1. Which genre does the piece fit into? The piece overall is a musical the the genre of musical is rock opera. It is based on La Boheme, an opera written in 1896 set in 1830. 2. Where is the play set? Immediate location and the wider location. It is set in America in the Manhattan area. 3. What is significant and/or important about the locations? The locations hint towards the lives of the characters, since they live in the poor areas of Manhattan it suggests that the characters are currently not wealthy. 4. When is the play set? traditionally it is during the 1980s. So we've decided to set it in 1989. 5. Are there any specific references to day, season or year? There are many references to these, during Christmas bells one of the lines is "it's beginning to snow" which suggests it's December and obviously winter. 6. How much time passes during the play? As far as we know the show begins December 1989 and ends the same time in 1990, so a year passes and in seasons of love it is referenced "how do you measure a year in the life". 7. How is the passage of time represented? There isn't a specific way that time is presented however I think it's mainly through the narration of the play and the songs. 8. How wealthy are the characters? The majority of the characters (mark, Rodger, Angel, Mimi etc) are poor and in the verge of poverty. 9. Is there a hierarchy? Yes, and the main cast are at the bottom of the hierarchy pyramid. 10. How does their wealth or lack of it affect them? For Mimi, her lack of money has forced her into work at a nighttime dance club and she spends what little money she has on drugs. 11. What are the social environments of the characters like? They live in the poor areas of Manhattan so the environment there is an unpleasant one as many of the inhabitants are ill or doing drugs. 12. Are their differences in the social backgrounds and current environments? The main characters have differences in background, for example Mimi, it is implied that she fled her home country to come to America, however Mark seems to have very loving and caring parents who looked after him. 13. How will this affect how the characters will interact with one another? I don't see the backgrounds really affecting how all the characters interact. For example the main cast tend to interact with the ensemble cast as bohemians, homeless, police etc and that does not affect how they behave around one another. 14. Are any of the characters influenced by events/beliefs? Rodgers character is influenced by the death is his girlfriend, April, who died of AIDS. This influences him as he tends to stay in all day with his guitar. 15. What effect does this have on the way the characters behave? It causes the characters to feel more isolated and depressed like Rodger who tends not to leave the house. 16. What clues are there to the past lives of the characters? Out of all the characters it is Rodger who's past is the most well known and equally as tragic. Him and his girlfriend April have AIDS, however April, after learning this, killed herself by slitting her wrists in the bathroom. 17. How will their past affect their futures? Because of the tragic backgrounds of the characters (Rodgers girlfriend dying and Mimi fleeing her country) it effects them as they are now squatting in the slums of Manhattan living with AIDS. 18. Are there any references to key events prior to the play? In "one song glory", which is sung by Rodger, it states that before the events of RENT he had a girlfriend called April however her and Rodger were junkies and also caught AIDS which is a deadly disease, after learning this April slit her wrists in the bathroom, so she killed herself basically. 19. Do any of the characters carry scars or memories from past events? Rodger is heavily scarred by the events regarding April prior to the play. 20. How does this affect them now? It affects him on a day to day basis as he is obsessed with writing one good song before his AIDS will eventually end up causing him to die. Also he does not go out the house much due to grieving for her still and his dedication to song writing. 21. Are their conflicts of tension between what the characters want? Between mark and Rodger, mark wants Rodger to stop moping around as he's grieving for April and that is stopping him from living whatever life he has left but Rodger just wants to stay in and write his one good song before he does eventually die. 22. Do the main characters want to change their situations? Yes, some of the main characters end up living (and dying) with AIDs/HIV. They would most likely want to change this. 23. Is there a difference in what the characters say they will do and actually do? A good example is what Benny says. Benny says that he will eventually convert his buildings however this does not appear to be true and is not shown on stage. 24. How does morality or upbringings affect the characters actions? Well Mark of course had a traditional Jewish upbringing as his family are all Jewish, I believe that since he grew up around loving parents that he is very responsible and kind which I think he shows during the current events of the play. 25. Are there direct references to the characters appearances? The only reference I can think of would be in the song "another day" where Rodger is having an argument with Mimi and he sings " your brown eyes" this obviously is a direct reference to the colour of Mimi's eyes. 26. Are there any connections between how a character looks and behaves? For the police officers they are in uniform and the police uniform is meant to represent protection, however the police in America have always been violent and in some cases have been known to use police brutality, in the play during "on the streets" the three police officers come in and the first officer beats a homeless person and the third officer threatens another homeless person with a weapon. 27. What is the significance of the title? (Metaphoric or literal) The subject of Rodger and Mark not being able to pay the rent suggests that it's literal. 28. Are there any key lines or speeches that summarise or capture the mood of the play? "No day but today" I think this captures the play really well because there are many characters who live in poor conditions or are going to die soon, in some cases both, so they have to seize the day. 29. What is the main plot and how does it develop? RENT is basically about Mark, Rodger, Mimi, Maureen, Joanne, angel, Collins and Benny. They are living in New York City during the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Which takes place in the 1980’s-90’s (1989 - 1990) the plot takes place over a year so about wintertime in 1989 and again wintertime in 1990. During that year the group of friends struggle to survive while they are enduring illness, AIDS, poverty and prejudice. 30. Is there a sub plot? One of the many subplots is the story of Maureen and Joanne. Maureen was once with Mark however she cheated on him with Joanne and left Mark for her. Mark is not fully over her however he is civil with them both the majority of the time. 31. How can the shape of the play be best described – a story? Episodes? A journey? As a diagram or map? I see it as a journey as quite some time has passed and the audience have been dragged on the journey with the characters. 32. Which scenes are the most important? Why? All of them as they all tell a part of the plot even if the entire scene is constant singing, it's a matter of the content of the scene and songs. 33. Which scene is the least important? Why? Personally I think all the scenes of the play are important because all of them help to tell the story. 34. How important to the piece is the set/lighting/costume/props/sound? These are all extremely important as this piece is set about 20-something years prior to now and many things were different back then like Computers and phones which were very large compared to nowadays. 35. What is the climax of the play? Are issues resolved at the end? How much direction is given by the playwright in terms of stage directions? Basically the climax of the play is when all the characters decide to go their separate ways until they find Mimi then Rodger sings to her while dying and everyone thinks she's dead but she comes back instead from a near death experience. 36. Which character is the antagonist? (Opposes the main action) The main antagonist is Benny, although he was once a decent person he had let the power he possessed get to him. 37. Are their other protagonists or antagonists? I think other antagonists include the police officers, they are there to protect people however, like Benny, they have let the power get to them and have now taken to police brutality towards the homeless people. 38. Do any of the characters change from one to the other? Benny was once known as an protagonist however he is now seen as the main antagonist. 39. How formal is the language used by the characters? I don't think the language the characters use is formal because the characters are squatting or living on the streets in east New York so they're used to the streets and are in no situations where they need to use formal language. 40. What is the level of education of the characters? All the characters have different backgrounds, Mimi could be a poor Spanish refugee and she's 19 years old and not much is known about he life before she came to America but we can assume that she didn't receive and form of college or higher education because in the play she is of that age and is working as a dancer at the cat scratch club in Manhattan. 41. Do the characters use certain phrases or words or ways of speaking? I think Collins is a good example because he is is a very technical character because he teaches computer age technology and is very used to being around computers and therefore he sometimes uses phrases related to that. 42. How is the speech structured? (Monologue, dialogue, duologue, triologue, short sentences etc) I'd say the majority of the speech is structured musically as it's a rock opera but also as normal dialogue. 43. What kind of imagery is used? The imagery used in rent is mainly the catchy tunes however it often has darker meanings behind it like in "one song glory" which is personally my favourite song in the play but it talks about Rodgers dead girlfriend and how she killed herself because her and Rodger have AIDS and he talks about wanting fake before he will eventually die of his AIDS. 44. What is the objective of each scene/unit? What is the super objective of the play? The basic objective is to educate people about AIDS and how it's caused and to prevent it because some of Jonathan Larson's friends died of AIDS. 45. What are the characters motivations and do they change in each scene? The main motivations for pretty much every character is just to survive for as long as they can and try to live life how they want. 46. How important to the piece is the set/lighting/costume/props/sound? All of these points are highly important as it helps to stage the illusion of the past in the 1980s which is about twenty-something years ago and obviously things were much different like the cyber world which Benny is interested in and music, clothing etc.
