The Columbia College Chicago School of Theatre and Dance‘s 2024-25 Mainstage Season at the Getz Theatre Center of Columbia College reaches a rousing climax with Jonathan Larson’s landmark rock musical Rent, running May 1 through 10 at the Getz Theatre Center’s Courtyard Theatre, located at 72 E. 11th St. in Chicago’s South Loop. Student discount tickets are available. For tickets and more information for this LIVE, IN-PERSON production – including a program listing of the show’s cast, crew, and creative team – click here.
In conjunction with the production, the Getz Theatre Center lobby will display three panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt from April 30 to May 13.
Daryl Brooks (Photo: Joe Mazza/brave lux)
The show features an all-student cast and a production team composed of faculty, staff, and students, all under the direction of School of Theatre and Dance faculty member Daryl Brooks.
Jonathan Larson
First seen in 1993 in a developmental workshop production, Rent began public performances at the off-Broadway New York Theatre Workshop on January 26, 1996 – the night after the show’s creator, composer-librettist Jonathan Larson, died suddenly of an aortic dissection. The musical moved to Broadway on April 29, 1996, where it gained critical acclaim and won several awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Musical. The Broadway production closed on September 7, 2008, after 12 years, making it one of the longest-running shows on Broadway.
Set in New York City’s bohemian East Village neighborhood, Rent chronicles a year in the life of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.
In conjunction with the production, the Getz Theatre Center lobby will display three panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt from April 30 to May 13. The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt—often called the AIDS Memorial Quilt or AIDS Quilt—is the largest community folk art project in the world. Comprising more than 50,000 panels, it honors the lives of more than 100,000 people who have died of AIDS-related causes. Originally conceived in 1985 during the early years of the AIDS crisis, the quilt became a powerful public statement at a time when many who died from the disease were denied traditional funerals due to social stigma. It has been displayed several times on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as a symbolic and literal act of remembrance.
Dr. Jimmy Noriega
“In many ways, Rent is a love letter to queer communities, and so is the quilt,” says Dr. Jimmy Noriega, director of the Columbia College Chicago School of Theatre and Dance. “It is a physical and visual manifestation of love and remembrance, and this will give our students and audience members a chance to reflect more deeply on the time period and the impact the AIDS crisis had on entire communities.”
Panels in the quilt measure 3 feet by 6 feet—the size of a human grave—and are dedicated to individuals who died of AIDS. Each is unique and deeply personal, often incorporating materials and items such as love letters, photographs, cowboy boots, leather, lace, and handwritten messages.
“The quilt is a historical artifact,” Noriega says. “It captures the emotions of the moment when it was made—grief, loss, love, rage, and beauty. Each panel is someone’s memory stitched into fabric.”
For Noriega, the connection between Rent and the quilt isn’t just thematic—it’s generational. “When we do plays like Rent, students are engaging with a history they didn’t necessarily live through,” he says. “It’s our job as educators to help them see the broader cultural and political contexts that shaped these works. The quilt is part of that education.”
Since 2020, the AIDS Memorial Quilt has been housed and preserved by the National AIDS Memorial in San Francisco, where it remains both a tribute and a tool for education and advocacy. “We can’t separate art from history. This project gives us a way to connect the two—and to ensure that we remember,” says Noriega.
In addition to Columbia students, faculty, and staff, the public is also welcome to view the quilt sections. The complete quilt can be viewed online, and individual names can be searched at www.aidsmemorial.org/quilt.
