How Do You Measure a Year
Casa Mañana closes its 2025-26 Broadway Season with its Apprentice Program production of RENT: School Edition. An iconic musical that became a pop culture phenomenon, RENT follows a year in the lives of struggling artists as they navigate love, loss, and the search for identity. The show runs July 30 – August 2, and tickets are on sale now. RENT is presented by Autobahn.

Casa Mañana’s Apprentice Program offers rigorous, professional theatre arts training to students. Intended for the most dedicated young performers in the DFW area, the program is led by seasoned experts and equips students with the knowledge and skills needed to be successful in the industry.

The annual Apprentice Program Production is a Mainstage professional production backed by the full resources of Casa Mañana. The show is professionally produced, from directing to sound design to choreography, and is included as part of the Casa Mañana Broadway Season. Show selections are intended to be challenging pieces that give students the opportunity to work in a professional environment.
Since its creation in 2010, Apprentice Program participants have been accepted to such prestigious universities and training programs as Yale University, Carnegie Mellon University, Webster University, Otterbein University, The Neighborhood Playhouse in NYC and Baldwin Wallace University.

Apprentice Program alumni work professionally in the theatre industry all over the country, including Broadway, Off-Broadway, and national tour casts and crews.
Several students in RENT have been awarded honors by area high school musical theatre awards programs. Nevaeah Wilson (Joanne) was an Outstanding Lead Performer for the 2026 Broadway Dallas High School Musical Theatre Awards (HSMTA), a distinction for which she was given the opportunity to compete at the Jimmy Awards, where she was a semifinalist. Hunter Smouse (Angel) was an Outstanding Supporting Performer in the 2025 Broadway Dallas HSMTA. Ava Martin-Sanchez (Mimi), Hunter Smouse (Angel), and Corinne Thomas (Ensemble) have all been honored by Casa Mañana’s own Betty Lynn Buckley Awards, and Jackson Blanton (Ensemble) and Benjamin Tanner (Tom) have both been nominated for their performances by the Broadway Dallas HSMTA.
RENT stars Landon Thompson as Roger Davis, Lucas Steele as Mark Cohen, Benjamin Tanner as Tom Collins, Maxton Rhys Sims as Benjamin Coffin III, Nevaeha Wilson as Joanne Jefferson, Hunter Smouse as Angel Schunard, Ava Martin-Sanchez as Mimi Marquez, and Bella Gream as Maureen Johnson. Additional ensemble includes Ivy Bilbow, Patrick Bilbow, Jackson Blanton, Kimora Caldwell, Isaac Petty-Gonzalez, Samuel Porter, Addy Rudd, Corinne Thomas, and Noah Watson.

Eugenio Contenti is Director and Choreographer. Eugenio has worked in the United States, Italy, Spain, and Mexico as a director, choreographer, and writer. At Casa Mañana, he directed A Man of No Importance, The Lightning Thief, Once, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Recent credits include: A Little Night Music, Come From Away, You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown (Italian National Tour), Bring it On, the Italian and Spanish national productions of Legally Blonde (for which he served as an artistic consultant), The Full Monty, Cabaret, Footloose, and others. Eugenio teaches masterclasses internationally, collaborating with performing arts institutions across Italy, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and Spain. As a writer, his plays What A Drag! and Escaped The Music had national premieres in Rome and Rimini, Italy. He has also translated the libretti for the Italian productions of First Date, Curtains and Legally Blonde and is now working on translating and adapting Mrs. Doubtfire.
Matthew Stern (Music Director) is an award-winning NYC-based music director and pianist. Off Broadway: Smile (AMT Theater), Skyscraper (Urban Stages). Casa Mañana: The SpongeBob Musical, Wizard of Oz, Rudolph, Lightning Thief, Cats, Little Mermaid, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, Cinderella, Pippin, Grease, Seussical, Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Christmas in the Movies. Regional: Shakespeare Theater, Engeman, North Shore, Huntington, SpeakEasy, Lyric Stage Boston, Greater Boston Stage, Revival, Tantrum. Matt has served on the musical theater faculties of New York Film Academy, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Boston University, and Emerson College, and spent over a decade music directing at French Woods Festival. He has an MFA in Musical Theater Studies from Boston University. Upcoming: Mystic Pizza (Capital Rep) and Dear Evan Hansen (Engeman).

Additional creative staff include Mike Sabourin as scenic designer, Samuel Rushen as lighting designer, Allan Branson as sound designer, Tammy Spencer as costume designer, and Catherine Petty-Rogers as hair/wig/makeup designer.
RENT ticket prices start at $25 and can be purchased by visiting www.casamanana.org. Tickets are also available at the Casa Mañana Theatre Box Office, 3101 West Lancaster Avenue in Fort Worth.
Performance dates and times are as follows: Saturday, August 1, at 2pm and 8pm and Sunday, August 2, at 2pm.
All photos courtesy of Casa Mañana.


