W. Aurora to present 'Rent'

West Aurora High School drama director Donna Letzter may be ready to retire from teaching after this school year, but she is certainly not ready to phone in her last production.

She chose Jonathan Larson's 1996 rock opera "Rent" as her final spring musical and she is still challenging herself and her students by being the first high school in the country to get the license to produce this controversial play.

Student street performers will greet the audience outside West High and inside the school's auditorium with 16-page newspaper programs detailing the play, including a tribute to Letzter, a farewell to senior students in the play and Letzter's Director's Notes.

In the notes, Letzter expresses her reasons for choosing "Rent" as a learning experience for her students and the community and as an answer to the play's key question: "How do you measure the life of a woman or a man."

She wrote that "Rent," which is set in late 1989, is about "the vitality of youth, the fears they face, the choices that, somehow, weren't there when I was their age. People say, 'Controversial.' Yes, in this play we have four characters who are homosexual and four characters who are HIV positive and 55 other characters who are neither," she wrote.

"Rent teaches that we should view each other based on our humanity, on acceptance, on not waiting until tomorrow to say 'I love you' and on helping each other through those spots in life that are difficult to overcome on our own," she concluded.

"Rent's" business director, Kerry Proczko, was quick to point out "all the swear words have been cut and some controversial songs have also been cut" in this high school version.

Letzter and Associate Director Ken Ruffalo split the directing duties.

"We made a list of scenes that we wanted to block, and we fought over the scenes that we both wanted to do," Ruffalo said.

Letzter directed Ruffalo when he was a student at West High in the class of 1988. He said they have a strong bond and share a lot of the same vision for the Theatre Troup 2013 at the school.

Ruffalo hopes to succeed Letzter and direct plays on his own starting in the fall.

He has invited Letzter to return anytime to help with casting. "There's no way to keep her out of here," he said.

With 60 students in the cast, including many theater newcomers, Ruffalo said the music is stretching them vocally.

"They are really stepping up. Some haven't had leads before and you can hear their voices maturing as they begin to understand what they are doing," Ruffalo said.

The lead character in the play makes a movie of the lives of his friends. Ruffalo and key cast members spent an entire Saturday over spring break shooting scenes for the play in Chicago.

Ruffalo and a friend scouted locations, and the actors had several wardrobe changes as they shot scenes on the L, on rooftops and fire escapes in the city.

Junior Katie Hutches and sophomore Sherry Becker, both of North Aurora, are dancers in the chorus. They had both seen "Rent" on DVD and liked it and wanted to be in the show.

Hutches said senior Alex Boll told her two years ago that if West ever does "Rent" he would audition for a part. Boll said he grew up with "Rent" and has always loved the play. He plays Steve, is in the chorus and plays a homeless man in his first time on the West stage.

He was in track and field his freshman and sophomore years and played the trombone in the orchestra pit for last year's spring musical "Miss Saigon."

"This was the right moment for me," he said about quitting track and focusing on the play. "I've always loved sports and music and now I have experienced the best of both worlds."

"It's a play a lot of kids really like," Hutches said. "And now Alex has a big solo in the show and does one of the most touching scenes."

Letzter and Proczko hand picked three seniors to be student directors.

Seniors Julie Guzzardi, Mark Heffernan and Allie Cunningham's primary project was producing the 16-page newspaper that serves as the play program.

"We'll have the whole vibe of New York City outside the school during the play," Heffernan said.

Students will act as street performers outside the school, and student ambassadors dressed in '80s clothes will hand out the program that resembles the newspaper Street Wise, which is distributed by homeless people in Chicago.

If you go

What: "Rent"

Where: West High auditorium 1201 W. New York St.

When: 7:30 p.m. today, Friday and Saturday

Tickets: Call the West High office at (630) 301-5600