Undergraduates of the University of International?Relation?are performing the musical. [Photo/Chinadaily.com.cn]

“525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year……” Once the first few notes of the song《Seasons of Love》began, the musical 《RENT》 was underway.

But don’t be misled; because this wasn’t Broadway or the National Theater, it was a school performance hall.

《RENT》 is one of the most famous musicals of the past twenty years. It has won many awards since its debut in New York City, and has been performed in cities all over the world. On March 27 the award-winning musical was performed at the University of International Relations, ending its successful run.

Wild rock n’roll along with soft folk and emotional blues music make up the sounds for the riveting musical as it tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling in New York's Lower East Side during the thriving days of Alphabet City, under the HIV/AIDS shadow.

“This is the third time that we have performed a classic musical like this. We performed 《Mama Mia》and 《RENT》over the last few years. We took on the challenge of performing 《RENT》 at a higher and grander level this time around.” said Xu Dong, the musical’s director.

Undergraduates of the University of International Relation are performing the musical. [Photo/Chinadaily.com.cn]

In spite of the production value, the student actors were merely amateurs, who were also faced with the tasks of changing the lighting, mixing sound effects and maintaining the complicated stage sets in order to make the play a professional production. Audiences could hardly believe the musical was produced by a group of undergraduates who had to overcome several technical difficulties during the preparation stages. But in the end they were able to provide audiences with an original performance in fluent oral English along with strong singing skills.

The musical’s adviser, Chen Dingding said that producing this kind of performance will forever serve as a great treasure for the student actors and actresses who learned how to work together while concentrating on their acting skills. It also gave the students on campus a chance to embrace the performing arts while promoting a level of aesthetic judgment toward their surroundings. However, the performance group has a long way to go since their art association still requires more support from the college and society as a whole. The group hopes the students can have more opportunities to join performances like these and let the musicals not only play on their own campus but at other universities as well.

“Universities can exchange opinions on the arts through various activities and we want to influence and appeal to more people who are also eager to share with us,” a performance organizer said.