The hit Broadway musical Rent will play host to 1,200 high school and college students from the New York area on Wednesday, Oct. 28, at the Nederlander Theatre. The special education program will enable the young theatregoers to interact with the Rent cast before and after the show.

Activities begin at 11 AM, when a student from each of the 22 participating schools takes the stage at the Nederlander to deliver a monologue, poem or song written particularly for the occasion. Students will be traveling from schools in New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland.

Later, Rent cast member Michael McElroy, who plays Tom Collins, will instruct the visitors in the singing of "Seasons of Love." The students will then settle in for the matinee performance, after which the cast will take questions.

Rent opened on Broadway Apr. 29, 1996.

-- By Robert Simonson