For many, the stage is a wondrous place to tell stories and make art. In some cases, it is to put new and controversial ideas in front of audiences. In a few cases, and the one we report on today, it is to dredge up a perfectly fine show and butcher it with an ongoing pandemic.

A theater director at UNL has decided to push the limits of what audiences will sit through by staging an updated production of Jonathan Larson’s classic RENT. This rock opera which premiered on Broadway in 1996, tells the story of artists living in New York City during the AIDS epidemic.

This production, coming fall of 2021, will be the same show Larson wrote with one major change. Instead of the AIDS epidemic being the central theme our characters will be living through the COVID-19 pandemic.

UNL theater director Ross Sandon believed this will finally make the show better for our generation. “My students don’t understand RENT as they used to when I started teaching. The AIDS crisis is something they don’t get, but this… this will finally reach today’s youth.”

Many students are against this production. “It just seems tasteless to me,” says Senior Sara Grace, “it’s taking something that did not need a change, at least to the plot. I mean some songs were bad, but it’s changing the whole meaning of the show. It is like the COVID themed TV shows. I don’t want to see the real world on my TV let alone on stage.”

Though many Upperclassmen have decided to protest this show, freshmen are using it as an opportunity to get noticed in the department. Freshman Marc Franklin is excited for the show since he “doesn’t get many opportunities as a freshman, but maybe this will be my big break.”

At this point, UNL has not released a statement on the condition of the show, but it should premier on October 29th this fall.