Katie LaMark got up at 5 a.m and sat on the sidewalk in New York City on a cold January morning, waiting for an open-call audition for “Rent.” Three weeks later she got a callback — three weeks that turned into three months of workshopping material from the show.

“It didn’t feel like a competition, it felt like ‘how can I best service this material?’ I think everyone brought their A game because they’re invested in the story we are telling,” LaMark said.

LaMark, a Syracuse University alumna, is now playing the role of Maureen in the 20th Anniversary tour of “Rent.” The show begins a three night stint in Syracuse on Tuesday at the Oncenter’s Crouse Hinds Theater. LaMark will be joined on stage by another SU grad, Danny Harris Kornfeld, who plays the role of Mark Cohen.

“Getting to go back to my alma mater with my castmate and friend — we were very close all through school, we’ve done so many shows together — and now we’re hitting this first major landmark of our careers together,” LaMark said.

Courtesy of Rent 

SU’s drama department has been the source for the family Kornfeld has built for himself within the industry. He said that even though it’s a relatively small group of people, with just about 100 students at a time, it makes up most of the best friends and best teachers he’s had in his life.

“Rent” was written by Jonathan Larson and made its debut on Broadway in 1996 as a rock musical derived from the 1896 opera “La Boheme” by Giacomo Puccini. Kornfeld said that while there are some direct parallels between the musical and the opera, such as some chord structures, the derivation doesn’t have a huge effect on his approach night by night. However, he said he has done his research on the opera and it certainly has helped his understanding of the musical.

The show was put together over the span of three to four weeks, LaMark said. But most of the actors involved in the show have worked on the musical in the past — LaMark and Kornfeld were both in the musical during their years at SU.

This time around, Kornfeld is one of the stars of the show. He plays Mark Cohen, an aspiring filmmaker who acts as the narrator for the span of one Christmas to the next. He strives to create meaningful art and not sell out by making something commercial or meaningless.  Kornfeld labels his role as the observer of the show.

“He watches all his friends go through issues with their relationships and love and loss and death,” Kornfeld said. “So it’s interesting being the one on the sidelines sometimes watching the action of the scene as opposed to being directly apart of it.”

But what Kornfeld loves most about “Rent” is its message. He described it as a story of love, inclusion and celebrating differences. And with a stage graced by different people and different sexual orientations, he said it truly is the best experience to be a part of.

With that in mind, Kornfeld is especially excited about the idea of the tour making its way to states that voted red. He hopes characters like LaMark’s Maureen, who is a lesbian, and Angel — who dresses in both men’s and women’s clothing while winning the hearts of the audience — can open the eyes of the crowd up to something new.

“I think the time for the story to be told, even though it takes place in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s, couldn’t be more prevalent for what we need right now as a country,” Kornfeld said.

LaMark echoed this sentiment, saying the results of the election have taken to the show to the next level where audiences may be more eager to see the show — a celebration of love. On Election Night, the cast had to keep their phones off backstage as the results came in. By the time the show had ended, the outcome was starting to take shape.

Courtesy of Rent 

“By the end of the show, we sort of all had that knot in our stomach…If we were doing Carrousel right now we would have to say, ‘no knots,’ to go do our ballet, but the show is all about ‘what do you do when you have that pit in your stomach about great injustice,’” LaMark said.

The show has a dedicated cult following, something LaMark has noticed at the various stops on the tour. Sometimes the audience is full of “Rent-heads,” sometimes it’s all first-timers. Even when the audience is unfamiliar with the show, LaMark said they really get into it, sometimes even mooing along with her character’s signature song “Over the Moon.”

Deb Riccardi, a presenter for Famous Artists Broadway Theater Series, the company bringing “Rent” to Syracuse, said in an email the show will bring an economic boost to downtown with an expected 6,000 attendees.

“We are honored to have “RENT” – the 20th Anniversary of a ground-breaking musical for Broadway as part of our 2016-2017 Season,” Riccardi said in the email. “And to have two SU grads in the show is very exciting!”

It’s a sense of excitement that’s been building since LaMark sat on that cold New York City curb months ago. And when she and Kornfeld grace the stage in the city they honed their craft Tuesday night, it’ll be months of practice and performance worthwhile.

“Anything that’s community-based is something that’s a story worth telling,” he said. “And that’s the story that we tell every night.”

Published on November 14, 2016 at 9:30 pm

Contact Rachel: rcgilber@syr.edu