UPDATE: Rude Mechs and UT students workshop, present on 7/13 Found on-line:
I'VE NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY
a work-in-progress presentation of a new musical transmedia performance party music and lyrics by Peter Stopschinski book and lyrics by Kirk Lynn curated and directed by Thomas Graves and Lana Lesley scenic design by Leilah Stewart lighting design by Stephen Pruitt silhouette video by Noel Gaulen and Erin Meyer
December 4 - 13, 2008 (Thurs - Sat at 8pm). Tickets will go on sale November 15th.
A transmedia performance party that purposely defies definition, we invite you to experience a sort of western carnival that may include a short documentary film about the Rude Mechs' parents, our patented "Ask the West" booth featuring a real rancher and a mountain lion ready with answers, a margarita and/or salsa competition, a Rube-Goldberg style art-making installation centered on how the West has affected gender identity, the environment, culture... You might go home with a western portrait, shoot a magical bow and arrow which cannot miss its target, and you just might be listened to for the first time in your life!
And at the center of this evening are selections from Rude Mechs' newest musical. I've Never Been So Happy, with music and lyrics by Austin Experimental Punk Grand Wizard Peter Stopschinski and book and lyrics by Austin Experimental Theatre Mascot Kirk Lynn, is an exploration of the wild frontier of parenthood. A single mother ties her son to the last mountain lion in Texas to toughen him up. A single father tries to keep his daughter from leaving home. Philip Larkin said it best, "They f*** you up, your mum and dad."
All this plus a dachshund race, three jokes about rope, a seven-piece band, eight singers, three video puppeteers, and a dance team to create a wild west wonderland in the Rudes' theatre THE OFF CENTER. (And remember, The Off Center was once a feed store!).
Rude Mechs will present I've Never Been So Happy in a serial workshop format. The father/daughter story, Scenes 2, 4 and 7, will be presented in December. The mother/son story, Scenes 1, 3, and 6, will be presented in April. And then all of the scenes, including the lion's tale and, and culminating in the climactic Scene 9, will be presented at the world premiere in September 2009.
Jeanne Claire van Ryzin reports in her Statesman Arts blog that the Rude Mechs will receive a $20,000 grant for this project from the NEA's Distinguished New Play Development Project.
Rude Mechs' press release on NEA grant, October 29
Robert Faires' article in the Austin Chronicle of November 6
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