Administration Gives Go-Ahead to Trumbull High School's RENT After Students, Community Push Back

Yesterday, BroadwayWorld reported that Connecticut's famed Goodspeed Musicals had offered to let the students of Trumbull High School put on their cancelled production of RENT at the Goodspeed Opera House. But as of today, that offer is no longer needed. According to a Facebook post on the "Trumbull For RENT" page, administrators have now committed to moving the show forward on its home turf.

The musical had been halted by school administrators at the end of last month, when first-year principal Marc Guarino and the school board decided to cancel the Trumbull High Thespian Society's planned production of Jonathan Larson's hit rock opera.

In response, Thespian Society president Larissa Mark started in-person and social media campaigns to keep RENT alive, including a petition and Facebook page, which now boasts more than 7,000 'likes' from individuals showing their support. Mark's work and Goodspeed's offer seem to have done the trick.

The following message appeared on the Facebook page today:

"Dear Trumbull for RENT supporters,

Tonight we have a stroke of positive news to present. This evening Trumbull's first selectman Tim Herbst announced on the radio station WICC that he and our principal Mr. Guarino are now committed to bring RENT to Trumbull High this academic year. While the timeline of this proposal and the details are yet to have been worked out, this is the first of many steps we will hopefully take to bring RENT to Trumbull.

In the past week we have received so many generous offers and without this support we would have never gotten this far in our campaign for RENT at Trumbull High. I am sure that by keeping up this collaboration we will be able to put on a wonderful production and help spread RENT's messages of love and acceptance."

BWW will bring you updates as we have them! For now, read an interview with Larissa Mark about her efforts to save Trumbull's RENT, via the "Luner on Theatre" blog.