I’ve been playing Mark since I first saw RENT when I was 15.
I’m 21 now. I work as product manager at a hi-tech startup in Jerusalem. I’ve been in 7 shows since I was 11 and haven’t been in a show since I played Evan in “13”, 4 years ago.
But even today I walk around listening to “La Vie Boheme” or “What You Own” and belting lines until someone walks by, at which point I suddenly stop and hope they didn’t hear me.
If you had asked me at any point between then and now what character I would want to play more than anything else I would’ve answered, “Mark”.
Not just because I relate to the character on a personal level, or that our personalities are pretty similar, but also because RENT is my favorite show and Mark is (in my opinion) the glue that holds it together. He’s the narrator, the friend who looks after Roger, the bitter ex-boyfriend, the artist, the observer. He gets you riled up in Rent and breaks your heart in Halloween.
We’ve only been rehearsing for a few weeks at the time that I’m writing this, so even though I got to sing “What You Own” and “Rent” with Roger (Played by Lev Kerzhner) and I have a RENT script (!!!), the fact that I am playing Mark hasn’t fully sunken in yet.
It’s kind of like that feeling you get the day you fly somewhere, or the first few days after you arrive; I don’t quite realize what’s going on and I keep expecting someone to tell me that there was a mistake or wake up and go to work as though none of this had happened.
So if you want to know what it’s like to get the role of your dreams – I’ll get back to you on that.