Sunday, April 08, 2007

RENT!

YAY! I just got home from seeing RENT again! I am so excited because not only did I get to see RENT, LAAN(Lansing Area AIDS Network) threw an after party where you could meet the cast and crew. I didn't know about it until I was leaving the show with my fellow RENT goers and I saw some of the LAAN staff. I stopped by to say "hi" because none of us had the $50 per person fee for the after party (it's not that outrageous because it is for charity). The LAAN staff was so awesome because they invited all of us to stay for free! I was so out of mind with excitement. I got to meet and chat with the cast of the RENT national tour. It was so exciting. I got them all to sign my RENT poster. I was bummed because even if my camera had been working I wouldn't have brought it since I had no clue about the party and it's not allowed in the theater. It was so amazing. The biggest bummer was that Jenni couldn't be there with me.
And the show was unbelievable. I wanted to jump out of my seat when they started singing RENT, I got goose bumps when Roger started singing One SongGlory and when they sang Seasons Of Love, I was in tears when Mimi sang Goodbye Love and when Collins sang the I'll Cover You reprise and I didn't even realize I was moving along with Today For You Tomorrow For Me, La Vie Boheme and the Tango Maureen until people told me after the show. I want to see it a hundred more times. The music and lyrics have so much meaning and are so powerful and the cast's performance is always so intense. Once again I can't rave about it enough.

I know that I may seem obsessed with RENT and the truth is that I am. This is one of those things that I have writer's envy over. I wish I had written something so amazing that touches so many people. Johnathon Larson made something so incredible and I can't imagine every being able to create something like it.
The reason I love it so much is because I relate to it. There are tons of things about RENT that make me think of my own life. I would list them all but lots of it is just too personal to share with any random people that may wander by. But one reason fits right in on my blog about writing.
No one in my family gets me and a lot of my 'friends' don't either. I'm not even entirely sure that any of them remember I write and that's probably because I make very little money doing it. Alright, I make no money! Anyway, you get a good job that earns you lots of money. That makes you successful which equals happiness. That's what they think anyway.
I've rarely had more money than enough to cover the bills in all my life. Sometimes I can't even pay the bills. And I'm okay with that because I want to enjoy what I do. I don't want to spend my whole life working to pay the bills and be completely unhappy. I want to do what I love and writing is one of those things for me even if I don't make money at it. When I try to explain this to my family they look at me like I'm nuts. When I got this new "good job" my family wondered why I wasn't ecstatic but my first thought was 'when will I have time to write, and paint and play my guitar and I be all alone with no one to talk to'. I wasn't happy about it and I'm still not sure it was the right choice. But to my family it was the only choice because having money makes you happy. That's why when I see RENT, and there are people who are okay with being poor as long as they have time to spend on the things that really matter to them, I don't feel alone. I think to myself 'wow someone finally gets it'. And that's just one of the reasons that I love it so much.

5 comments:

D.B. Echo said...

There's been a lot of talk on the news about this being the tenth anniversary of Tiger Woods exoploding onto the golf scene. My earliest memories of Tiger Woods involve me sitting in a friend's apartment in the Lincoln Park section of Washington, D.C. on a Sunday Morning, watching the newscasters on CBS gush about him - and then move on to the tragic and tragically-timed death of the writer of the new hit musical RENT. So is this the tenth anniversary of that, too?

D.B. Echo said...

No, turns out Jonathan Larson died January 25, 1996. My mistake.

tiffany said...

i love rent, too. i think i've seen it 15 times, but i'm not sure.
i can't even think about collins' reprise of 'i'll cover you' without getting a little teared up...but i think the moment that got me the most was the first time i saw it, when roger was singing 'one song glory,' and he got to the lyric a young man, and he looked at his hands when he was singing...and that bright light shining on him.
too much.
rent was in detroit last month, and we didn't end up going...so depressing.
i pop in the dvd every now and again, but, you know. it's not the same.

Ashley said...

Tiffany- I saw RENT in Detroit last month at the Mesonic Temple Theater (did I get that right? Beautiful building with absolutely no leg room between rows of seats)
I totally get goosebumps and shivers when Roger sings One Song Glory. I agree the way they shine the light on him, his shadow on the wall, and the lyrics just break my heart.

Anonymous said...

That is SO exciting that you got to meet the cast! AMAZING! ;)