Casting has been announced for Made at Curve's bilingual workshop of Scenes From RENT—a staged performance, which will play the Curve’s Studio Theatre March 7-9 as part of the Leicester venue's New Work Festival.

Directed by Lilac Yosiphon with musical direction by Ben Garnett, the limited run will explore the late Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical through the lens of the isolation and prejudice faced by Deaf and hearing communities during the 1980s AIDS crisis.

The company—including both Deaf and hearing actors, who will present scenes from the musical in British Sign Language and English—will feature Nadeem Islam (The Father and The Assassin) as Mark with Melad Hamidi (Les Misérables) singing the role; Mia Ward (Robin Hood) as Maureen with Annabelle Terry (The Owl Who Came for Christmas) singing the role; Cherie Gordon (Boat Story) as Joanne with Charlotte St. Croix (The Wizard of Oz) singing the role; Chris Fonseca (Strictly Come Dancing) as Collins with Kofi Dennis (The Wiz) singing the role; Adam Jay Price (Grease the Musical) as Roger; Alim Jadavji (EastEnders) as Angel; Chaya Gupta (Hansel And Gretel) as Mimi; and Nitai Levi (Masters of the Air) as Benjamin Coffin III.

The production will also have choreography and movement direction by Stacey McCarthy, BSL consulting by creative associate Deepa Shastri, lighting design by Rhys Parker, sound design by Angel Rossell De Pablos, visual and narrative support by Eleanor Field, and creative captions by Edalia Day.

Attendees can expect a selection of key scenes and songs from the show, including "Seasons of Love" and "La Vie Boheme."

Directed by Michael Greif, Rent opened at Broadway's Nederlander Theatre April 29, 1996, following previews that began April 16. The musical received 10 1996 Tony nominations, subsequently winning four, including Best Musical. Larson's work also won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. After 16 previews and 5,123 regular performances, the production played its final show September 7, 2008.

Set in Manhattan in the 1990s and inspired by Puccini’s opera La Bohème, the hit musical follows a group of young East Village artists, performers, and philosophers as they struggle through the hardships of poverty, societal discord, and the AIDS epidemic in the search for life, love, and art.

Curve’s New Work Festival, a celebration of artists and creativity in the Midlands, takes place throughout March and includes performances, showcases, support for local artists, workshops, and discussions.

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