RENT: Judge it after seeing it

"It was impossible to get a conversation going; everybody was talking too much." - Yogi Berra

If nothing else, Lake City Playhouse's upcoming production of "RENT" has gotten something of a conversation started in this community. Rather, there seem to be volleys of accusations of perversion lobbed by self-proclaimed paragons of virtue followed by return fire with "hypocrisy" grenades.

The fact is that we are about a month away from opening night of "RENT" and not a single one of us writing has been able to see this production yet. Why don't we withhold judgment on anybody's motives until we have a chance to see it? Shouldn't we make it a point to see this play and THEN open a conversation about things in it that either moved us or made us sick?

In one of the articles leading up to my inspiration to write this LTE, Doug Miller states, "(t)hese themes seem to give the artists themselves joy and satisfaction in a smug way that lets us know they are better than us and insist we accept their superior ways."

As a volunteer "artist" myself, my view is that we know that we are no better than anyone else. Exploring these themes, characters and situations allows us to empathize with the struggles of people that on the surface seem so different than us, but at their core are like us in so many ways - worthy of our love and understanding.

And that's true for all of us who disagree on "RENT."

STEVE KANE

Post Falls