Love comes in all shapes and sizes. I love my family more than anything, and if I could have it my way, I would make sure we always live closed to each other so we could always be there for every little moment. Unfortunately you cannot predict the future. Sometimes you are necessarily torn away from your family and friends and placed into a new community. Hmm…sounds a lot like college.
In Rent, we encounter a community full of young adults who have all left home for whatever reason, and are now inhabiting the Alphabet City in New York. Some were probably kicked out of their homes, some probably couldn’t wait to leave. But they are surrounded by each other now.
A forced community. If you believe in fate, then you know this was where you were supposed to end up. If not, you might be bitter that you’re forced into these friendships. If you’re just on this journey to enjoy the ride, you might be excited to meet all of these strangers.
I remember feeling all of these things when I first arrived in Charlottesville. Biter that I was so far away from friends and family, but excited to meet so many new people, and still hoping that something would make me feel like I was supposed to be here, fated. Luckily, I fell into FYP. The beauty of a forced community is that you are all there because you have something in common. For us, it’s theater.
For anyone who has ever been involved with theater, you know how open and accepting it is. It becomes a refuge for a lot of us when we are younger, and then we become addicted and can’t say no to it as we grow up. The friendships that are made in FYP are the strongest, most loving friendships I have ever seen because we are open. We refuse to tell people what they should do, who they should be, who they should love.
I actually went to a thesaurus to try and find another word for open for the paragraph above because I didn’t want to use it again, and rent was a synonym for open. How appropriate! Why do people fall in love with this show? Because it’s accepting. If we go back to the forced community in New York City, we have to remember that this group was being ostracized by the rest of the world. If you had AIDS, you were not a part of the other communities. They didn’t choose to be sick, and they didn’t choose to be hated by others outside, so they were forced to survive together.
We spent some time talking about ho hard it is to know someone close to you is going to die. And how hard it is to be ostracized. It’s impossible to fully imagine the struggles someone with AIDS went through in the early 90s. but the cast decided that they really wanted to send a strong message with this show, and we hope you walk away with it tonight. 
I hope that one day the world won’t have to hear this message of openness towards everyone and every lifestyle because it will have become reality, but until then, Rent will always be an incredibly powerful show. I am so proud to be a part of this organization, this cast, this staff, and this show.
Thank you so much for coming out tonight! We are so happy that you are here!

--Erin McDonald

I am finally sitting down to write these Producer notes. It is Sunday night, the beginning of show week, and I am in the SAB with a hurried dinner laying waiting on my lap and people running everywhere. Lights adjust, mic checks pop over the speakers, casties valiantly begin to sweat through their wool costumes under the hot spotlights, and members of the tech crew throw themselves upon the stage armed with spike tape. For anyone who has ever been involved in a show, you might (rightly) think I am crazy to write these notes on the night of the first tech run through, where everything is so roughly patched together for the first time, that it is difficult to not have feelings of terror permeate any attempt at reflection on the production. However, I am sitting here, and at the moment all I can do is shake my head in wonder at what First Year Players can accomplish in a semester.
Every semester when the Selections Committee announces the new FYP show to its membership, the email starts with a list of “fake” shows, to warm the crowds up for the announcement of the real production. We have lots of fun choosing – or fabricating – those fake shows, picking the most outrageous or infeasible. Last year, one of those fake shows was RENT. RENT’s traditionally small cast, difficult subject matter, and incredibly challenging music made it a production that FYP never thought it could tackle. But here we are, back in the SAB, and putting the last pant strokes onto the brick wall outside Roger and Mark’s apartment.
RENT has proven itself to be the perfect show for FYP – both the production and the organization hold at their cores the ability to push boundaries, to celebrate community and to achieve things previously discarded as impossible.
I want to thank the director, Erin McDonald. Without her hard work, willingness to dream big and her infectious laugh, FYP would not have grown in the artistic and organizational ways it has this semester. To our tech director, Kaitlyn – your job is one I would never want to have, and one I certainly could not pull off. Thank you. To Logan McClellan and Katie Ulmer – thank you for your endless patience and friendship as we learn the ropes of leading this wonderful organization!
The magic of creating musical theatre is at the core of what continues to make First Year Players such a special organization, regardless of show and regardless of semester. I want to thank you, the audience, and our wonderful supporters for coming this evening to share in that magic with us. Enjoy!

--Jessie Wright