May 14

'People don't realize that Rent is actually a period piece'

Show returns to Cleveland for an encore

by Doreen Cudnik

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Pierre Angelo Bayuga came directly from a part in the cast of Miss Saigon in Germany to take the role of Angel in Rent, the sweet drag queen who embodies the theme of the show-that there's "no day but today." He was in Raleigh, N.C. with the show the day I spoke to him, having lunch at a restaurant before returning to the theatre for a late afternoon rehearsal.

Bayuga, who grew up in Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit, says he feels "blessed and honored" to be joining the Rent family.

Bavuga loves playing the character Angel, saying he "embraces each moment and enjoys the people around him."

"To me," he says, "Angel is the symbol of love in the show. He brings all of the people in the show closer together through his actions."

One of the most visually stunning moments in the play comes after Angel dies.

"That is such a powerful scene to me, I can't help but be affected by it every night," Bayuga says. "When I leave the stage with the white sheet wrapped around me, I feel like its Angel's essence that is leaving the stage. I hope that when I do leave that people miss the character of Angel. Because then I know I've done my job."

One of the challenges of playing Angel is appearing in drag, an experience that was new to Bayuga until this show. He credits openly gay wig, hair and makeup supervisor Roger Stricker with making him look fabulous, adding "it came as a shock to me that I looked that good."

Stricker agrees that Bayuga looks wonderful in drag, and credits the actor with being "a joy to work with.”

"He's one of the most consistent people I've ever worked with, and he's wonderful on stage," Stricker said. “He has a lot of the qualities of the character, so that makes it a lot easier for me. A lot of the drag queens that I know tend to be a bit temperamental, but he's an actor-he's not a drag queen."

Stricker has only about seven minutes to do the complete change "including the costume and the hair and the makeup." The transformation happens not once, but several times during each show.

Having been HIV-positive for nine years, Stricker says the show has special meaning for him. He also sees Rent as a show that anyone can relate to, regardless of their sexual orientation.

"The main point of the show is that it's a celebration of life,” he says. "It is a story about a group of struggling artists that are trying to live day to day and I think everyone can appreciate and identify with that."

"I think that the beautiful thing about the piece is that when it all boils down to it, we're all bound by the same thing, regardless of race or sexual orientation,” Bayuga adds. "We all strive for the same things—to find love and happiness.”

A native of Chicago, Stricker now splits his time “pretty much

between Los Angeles, New York and the road."

"People look at my life and think it's very glamorous, but there are drawbacks. I'll tell you, if I see one more club sandwich, I'm gonna puke. And sometimes, I just want to sleep in my own bed!"

While living on the road does present some challenges, Stricker says he is lucky to be in a relationship with a very supportive man. "And every hotel I go into, I put my Buddha out, I burn my incense and I have some candles and some photos," he says. "I bring a little bit of my home wherever I go."

Originally hired to create the "look" of the show for each character, Stricker's job now includes doing frequent checks of each tour "to make sure everything is up to date," and working with the costume designer and the director "to make sure the integrity of the production is maintained." In between those responsibilities, Stricker says, "I'm doing either haircuts or hair color or perms or braids

or waves or twists, whatever!" Roger Stricker

Even in a profession where

gays and lesbians are common,

Stricker says he still has to fight some stereotypes, "because the average straight person thinks that because you're a hairdresser that you're a temperamental person, and I'm not. I just want to do a good job, and I really don't think that my ability to do my job has much to do with my sexuality."

Being out about both his sexual orientation and HIV status provides Stricker with an opportunity to "be a living example of someone who's healthy and happy, and isn't bogged down by a condition that I have." Currently, Stricker says, HIV is "undetectable in my system, so I'm very fortunate."

"People don't realize that Rent is actually a period piece," Stricker says, adding that it gives audiences a historical look at the state of the AIDS crisis in the early nineties.

"There are several references to AZT in the show and it's got a mindset of what was going on then. And we've come so far from there. One of the things that I find so important about this show, is not only does it talk about out men, but out women, and bisexuals, and heterosexuals. It runs the gamut of people, and it really does say that HIV and AIDS are affecting everybody, whoever you might be." But that's not the only issue the play deals with, Stricker says. "I really think the play is trying to teach people about tolerance and compassion. As Jonathan [Larson] puts so eloquently, there is "no day but today," none of us are guaranteed tomorrow, whether we get hit by a car, or you get shot in your high school-nobody expects those things to happen. So we need to make the most out of the day that we have and not take it for granted. That doesn't mean throw caution to the wind and act unresponsibly, but we've got to act as if we don't have tomorrow.'

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"If I can help one person in my life, then I feel as if I have a purpose here," Stricker adds. "And it's up to us to educate the young of our world to be tolerant, to be compassionate and to believe in something."

Performance times for the Cleveland engagement of Rent will be Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8 p.m.; Sunday evening at 7 p.m., Saturday matinee at 2 p.m. and Sunday matinee at 1 p.m. Tickets are available at the Playhouse Square Center box office, Advantix, or at 216241-6000 or online at http: //www.playhousesquare

.com.

Pierre Bayuga

JOAN MARCUS