DRAMA OF WORKS
Rent Party
full show & resources
Recommended for ages 8+
Please take a look at this whole page - we really tried to make it feel like you were in the theater with us!
PRESS & RESOURCE KIT DOWNLOAD HERE!!!
Educational resources
BEFORE you watch the video, please take a look at this worksheet -
an overview of the history of the Harlem Renaissance and a FUN scavenger hunt...
Additionally, PBS has a page of lesson plans on the Harlem Renaissance
Below, if you click on the image gallery many other useful links pop up!
RENT PARTY full credits (premiere production)
Please click on the artist's name to be taken directly to their website to learn more about them
Written by Amina Henry
Produced by Drama of Works
Directed & Designed by
Gretchen Van Lente
Costume Design & Asst Design
Original Music / Music Direction
Lighting Design by Jeanette Yew
CAST
Maya Posey as Rose
AnJu Hyppolite as Jenny (and Q)
Christian Roberson as Ricky & the Black Cat (and Jenny's mom and Carter Jenkins)
Ashley Winkfield as Ms. Lisa (and Rose's mom, Mr. Lowe, the Ice Man, and Mama Q)
All of these artists are amazing wonderful people who Drama of Works would recommend be a part of your production - just email us and we'll give you details of how awesome they are.
The original production was presented by the TANK theater, NYC
This piece is generously supported by the Henson Foundation
our Rent Party card by Isaac Bloodworth
After every show we invite the audience to take a closer look at the set and puppets...
Click on the gallery below to get a better eye into our block. Most images also have a link to more useful information...
"...The reality is, though, that so much of what these three kids face throughout their day remains the reality for Black kids today. Call it structural racism or progress and retrenchment. At the end of the day, it is the result of cities’ populations being far too comfortable with second-class citizenship for many of their residents. A play like this could easily slip into mere poverty porn or simply use 1920s Harlem as a stand-in for the contemporary challenges of African Americans. Even worse, it could romanticize Harlem of the 20s. It avoids all of these by rooting itself in a truly fascinating origin story for jazz and blues and using period costumes and language. If this play served simply as insight into those origins, and it does, it would be worth the watch. It does something else too, though. It reminds us that the hope upon which any social progress is based originates in that childhood hope which ignores obstacles and believes that anything is possible."
- Joseph Donica, Thinking Theater NYC