I knew very little about both the musical Rent and the culture that inspired it until I attended UNI’s production, but I greatly enjoyed their performance. Everyone involved in the production displayed immense talent, and I thought they did a phenomenal job illustrating many social issues from the 90’s. A couple aspects of the play stood out to me and caused me to think about not only our production, but also how I live my life. For starters, I was inspired by the optimism many of the characters had despite their situations. Many had such big dreams and believed they could do whatever they set their minds to even though they were struggling with issues such as homelessness, AIDS, and shaming due to their sexuality. At first, I was jealous
