impact series

The Impact Series: Programming with Purpose 

Our Impact Series deepens the RENT experience beyond the stage. On June 4, the evening before opening night, join us at Madison Public Library at 6:00 PM for a free pre-show lecture. Kathryn Smith, General Director of Madison Opera  will discuss the connections between RENT and Puccini's La Bohème, followed by Jeff Award-winning director and producer Christopher Pazdernik, who will talk about the AIDS crisis that shapes the story's emotional core. This lecture is free and open to all Rent ticket holders. 

Kathryn Smith

Madison Opera, General Director

Kathryn Smith has led Madison Opera since 2011, guiding the company through nineteen premieres, a tripled endowment, and the construction of the Madison Opera Center. A Harvard graduate who began her career at Lyric Opera of Chicago before joining the Metropolitan Opera as assistant artistic administrator, she brings rare institutional depth to the world of opera. 

At the June 4 lecture, she'll trace the connections between Puccini's La Bohème and Jonathan Larson's groundbreaking musical RENT, exploring how Larson drew from one of opera's most beloved works and transformed it into something entirely his own: a story of artists, outcasts, and chosen family in 1990s New York. 

Christopher Pazdernik

Season of Concern, Managing Director 

A Jeff Award-winning director and producer with nearly two decades in Chicago theatre, Christopher Pazdernik is one of the city's most respected voices in musical theatre, recently named to NewCity Stage's Players 2024: The Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago. As an openly HIV+ artist and producer of the annual benefit concert Belting for Life, Christopher brings both expertise and personal investment to the subject matter. 

Their lecture will examine the impact of the AIDS epidemic on the marginalized communities of the 1980s and 1990s: the artists, activists, and LGBTQ+ individuals whose lives and losses form the beating heart of RENT, and what that history continues to mean today.