Las Vegas Weekly

Drag queens, drugs and disease: Green Valley High welcomes ‘Rent’

Part of the cast of Green Valley High School’s production of Rent.

Photo: April Corbin

When Green Valley High School announced its proposed 2009-10 theatre schedule at the beginning of the school year, Rent, along with the previously performed Laramie Project, was greeted with threats of lawsuits by angry parents who didn’t feel their kids should be exposed to such touchy subjects as homophobic violence, drug use and sexually transmitted disease.

But, just as November’s Laramie Project previously suggested, Rent’s opening performance Thursday night proved that high schoolers were perfectly capable of handling, and mastering, topics that people like to pretend the students are sheltered from. It was that very subject matter that helped fill the seats of Green Valley’s modest theater, which more “appropriate” previous productions had left vacant.

The characters that protesting parents felt the most uncomfortable seeing portrayed by high school students, such as Rent’s AIDS-inflicted drag queen, Angel Schunard, stole the show. Schunard garnered the loudest applause of the night with both his costumes and flamboyant dance moves.

The student performances were top notch, and the actors confirmed that Rent brought out the best in them. “As a cast, we did such an amazing job. … I’m really glad that I did it,” said GVHS junior Armando Ronconi, who plays the role of Angel.

Theatre president and senior Amanda Smith, who plays exotic dancer Mimi Marquez, who also suffers from HIV, seconded the sentiment. “It was my first lead and such an intense role; it feels good to be on the stage playing such an amazing character. I’ve never gotten as many compliments.”

The PG-13 version performed by the students was toned down from the award-winning Broadway production — there was no same-sex affection, words were modified or left out in songs like “La Vie Boheme,” and the sexually driven number “Contact” was left out completely. Theatre instructor Jennifer Hemme says the GVHS installment follows a modified script created explicitly for young casts.

“The script was exactly what was in the student edition,” she said in between expressing her satisfaction with the performances on opening night. “The students are so talented, it made it a joy to see them live through [the play] and connect to the characters.”