A preview of FIU Theatre’s ‘Rent,’ Part IV

With one week until opening night on Nov. 4, the director of the upcoming staging of the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning rock opera at MMC, Broadway vet and alumnus Andy Señor Jr. ’97, talks about coming back to FIU and what we can expect of the show. Rent will play in the Main Stage of the Wertheim Performing Arts Center for three weeks.

For Andy Señor Jr. ’97, coming home, coming back to FIU to direct his first show – Rent, no less, a show with which he is quite familiar, having played Angel on Broadway and on the road with the touring company – is a bit of a lucky break.

“This is a very safe place for me to try this,” he said.

Is it because being back at his alma mater he is getting pointers from his faculty?

“They’re not giving me any pointers,” he said. “They’ve let me have free reign, and it’s been really, really great because it empowers me. But I also know that if there’s anything that I need they’re there. They come to rehearsal and seem to be impressed with what I’m bringing to the table.”

The experience, being the first FIU alumnus to be invited back to campus to guest-direct an FIU Theatre production, has Señor, 36, feeling a little bit like a student all over again “because I’m doing something that I’ve never done.” Still, it was an honor and a challenge that he wanted to take on to give back to FIU – and have some fun, of course.

“I’m grateful to FIU for many things aside from the training, the obvious,” he said. “It really is the faculty’s belief in me that furthered my belief in myself. They saw something in me and pushed for me to come here, to be on every production.”

Meet Rent’s musical director, Emmanuel Schvartzman ’09.

Meet the show’s costume designer, Angelina Esposito.

Meet Rent’s scenic and lighting designers, assistant professors Jesse Dreikosen and Anthony Galaska.

Señor has been here for the past few weeks prepping Rent for its three-week run beginning Homecoming week. Back in “my same room at my mom’s,” roaming the hallways of FIU and hearing Panthers sing the same songs he did,  Señor says he sees himself in FIU students and hopes they see themselves in him.

“With everything that’s happened since I first went on this journey,” he said, “there’s a huge piece of me that’s no different. And that’s just me being a kid wanting to do theatre and do what I love. All FIU Theatre students have to do is follow their dreams and do what they want to do and they’ll be able to do it.”

And where is Señor’s dream taking him next?

Back home to New York City, where he is currently doing a workshop of “Havana,” a musical based on the book by Cuban-American playwright Nilo Cruz.

The FIU Theatre production of Rent will be staged in the Herbert & Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center’s Main Stage at Modesto A. Maidique Campus Nov. 4-6, Nov. 11-13, and Nov. 18-21 at 8 p.m.

Sunday shows – Nov. 7, Nov. 14, and Nov. 21 – are set for 2 p.m. For tickets and more information, click here.