older adults who criticized Rent
would say to me. Why don’t they
just get a job? That’s how I found
myself approaching this show.
Why are they so upset? Shit goes
wrong, you work through it, you
move on to the next thing.
That’s life.
But that’s not life when you’re 18
years old and your innocence
has been stolen because life has
been edited to fit into a world
that has all kinds of new dangers
and new enemies and new rules.
When up until now, you’ve been
told that the USA is the greatest
country in the world, that you
were born into the great
American melting pot where all
people are created equal and
you can be anything you want
to be. When a country operates
from fear, it changes everything...
it screws everything up.
That’s what this show is. It gives
voice to a generation whose lives
were altered forever because the
world changed on one day in
September 2001. And while it
changed for all of us, imagine
being young and optimistic and
a little naive and then waking
up one morning to find out that
everything you thought was true
- that the world is open for you,
that being American affords you
copious opportunity and
advantage, that you’re safe - and
have all of those things shattered
in one day.
Listening to these kids perform this
show is like getting to listen to an
entire generation. And while I’m
really too old to put myself there,
I’m not too old to listen and to
hear them in their pain and anger
and confusion. I’m not too old to
help them find their voice and yell
some more. And I’m certainly not
too old to understand what it feels
like to be heartbroken and scared.
Regardless of your age...
regardless of your political
leanings...regardless of who
you’ve voted for in the past and
who you’ll be voting for in
November...regardless of how
you feel about any of it, these
past 15 years...I hope that you’ll
really listen. Really listen to them
and see them and hear them.
That’s what this show is about,
and it’s how we’re going to move
forward.
-Leslie Charipar,
TCR Artistic Director