\/p>\n
In NVA\u2019s 100-seat theater, there\u2019s the opportunity, as there will be on the 106-seat Diversionary mainstage, to present \u201cRent\u201d in intimate confines most audiences haven\u2019t experienced before.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are so close you can feel the tension,\u201d Pappas said of the intimacy audiences will experience. \u201cYou are part of the party. The audience has nowhere to hide and neither do the actors. It helps to develop a real sense of community in the storytelling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pappas acknowledged that with a large cast, spacing will be a challenge on the New Village stage, but she and choreographer Tamara Rodriguez are \u201ctrying to make chaos look honest and natural.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ensemble in Carlsbad includes Lena Ceja, Josh Bradford and Brennen Winspear in the pivotal roles of Mimi, Roger and Mark. In encouraging them and their cast mates to give the show their all, Pappas said she reminds them that \u201cevery time they do this show it will be someone\u2019s first time and it may be someone else\u2019s last.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why do people keeping coming to see \u201cRent,\u201d which made its San Diego premiere in 1997 at La Jolla Playhouse, over and over again?<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you describe the feeling?\u201d Pappas asks. \u201cEvery single time I watch this show, by the time we reach the end and Mark\u2019s movie starts rolling, I\u2019m weeping, and I don\u2019t ever want it to end. You can\u2019t help but connect to the way these people (in the story) love each other, and it makes you \u2014 or at least it makes me \u2013 feel like a part of something bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Rent\u2019<\/p>\n
When: Previews, today through Nov. 7. Opens Nov. 8 and runs through Dec. 24. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays<\/p>\n
Where: New Village Arts, 2787 State St., Carlsbad<\/p>\n
Tickets: $35-$80<\/p>\n
Phone: 760-433-3245<\/p>\n