Formal education prepares students for college by teaching subjects like math, science, history, and English. Yet not all lessons are learned from a textbook. Kendrell Stiff’s personal education was not found in a classroom, but rather onstage.
While preparing for the role of Angel in a production of Rent, he deepened his self-awareness and relationships with others. These keys establish the connection between the characters of Angel and Collins in the exposition of the musical.
As a nineteen-year-old at the time of the show, Kendrell was not alive during the AIDS crisis, an epidemic central to the plot of Rent. However, he learned from castmates personally affected by the epidemic and incorporated those lessons into his portrayal and personal growth. The diverse backgrounds, ages, and experiences in theatre foster an environment of empathy and openness that essentially unlocks the door for conversation, learning, and personal development.
Listen to Kendrell’s story in his own words:
This object is part of the “Unconventional Wisdom” section of the Artifacts of Experience exhibition designed by University of Cincinnati students in the “Introduction to Public History” course in 2023.
We encourage you to explore the other objects in our collection.
Transcript
Kendrell Stiff [KS]: So the object I chose is a key ring with specifically four keys on it. There’s no real like explanation for why there’s four keys. It’s just, it was a prop used in the musical Rent that I did at the Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre in Carmel [Indiana].
[KS]: Well, one, it’s the only one I have from the show, but two it’s really like the first…it’s not a direct interaction, but it is like the first interaction that the characters Angel and Collins have together. So I feel like it’s literally like a key like I like to view it as like, before even knowing them like before, really even meeting ever, it’s like Angel dropping Collins the keys to his heart. So I really like that thought.
[KS]: Well, and even then, it’s like, they have this whole thing of like their song “I’ll Cover You” literally talks about like, building a home together and things like that. So, I like to think that the keys sort of carry throughout the entire show.
[KS]: Rent as of right now, is the best show that I’ve been in by far. And I’m the type of person that does a show, and usually it’s just like “Alright, on to the next one. I don’t have time to cry about it, just go” but Rent still like it’s been over a year since we did it. And it still holds this really special place in my heart. And like, I just…I keep thinking about it and I keep missing it every day.
[KS]: Rent was my second show in community theatre outside of high school… And I think for me, it was last year so I was 19 — having to play someone — and this was my first time playing someone older than myself, who has more life experience than me. And also just the subject matter of Rent in general, like it deals with AIDS. It deals with just like relationships that like…like grown up relationships that I technically still even haven’t even had. So being surrounded by all of these grownups who have gone through a lot of these things like there, I’m not gonna say his name just for privacy reasons, but there was a cast member who they had someone very close to them. They had AIDS and I remember them telling me like, they sat me down and they had a whole conversation with me about like, what AIDS does to your body, what you go through, what your family goes through through it. And I just remember him being like, “I look at you on stage, and it is the exact face that the person that I like lost had when he was dealing with it.” And for me, it’s not even just that moment. It’s getting to tell the story of someone who had so much love to give and so much light in the world that was just taken too fast. Getting to tell that story and just getting to really let people feel. Because as an actor, you know, people love making people laugh and feel things. Laughing is very easy. You can get laughs by just doing like a little hand wave sometimes, but crying made people cry from a live show. There’s something about it. That is just really personal. And especially with Rent. It all just culminates into this like…I don’t even know how to explain it. It’s just
[KS]: It was like it was very surreal to like after the show, have people come up to me and just be like, “I need you to know like, that was the best portrayal I’ve seen. And I like I bawled my eyes out.” And just to hear that like, because me playing Angel I think there were only a couple of nights where I genuinely bawled my eyes. I think it was that night, or the first time we did the show after the castmate told me about the person that they knew and then it was like closing night. But like almost every night there was someone coming up to me being like you made me cry like it was so heart-wrenching seeing you play this and all that and all I can say is that it was just it was very surreal.
[KS]: I definitely learned a lot about the AIDS epidemic to begin with. That was a big thing they touched on they wanted. There were a lot of castmates who, you know, were alive when that happened. But then there were a couple of us that weren’t. Yeah, I learned a lot about the AIDS epidemic a lot personally about how it affected everyone in the cast because a lot of people in the cast had a lot of people that got AIDS. And I also learned just a lot about myself. And just like acting in general. For myself, really, I learned, that was like the stepping stone of like, knowing how to be comfortable in your own skin and not caring about what people think. Obviously, I’m only 20 So those thoughts still go in my head, but getting it’s like a it’s like a weird like scale because as an actor you you know, you have to care about what people think about you. But then you also play these characters and you have to learn how to not care about what people think of you. Yeah, it was it’s it’s just a weird thing that I’ve taken with me this whole year. And then like as far as acting, I mean, I learned a lot from that. I learned what it takes to be a good actor. I learned how to convey emotions without necessarily going over the top. I had like a whole thing in my head… Yeah, it all is just it’s all one big combination of learning a lot about life. Really.
[KS]: Not that my experience is necessarily unique, but it’s definitely not the path that a lot of students take. So basically, straight out of high school, I went into doing theatre and things like that. So high school in general, for me, at least, did not teach me anything about life. It taught me math, science, all that, you know, that you need to progress to college. But I feel like college is where people usually start to learn a lot about themselves. I mean, you can say you’re interacting with people of all — like a lot of age ranges in college. But as far as like, theatre wise, you are acting and interacting with people of all different age ranges, like there are people who I’ve worked with that are like seventies plus to literally like five years old. It’s such a broad spectrum, and just getting to see like it. For me at least it’s like taking a look back at where I was when I see like the little kids acting to like where I could be when I see the older people acting.
[KS]: There was one night — and this is really the reason I have them. There was one night where I put them in my pocket at the end of the show, it was in my dressing room and I picked them up to put them back to set them. But I just left in my pocket. Because I was ready to go home. And then the next day, the prop master was like, “Hey, do you know where the keys are?” And me, because I have really bad memory, I was like, “I literally have no idea where they’d go. Ask any of the other guys that touch them.” She asks all of them. They don’t know either. So it becomes this manhunt for these keys. We still can’t find them. So they’re like, “whatever. We’ll just get a new set of keys.” Literally, I think it was the third to last night, I look in my pocket and the keys are in there and I’m like, well, it’s too late to tell her now. I guess I’ll just keep them.
