Hanging on a wall backstage is a plaque that Jed Resnick - who stars as Mark in the national tour of the hit musical "Rent" - looks at before each performance. It reads, "Thank you Jonathan Larson," referring to the show's creator, who died in January 1996, just before the musical became a hit on Broadway. Resnick said he takes a moment to calm his nerves and to think about how he's "carrying on (Larson's) legacy." Minutes later, he is on stage singing to an audience of up to 4,000 people.
Now that Resnick has the coveted role he has wanted since he first saw the musical on Broadway almost eight years ago, he is doing his best to live up to that dream and to the high expectations he has attached to it.
"Wow Jed, you're a professional actor. You can't screw up because people are spending $60 to $70 to see you," he jokes to himself. Resnick entered Brown with the Class of 2006 but decided to take a year off to join the tour and will graduate in May 2007.
His journey began in November 2005 when he auditioned in New York City with over 1,200 people for a role in the famed musical. After five rounds of callbacks, Resnick received a phone call in late December from the show's casting director and producers, telling him the good news.
"I flipped out and screamed for my mom," said Resnick, who was home for winter break at the time. Though he knew he would have to take a leave from Brown, he had no hesitation about accepting the offer. "I would do this for free," he said.
After only a month of intensive rehearsals that began in early January, Resnick performed the role for the first time at a preview show in York, Pa., to an audience of approximately 400 people. "It was unbelievably nerve-racking," he said. But Resnick said he fell into his role after the first five minutes.
The tour has so far taken Resnick across the country, including to Las Vegas, Cleveland, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Some stops are long, but parts of the touring schedule have Resnick performing in as many as seven cities in a two week period.
Although Resnick has become accustomed to life on the road, he acknowledged that it was difficult to transition to professional acting and said that he misses the collaborative, experimental environment of student theater at Brown. "It's difficult to recreate a production that happened 10 years ago - to find ways to make it seem organic."
Even so, Resnick said that since first seeing "Rent" he has felt a natural attachment to the character of Mark, whom he described "as a neurotic Jew from New York who wants to create art."
Playing the character has proven to be a process of self-discovery. Identifying with Mark as a struggling artist whose "emotions float to the background," Resnick said the role "informs me in personal ways."
A theater arts and classics double concentrator, Resnick also attributes his preparation for the role to his experiences in student productions and theater classes. Brown's theater scene is where he has spent most of his life at Brown, he said.
Resnick debuted on the Brown stage during his first semester in Sock and Buskin's production of "The Seagull," a psychologically abstract play by Anton Chekhov.
"It was clear even then that he was going to be an extraordinary actor," said Professor of Theater, Speech and Dance Lowry Marshall, who directed Resnick in "The Seagull" and taught him in TA 23: "Acting" and TA 116: "Style and Performance."
"Talent can be developed, but you can't teach it. Jed has that talent," Marshall said.
Most recently, Resnick starred in last semester's Main Stage production of "The Greeks/The Murders" as the old foot soldier Talthybius, an interesting change of pace for the young actor.
Reflecting on his plans after "Rent," Resnick asked, "What do you do when you got everything you've dreamed for?"
The tour does not end until late August, and there is still a possibility that the show will expand into the fall season. Because Resnick also wants to keep his options open to see what work he can get after the tour concludes, he does not plan to return to Brown until next spring.
After graduating he intends to return to New York City, where he said he will "audition, audition, audition." In the future he would also like to redevelop "Psyche," a musical he wrote for Brownbrokers last year, for the professional stage. But his ultimate aspiration is, of course, to reprise the role of Mark on Broadway.
Said Resnick, "I've decided to make this my career."
