In daylights, in sunsets, in midnight, in cups of coffee— in inches, in miles, in laughter, and strife!
The beautiful ephemeral nature of theatre is that it lingers on in our hearts long after the last curtain drops. And rarely do audiences get such an extraordinary chance to see a sold-out performance, which was so popular, it had to be extended. It had to be extended half-way across town to a brand new space!
Iron Crow Theatre, Baltimore’s Queer Theatre, has had the great fortune of not only being able to extend their sold-out, critically acclaimed production of Rent for five additional performances, but they have the distinguished honor of getting to extend that run in the brand-new M&T Bank Exchange performance space. They are the very first theatre company to produce a show in this space.
In a quick phone interview with Artistic Director Sean Elias, we get the scoop on just what this whole whirlwind experience has been like!
Thank you so much for finding time to get us into your busy schedule. This is such a phenomenal experience for you, for Iron Crow, for the city of Baltimore, for theatres all over the city, and for The M&T Exchange space itself. This is quite the feather in Iron Crow’s cap and I’m sure we’re all wondering just how this whole thing came about!
Sean Elias: Thank you so much for taking the time to hear our story! Because it’s wild! No one thought this was going to happen. We started selling out the run— our original run, way in advance at Baltimore Theatre Project. So we sort of like sat sold out for like a week. Which had never happened before we’ve never sold out that theater. I mean even before when we’ve said it was “sold out” there was still maybe a seat here or there…or we’d have to kill all the seats in the back row because of where our tech-stations were.
But this run of Rent was SOLD OUT. We literally were building; we had our tech crew come in and build platforms to raise the tech tables so we could sell that last row of seats. Every single seat— all 152 of them— in that theater was full. And that’s incredible. It’s wild we’ve never seen that before. So I threw it out there. I said, “we should extend!” And we added one performance which sold out, and then we went to BTP and asked “Can we can we continue? Can we extend?”
I’m guessing the answer to “can we extend” at BTP was no…since we’re talking about how you ended up over at The M&T Exchange?
Sean: That’s right. Because BTP has another renter coming in this weekend the next weekend. So we couldn’t extend at BTP. That’s sort the perils of running a small company that doesn’t own their own space, right? You’re at the mercy of somebody else’s schedule.
So I thought, “What about that new M&T Bank Exchange space?” And everybody— and when I tell everybody I mean everybody— everybody was like “No. Never gonna happen. Absolutely not. That would take months to make happen. It’s too hard. It’s too much. Are you get the cast? Can you still get the band? Will you be able to get the rights extended? Just no.”
I mean they were throwing every obstacle that they could think of out there. Now, my philosophy is “I’m not gonna tell myself no.” Let somebody else tell me no. I love that philosophy. Let’s go down this rabbit hole, let’s follow it until there are insurmountable obstacles. And that’s what I mean by ‘let somebody else tell me no.’ Something happens, where it actually isn’t financially feasible, or the rights aren’t approved or the space is already booked. Something out of our control.
Amazing. Think big, think out of the box, and who knows, right?
Sean: Exactly. So finally, Natka (Managing Director Natka Bianchini) just said, “Fine. Go ahead, reach out to Ron (France-Merrick Performing Arts Center President Ron Legler) who happens to be on our community Advisory Board.”
And I did. Ron said, “Listen I would love to have you guys here, I’m not sure if we’ll be able to work it out. We’re a Union House so that means there are certain hard costs that are fixed. But let’s have a conversation. Let’s see what’s up.”
Literally a week ago, we had a meeting. And we all realized there was this window of opportunity over President’s Day weekend. That weekend was available! And they said, “Listen, we really want Community organizations to be here.” So it was really this serendipitous experience. I was still caught up in the— “Are we gonna do this? Is this really possible?” phase.
We ran the numbers and we crunched the deadlines and we’re doing something crazy. So M&T Bank Exchange actually has another event that Thursday night before we open.
Oh, holy cow. So what does that mean in terms of building up and loading in?
Sean: It means we go in and we set everything up and we tech. We have the actors come and then we have to take it all down before that event. And then they have their event. Then we have to come back Friday morning to reinstall and reset everything. We are living all the theatre tropes of “how you make it happen at the last minute.”
So that meeting went great! We got the space, we got the dates, and then the next thing was we had to check availability of everyone. Fortunately, that worked out. And then the next thing was the rights. We had to make sure that you we could get approval from MTI for the extension. We were scrambling and climbing to make that happen. It was like 5:55pm on a Friday because we wanted to be able to announce that weekend to the audience that we had— that we were extending the run and we were moving over to The M&T Bank Exchange.
I’m guessing this story has a happy ending since we’re here having this conversation?
Sean: It truly is Baltimore’s Cinderella-fairytale for Iron Crow. It was just this wild thing— we got the call at 5:55 and we got the “OKAY” from our rep, who said they would update our contract on Monday and that we were good to announce the extension! And now we’re just rolling with it! Full speed— we’re meeting and planning, having walk-throughs, and re-designs and all of it!
It sounds like one of those pipe dreams. You could literally make a movie or a stage musical about the chaos and luck that went into making this happen. It’s really wonderful! What has been the most exciting thing about this whole process for Iron Crow? Because this is a pretty big deal. You’re the first theatre company to get to do a show in that space, and not only are you the first theatre company, but you’re a local theatre company. You aren’t a tour that dropped in for the weekend before rolling out to Chicago or Buffalo. You’re Baltimore based!
Sean: I think you hit the nail on the head. As we like to say, this is by Baltimore for Baltimore in Baltimore. I think that’s what’s so exciting. Especially in a venue that does open its doors for most of the year to organizations, institutions, tours, groups that aren’t from Baltimore. I mean, sometimes there’s a tie to Baltimore, you know like when Frozen came through, the actress playing Elsa was from here. But it’s not that “by/for/in” Baltimore, which is what we are. It really feels like they’re owning up to their mission or what they said that their intent for this new space was, which was to allow community organizations and small organizations, specifically like Iron Crow, to able perform there. It adds a sense of legitimacy and visibility and you and a leveling up, if you will, just by being in that space. That’s really exciting for us.
As a small company our actors are working honestly for far less than they’re worth, certainly from a talent perspective and that’s limited by what resources we have available. So this something, getting to perform in this space, feels like something that we can give back to them. Now you have The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center on your resume. And you’re in a Broadway touring house. Just like their tagline. “It’s Broadway in Baltimore, baby.”
This is really an incredible milestone for Iron Crow Theatre, The M&T Bank Exchange, The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, and everyone involved with both organizations as well the people involved with this production. I trust that the cast and crew must be over the moon about it?
Sean: Ha! Yes, literally, I like what you did there. This is Rent, after all.
Speaking of…what is your special tie to Rent? It was the first of its kind, breaking the mold in the early 90’s, and it’s definitely an iconic musical for a whole host of reasons, but what is it about Rent that made you say “put that in the season, I want to direct it?” And this came into your season before you guys knew that you would have this incredible opportunity with the M&T Bank Exchange space too. So why Rent?
Sean: I want to speak personally about that. Rent was the first Broadway show where I got to see myself on stage, where I got to see queer characters on stage. I was a young boy; I was in high school. I remember going with my Aunt— I wasn’t out at the time, I was still in the closet— and I think this was her way of trying to tell me “It’s okay! Just be yourself.” She would take me down to the theatre and we would put our names in the lottery, and we would win these amazing $25 front-row-seat tickets and get to see this amazing production. It’s part of my childhood, it’s part of my understanding myself as a queer person. And it’s also nostalgia. It’s part of my family in the sense that it was okay for them to tell me to be who I am.
What a beautiful, touching bond you have with this show.
Sean: That’s also why we do the ticket lottery for our shows and will continue that for the show at M&T Bank Exchange. Obviously Rent is one of the first musicals that did the lottery but, you know, I personally benefited from that lottery experience. So that’s the personal connection for me.
From an artistic perspective, for most of my time here at Iron Crow, I’ve gotten to direct musicals that I had a really clear picture of in my head. It was always, “This is what we could do with this show that might elevate, enhance, or pull out more of the queer themes.” I would try to unburden these musicals from what has come before it or from the original Broadway production.
With Rent it had always been on our radar, as you mentioned. It’s like one of the first that started the Queer Musical Theatre Canon. But for me personally it was such an artistic challenge because I had such a connection to and there is so much history and there is so much nostalgia surrounding it. Every production of it has been relatively close to the original Broadway staging and costuming. I was like, “Man… I really love this production and I don’t have an immediate reaction of ‘how would I fix it?”
So it became this artistic challenge of “what does the piece need that maybe it didn’t get in past?” And that’s where the concept came from. We really just started leaning into the truth of the characters’ experience and what their written narratives are. These characters are afflicted with poverty; they’re afflicted with disease. They’re fighting the police. They’re homeless. These are some bleak, scary times, with very strong sociopolitical barriers and obstacles and oppressors that are affecting them. When you really stop and think about that, at least I think, “Oh! I don’t know if I got that when I saw you original Broadway show.” I mean I left the theatre feeling great, thinking “Yay! They love each other!”
But that is a lovely take-away for a young high-schooler, seeing the show for the first time on Broadway. The “Seasons of Love” style takeaway as opposed to the bleak reality of it all.
Sean: Exactly. So for Iron Crow, I think we were going for more of the bleak reality. We wanted to find a way to resist nostalgia, we wanted to do a show that was really truthful to the circumstances and I ink we got a darker, grittier piece. But we also have one that’s still true to the material. It’s still the Rent we know in love, but it feels more authentic, I think.
I absolutely love the sound of this. I know our reviewer (Leonard Taube, TheatreBloom reviewer who covered Iron Crow’s Rent at Baltimore Theatre Project, which can be read here) thoroughly enjoyed it. And I think thing that really got me, when you were speaking about the show just now was when you were saying “they’re homeless, they’re impoverished, they’re fighting the police” it feels like such a Baltimore show, which to me, gives it a real relevancy given where it’s about to be staged!
Sean: Oh my goodness, yes! And you’ve just reminded me— I keep hearing, “Isn’t that the show about AIDS? But AIDS is so treatable now and you could be undetectable and live a healthy life so what is the significance of this piece?” To which I’ve responded by saying, first of all, those medical advances are phenomenal. PHENOMENAL. But AIDS is also a pandemic. And didn’t we all just experience a pandemic? So the big takeaway here, if you wanted to not look at the details of each individual affliction, is that you can look at Rent and say— this is a warning sign of what happens when we forget that we live in community with others. When we become individualistic and are only thinking ourselves, here are some of the dangers that happen. Death. Destruction. Fighting for survival.
I think it’s not a far stretch to link the AIDS pandemic to the opioid crisis that we’re currently facing in this country.
Absolutely. I think it’s very easy to draw the parallels; people are still getting blood-born illnesses from needle-sharing, people are still dying at an alarming rate—
Sean: Actually I’m really glad you brought that up. We hired a woman from Rochester Institute of Technology who had this amazing art exhibition to do some dramaturgical work for us. We saw those photos, which served as a jumping off point for the production, and we actually brought the exhibition to Baltimore Theatre Project (“Whose Streets Our Streets”) This exhibition was so exciting because it lays out every sociopolitical issue that was happening through photographs that were taken. And I just felt it had this amazing connection to Rent. And it was thrilling to get to have that at BTP while we were in production there.
That’s just phenomenal. I’m sure people are just thrilled at the opportunity to get to see this sold-out show as it gets extended into this amazing M&T Bank Exchange space.
Sean: Actually, I want to say it feels really subversive for Iron Crow to be doing this show at M&T Bank Exchange… since we’re doing a show that talks all about the dangers of capitalism…as we’re performing in this gorgeous, 22-million dollar recently renovated theatre space. That certainly isn’t lost on me! Some people have said, “oh is it going to feel the same? Will it look the same?” But I think the character of Collins nails it on the head to answer that question. Somewhere in Act II he says, “…we have to undermine the powers that be where they dwell…” so it feels very much like that’s what we’re nodding to. Good theatre doesn’t always have to happen on a multi-million-dollar stage by a big Broadway house, it can happen here in Baltimore too. It is happening in Baltimore here. Right now.
I think I really love that. I know this is a beautiful partnership Iron Crow is building with M&T Bank Exchange, but it’s also this delightful nod of irony that the little local company is doing Rent in a big, expensive space. LOVE IT. Now, how does the seating at the M&T Bank Exchange, just from a capacity standpoint, compare to what you had going on over at BTP.
Sean: It’s more than double. BTP was 152 and we’ve set up M&T Bank Exchange to be 330 at its full capacity. It’s wild! So we’re hoping to sell these tickets— because EVERYTHING IS RENT!! We’re paying rent, doing Rent.
HA! I love that. I mean you guys are incredibly lucky and this really, truly is a wild story!
Sean: We’re calling it the Baltimore Cinderella story.
I feel that. You’re not a tatty-rags chimney sweep—
Sean: But we are a small, little company!
You definitely are. A small, ‘nomadic’ style company with no brick-and-mortar space of your own, and now suddenly the fairy godmother of theatre has granted you this glorious sparkling theatre space to extend your sold-out production of Rent. Doesn’t get much more fairytale than that!
Sean: It is so truly wild. And we’re loving it. And thank you so very much for helping to bring visibility to us as we get this amazing opportunity— it really is what can make or break these experiences! Hope everyone gets a chance to get tickets to this extension of our sold-out run!
I hope so too! Good luck and break legs, enjoying the new M&T Bank Exchange Space!
Rent, an Iron Crow Theatre production, is now playing for five performances only February 16th through February 18th 2024 at Baltimore’s new M&T Bank Exchange at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center— 401 W. Fayette Street in the downtown Bromo Seltzer Arts District of Baltimore, MD. Tickets can be purchased by calling the box office at 410-752-8558 or in advance online.
