GUEST BY COURTESY by Jenny Larson and Hannah Kenah, April 18 - 20, 2013

 
[Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd. -- click for map]

and the Fusebox Festival present

Guest by Courtesy

created by Hannah Kenah and Jenny Larson, written by Hannah Kenah
performed by Jason Hays, Hannah Kenah, and Jenny Larson, with an original score by Graham Reynolds

Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd.
April 18 - 20 at 3 p.m.

Click to purchase tickets via the Fusebox Festival


Click for Austin Live Theatre review, November 8, 2011



Come ye. Come ye and observe this sorry entry into that hopeful realm of female comedy.
In the deeply pro-feminist setting of a masonic hallway, Hannah Kenah and Jenny Larson stage a two-women, one-man, two-arms, one couch, imaginary props, terrible miming, genre-bending, era-bending, woman-bashing, man-worshipping show that plumbs the depths of desperation and duration.

 
Guest by Courtesy pretends to answer the question, what the fuck should a girl do with all her spare time, and decisively proves that women are not sane. Two cousins – one poor and single, one rich and married – wage their bizarre relationship over the course of a failing afternoon tea. The work was developed by Jenny Larson, artistic director of Salvage Vanguard Theater, and Hannah Kenah, company member, performer and writer for the Rude Mechs, and scored by Graham Reynolds, Austin’s best-loved composer of all things brilliant.
Come and see them not know what kind of show they are making. A dance show? A clown show? A play? Discover how much you can tolerate. Test the limits of your patience for women floundering.
“Larson and Kenah, with perfect comic timing and tempo, keep us laughing for a good solid hour” – Austin Chronicle
Special thanks to our guest directors Will Davis and Kathy Catmull, and the extraordinary understudy, stage manager, and jack of all trades Jay Byrd.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

STOP HITTING YOURSELF, Rude Mechanicals at the Off Center, April 4 - 21, 2013

Rude Mechs will present the first work-in-progress showing of

 



Stop Hitting Yourself
The show runs April 4 - April 21, 2013, Thursday - Sunday at 8:00 pm., at The Off Center, 2211 A Hidalgo, Austin, TX. 

Tickets: Thursday and Sunday - Pay What You Can; Friday and Saturday - $12 - 25 Sliding Scale. 

Tickets go on sale March 4th at www.rudemechs.com. 

The final weekend tickets will also be available through Fusebox Festival. 

Purchase with credit card in advance. Cash only at the door.


"At tonight's party you were observed and those observations are currently being compiled into a list of the things you need to be taught. We have one month to perfect you. In one month, we're going to have another party. The difference is at this next party, the Queen will be in attendance. Improvement. Succor. Fate. Queso. Wardrobe. Charity. Belief."

Once a year at the Charity Ball a single worthy cause is selected to benefit from the Queen's annual good deed. Families of note compete to find the citizens most in need and deserving of assistance. This year, a socialite has discovered a wildman in the forest and brings him home to improve him. The wildman's desire to save the natural world and to bring about an era of love and harmony is a sure-winner. Now she must teach him how to eat and dance, how to bow and flatter, how to behave in society so that his cause can be victorious.

Rude Mechs is currently embracing the fundamental beliefs underlying late-stage capitalism and indulging in some 1930's Hollywood glamour. Part Pygmalion, Busby Berkley, part self-help lexicon -- all while tap-dancing around a queso fountain. STOP HITTING YOURSELF borrows from the plots of 1930's musicals to dig into the contemporary conservative dilemma: how to honor the steely individualism of Ayn Rand without disavowing the ministry of Jesus Christ. Tap dancing, fine dining, and the missionary position will all be employed in order to help all Americans stop hitting yourself.

Some of the Many People Involved: Hope Bennett, Thomas Graves, Heather Hanna, Matt Hislope, Hannah Kenah, Lisa Laratta, Lana Lesley, Jason Liebrecht, Kirk Lynn, Graham Reynolds, Brian Scott, Shawn Sides, Paul Soileau, Dallas Tate, plus awesome technicians, crew, and Rude Mechs company members keeping it awesome.


STOP HITTING YOURSELF is a commission of LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater. LCT3 produces shows by new playwrights, directors and designers - new ideas in a new space. Additional creation support comes from National Endowment for the Arts and MAP Fund. Rude Mechs is supported by the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division.

Rude Mechs is an ensemble-based theatre company that has created a genre-defying cocktail of over 25 original plays that we produce in Austin, TX, and tour nationally and internationally. Our most recent productions include "The Method Gun", "Get Your War On" and "I've Never Been So Happy" which have all toured to such far-flung destinations as New York City, Los Angeles, New Haven, Columbus, Boston, Portland, Philadelphia, Helsinki (Finland), Edinburgh (Scotland), and Brisbane (Australia). Since our inception in 1995, we've received over 180 awards and nominations for artistic excellence and, most recently, the company's production "The Method Gun" was recognized by both Time Out New York and New York Magazine as one of the Top 10 theatrical events of 2011.

For more information about this production and all things rude, visit www.rudemechs.com.


Read more about Rude Mechs to Present Work-in-Progress Showing of STOP HITTING YOURSELF, 4/4-21 by austin.broadwayworld.com
Rude Mechs will present the first work-in-progress showing of "STOP HITTING YOURSELF."
"At tonight's party you were observed and those observations are currently being compiled into a list of the things you need to be taught. We have one month to perfect you. In one month, we're going to have another party. The difference is at this next party, the Queen will be in attendance. Improvement. Succor. Fate. Queso. Wardrobe. Charity. Belief."
Once a year at the Charity Ball a single worthy cause is selected to benefit from the Queen's annual good deed. Families of note compete to find the citizens most in need and deserving of assistance. This year, a socialite has discovered a wildman in the forest and brings him home to improve him. The wildman's desire to save the natural world and to bring about an era of love and harmony is a sure-winner. Now she must teach him how to eat and dance, how to bow and flatter, how to behave in society so that his cause can be victorious.
Rude Mechs is currently embracing the fundamental beliefs underlying late-stage capitalism and indulging in some 1930's Hollywood glamour. Part Pygmalion, Busby Berkley, part self-help lexicon -- all while tap-dancing around a queso fountain. STOP HITTING YOURSELF borrows from the plots of 1930's musicals to dig into the contemporary conservative dilemma: how to honor the steely individualism of Ayn Rand without disavowing the ministry of Jesus Christ. Tap dancing, fine dining, and the missionary position will all be employed in order to help all Americans stop hitting yourself.
Some of the Many People Involved: Hope Bennett, Thomas Graves, Heather Hanna, Matt Hislope, Hannah Kenah, Lisa Laratta, Lana Lesley, Jason Liebrecht, Kirk Lynn, Graham Reynolds, Brian Scott, Shawn Sides, Paul Soileau, Dallas Tate, plus awesome technicians, crew, and Rude Mechs company members keeping it awesome.
The show runs April 4 - April 21, 2013, Thursday - Sunday at 8:00 pm., at The Off Center, 2211 A Hidalgo, Austin, TX. Tickets: Thursday and Sunday - Pay What You Can; Friday and Saturday - $12 - 25 Sliding Scale. Tickets go on sale March 4th at www.rudemechs.com. The final weekend tickets will also be available through Fusebox Festival. Purchase with credit card in advance. Cash only at the door.
STOP HITTING YOURSELF is a commission of LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater. LCT3 produces shows by new playwrights, directors and designers - new ideas in a new space. Additional creation support comes from National Endowment for the Arts and MAP Fund. Rude Mechs is supported by the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division.
Rude Mechs is an ensemble-based theatre company that has created a genre-defying cocktail of over 25 original plays that we produce in Austin, TX, and tour nationally and internationally. Our most recent productions include "The Method Gun", "Get Your War On" and "I've Never Been So Happy" which have all toured to such far-flung destinations as New York City, Los Angeles, New Haven, Columbus, Boston, Portland, Philadelphia, Helsinki (Finland), Edinburgh (Scotland), and Brisbane (Australia). Since our inception in 1995, we've received over 180 awards and nominations for artistic excellence and, most recently, the company's production "The Method Gun" was recognized by both Time Out New York and New York Magazine as one of the Top 10 theatrical events of 2011.
For more information about this production and all things rude, visit www.rudemechs.com.

Read more about Rude Mechs to Present Work-in-Progress Showing of STOP HITTING YOURSELF, 4/4-21 by austin.broadwayworld.com

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Guest by Courtesy by Hannah Kenah and Jenny Larson, Salvage Vanguard Theatre, November 4 - 19

by Michael Meigs

On their opening night Hannah Kenah and Jenny Larson attracted an audience with lots of youngish faces more often lit by footlights, spots and stage lighting than by house lights. Those audience members were happily anticipating an entertainment that had been in gestation for two years. The two well known and well liked Austin actresses had presented workshop versions of Guest by Courtesy in May and November 2009 as part of the SVT's Works Progress Austin series.

They begin your evening with a lengthy cryptic tableau, a kōan of the brash physical comedy that is to come. The brightly lit black box performance space is anchored by a sofa set at center stage, draped with a white sheet. Two pairs of motionless bare feet are on view, the only parts visible of two persons seated or more likely reclining beneath that cover.

There's a silent motionless prologue going on here for those who aren't busy finding seats, climbing past audience knees, texting, listening to the hectic top 40s soundtrack or chatting: whose feet are we seeing? The pair at stage left are slim and almost self-effacing but there's a gauze bandage wrapped around one big toe; the pair at stage right are strongly defined, forthright with fiercely rampant big toes, the sort of feet that might be used for kicking butt. You have about twenty minutes to place your mental bets; I got mine wrong.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Guest by Courtesy by Hannah Kenah and Jenny Larson, Salvage Vanguard Theatre, November 4 - 19

Found on-line:

cordially invites you to ~

Guest by Courtesy

by Hannah Kenah and Jenny Larson

Nov 4th - 19th at 8 p.m.
at Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 E Manor Rd
$15 admission; Pay-what-you-wish Thursday November 10th (at the door only)

Tickets at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/201618 or 1-800-838-3006 www.salvagevanguard.org

“Have I failed today? Or have I not?” –Emily Post

Women are crazy. This condemnation is often spoken in popular culture as fact. As infuriating as it can be to hear radio personalities or TV sitcoms trade on this condemnation, it seems the best way to defy it is, in fact, to embrace it.

Guest by Courtesy is the story of two cousins. One is married, wealthy, and fancy; the other is single, poor, and drab. We find these cousins unfolding their bizarre relationship over the course of a failing tea party. The cousins are little girls, society women, clowns, bitter rivals, and family.
Between the high physicality, the archetypal characters, and the bawdiness of these two cousins, the play possesses some kinship with theatrical clowning. As with any good clown, the cousins are simple, but they possess love and heartbreak beyond their own comprehension.
Will these women, hovering at the edge of sanity, go crazy in the end or instead manage to set the world on its head?

For MATURE AUDIENCES only.

Created by Hannah Kenah and Jenny Larson
Script by Hannah Kenah
Featuring Jason Hays, Hannah Kenah, and Jenny Larson
With Original Music by Graham Reynolds
Lights by Megan Reilly
Set by Connor Hopkins
Costumes by Jessica Gilzow



[images: www.salvagevanguard.org]

Arts Reporting: Salvage Vanguard Season, 2011-2012

Salvage Vanguard Theatre artistic director Jenny Larson has announced the program of the SVT's own productions. The venue will be hosting many other companies, including the Trouble Puppet Theatre Company, Palindrome Theatre Company, Gnap! Theatre Project, the Church of the Friendly Ghost, Spank Dance, KDH Dance and many more. On the SVT's plate:

Nov 3rd- 19th 2011. Guest by Courtesy by Hannah Kenah and Jenny Larson

The story of two cousins. One is married, wealthy, and fancy; the other is single, poor, and drab. We find these cousins unfolding their bizarre
relationship over the course of a failing tea party. The cousins are little girls, society women, clowns, bitter rivals, and family. Will these women, hovering at the edge of sanity, go crazy in the end or instead manage to set the world on its head? Original score by Graham Reynolds.

January and February 2012 (dates tbd) WPA - Works Progress Austin.

Featuring the development of two Austin grown pieces: Pig Pile (working title)- a collaboration between playwright Sibyl Kempson, SVT, Rude Mechs, Physical Plant, and Rubber Rep. Set to premiere in the spring of 2013. And Séance (working title)- a séance re-enactment at the Eponymous Garden with the creative team of Sterling Price McKinney and Jenny Larson.

February 16th- March 10th, Civilization (all you can eat) by Jason Grote.

A man-eating pig, a showbiz sell-out, a daughter gone wild, and a comedian all dance around issues of violence, racism, sex, and just getting by, in this absurd reflection of American life. Featuring Florinda Bryant and Cyndi Williams. Directed by Jenny Larson.

Reviews from Elsewhere: NYT Feature on Rude Mechs' Method Gun, February 27

Found on-line:

Many Methods to Collaborative Madness

By JOAN ANDERMAN, New York Times, February 27, 2011

IT began, as actors’ stories often do, with a guru. Her name was Stella Burden, a k a “the other Stella.” Ms. Burden created a risky suite of training exercises called the Approach, attracted a fervent band of followers and abandoned them nine years into rehearsals for a high-concept production of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” to be performed without Stanley, Blanche, Stella or Mitch.

What in the name of madcap Method acting is a company member to do?

That’s the absurdly literal and keenly figurative question at the heart of “The Method Gun,” a play about the creative process by the Austin, Tex., ensemble Rude Mechs, which since it was founded in 1995 has become one of the nation’s leading proponents of devised theater: works developed collaboratively by a company rather than an individual playwright.

“The Method Gun,” which comes to Dance Theater Workshop from March 2 to 11, is the most autobiographical of the company’s pieces. It’s satirical and celebratory in roughly equal parts, exploring ideas of togetherness and loss, the dynamics of being part of a tight-knit group and what it means to take care of one another.

While the show’s premise nods to celebrated acting teachers like Stella Adler and to extreme, emotion-based techniques like the Method, specifics are left aside in favor of merciless riffs on codified approaches to art. But the Rude Mechs’ wicked sense of humor tempers a sincere streak that the company wears like a badge of honor.

Read more at the New York Times on-line . . . .

Dionysus in 69, re-enacted by the Rude Mechanicals at the Off Center, December 3 - 20

The Rude Mechanicals' Dionysus in 69 is a charming exercise in theatre archeology, one that captivates us by illustrating how sincere, how naive and how lucky we were to be living back in the dark, dark days of 1968.

Back in 1968, the Performance Group's interpretation of Euripides' The Bacchae resounded with the times. Their canny staging of the ancient classic about violence, ritual, unknowing and ecstasy scandalized conventional citizens and captured the imagination of the young -- that earnest generation of forty years ago who were about the age of the Austin's Rude Mechanicals today.

The nudity sold the show then, and the Rudes' press photos suggest that they understand well that aspect of the marketing. And these young folk are without exception all very handsome in their skins, displayed confidently and unselfconsciously in key group rituals portraying of birth, death, and murder.

The Rudes' re-enactment is based on films of the original and it benefits from workshops and discussions with Richard Schechner, director of that path-breaking production. Schechner is now an eminence grise, a venerable elder and NYU professor. He was invited to Austin by UT's Humanities Institute and was scheduled for a discussion and talk-back for the second performance on Friday, December 4.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Dionysus in 69, Rude Mechanicals at the Off Center, December 3 -

UPDATE: Click for ALT review, December 5

UPDATE: Dan Solomon interviews director Shawn Sides for austinist.com, December 4

UPDATE: Extensive backgrounder by Robert Faires, published in the Austin Chronicle, November 26

Found on-line:

Rudes rebirth

Dionysus in 69

December 3 -20, Thursdays - Sundays at 8 p.m.
at The Off Center
Tickets on sale now at Brown Paper Tickets

[Photos by Bret Brookshire]

Rude Mechs is proud to produce the first-ever revival of The Performance Group’s Dionysus in 69, a groundbreaking interpretation of Euripides’s The Bacchae. Offering Austin theatre-goers an extraordinary opportunity to relive history, the Rudes are painstakingly recreating the original production, using Brian de Palma’s filmed version of the play and the 1970 book, Dionysus in 69 as source materials, as well as inviting the original production's director, Richard Schechner, to guide several rehearsals.

Rude Mechs celebrates 40 years of experimental theatre by experiencing and learning about Dionysus in 69 in the deepest way - through its performance.

Ensemble: Heather Barfield, Elizabeth Doss, Thomas Graves, Jude Hickey, Matt Hislope, Jodi Jinks, Hannah Kenah, Josh Meyer, Aron Taylor, Katie Van Winkle
Co-Directed by: Madge Darlington and Shawn Sides

NOTE: In addition to Richard Schechner leading several rehearsals in advance of the production he will return to Austin for opening night December 4, when he'll briefly introduce the piece immediately before the show and will attend the opening night party following.

WARNING: NUDITY AND ADULT THEMES.
NO ONE UNDER 18 WILL BE ADMITTED WITHOUT PARENT OR GUARDIAN.

Read more and view images at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Guest by Courtesy by Hannah Kenah and Jenny Larson, workshop at Salvage Vanguard, November 8

Advertised in the Evil Dead program and found on-line:

Guest by Courtesy

Written by Hannah Kenah
Created by Hannah Kennah and Jenny Larson
Original live and improvised piano score by Graham Reynolds
Performed by Hannah Kenah, Jenny Larson, and Jason Hays

November 8th 2009 at 5 p.m.
at Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 E. Manor Rd

A “tea,” even though it can be formal, is nevertheless friendly and inviting. One does not go in “church” clothes nor with ceremonious manner; but in an informal and every-day spirit, to see one’s friends and be seen by them. A smaller room is preferable, too much space with too few people gives an effect of emptiness which always is suggestive of failure.

Tickets $10, sold at the door only

I've Never Been So Happy, Rude Mechanicals at the Off Center, September 10 - 20

It's clever. It's mythic. It's melodic. It's multimedia.

It's the Rude Mechanicals still-in-workshop production of I've Never Been So Happy with book and lyrics by Kirk Lynn and music by Peter Stopchinsky, who also sings the part of the mountain lion.

But it's short and it's incomplete. By design, it will leave you wanting more.

The Rude Mechanicals have made for themselves an enviable place in the bubbling world of Austin's young non-Equity original-works theatres.

The Rudes are highly creative. They've done 22 original productions since inventing themselves in 1995, building a reputation, a following and support. They are not a high-volume theatre company, despite their six co-producing artistic directors, 28 company members, 88 business partners and an impressive array of individual supporters.

They've survived and triumphed by learning networking and grantsmanship. The Rudes succeeded in getting grant funding for this Western operetta fable from the National Endowment for the Arts, both directly and as part of the subsequent anti-recession stimulus package. The show is part of the NEA's new play development project, coordinated by the Arena Stage in Washington DC. Last December they did a workshop production in Austin of the early scenes of the play. They've worked parts of it further at the Orchard Project in the Catskills and last June with the UT Department of Theatre and Dance.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Works Progress Austin:Swanson, Lynn, Kenah, Larson at Salvage Vanguard, May 23

UPDATE: Plot summaries posted May 20 by Jeanne Claire van Ryzin in the Statesman's "Seeing Things" blog


From the SVT list server:

Works Progress Austin features a sneak peek at new works in progress

[ Saturday May 23 @ 8pm ]

Works Progress Austin is an annual development project that gives artists a playground to develop new works. Over the course of two weeks actors, writers, directors, filmmakers, dramaturgs, comedians, and musicians are given an opportunity to incubate and experiment. The two weeks culminate in a one-night-only performance of the works in progress featuring elements of three new plays. Inspired by Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration, WPA aims to put artists to work.

This year's public performances will include: "A Brief Narrative on the Extraordinary Birth of Rabbits" by C Denby Swanson; "The Collapse" by Kirk Lynn; "Guest by Courtesy" by Hannah Kenah and Jenny Larson; and "Guilds of Steel" from Gnap! Theater Projects. Tickets are $10 at the door.

The Method Gun, Rude Mechanicals at the Off Center, April 9 - May 2

So what, exactly, is the Method Gun?

The short, obvious and wrong answer is that it's the loaded pistol that is secured in a birdcage by a troupe of intense, troubled actors. And like any loaded pistol that features in stage action, it will, eventually be used (cf., "the loaded gun theory").

That piece of hardware is a gun, but it's not The Method Gun except in a very minor, representational way.

The ensemble makes us at home for the show, opening the house early and providing piano music, a compendium of sentimental ballads keyed out carefully by a cast member. "Stardust," "Red Sails in the Sunset, "Alfie," "I Will Wait for You," pieces relatively appropriate for the early 1970s setting of the action, played about as well as I might play them after 30 years away from the keyboard.

Click to Read More on AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: The Method Gun and Tenebrism, Rude Mechanicals, April 9 - May 2

UPDATE, April 19: CLICK for ALT review of The Method Gun

UPDATE, April 1: Click image for Rude Mechs' dumb "Tiger" promo video (1:30 -- one of five versions posted on YouTube)

UPDATE, April 14: Jeanne Claire van Ryzin's pre-opening piece in the Statesman's Austin360 "Seeing Things" blog



From the Rude Mecs, March 4:

THE METHOD GUN
a project of Creative Capital
at The Off Center
April 9 - May 2, 2009 (Thurs - Sun @ 8 pm) No performance Sunday, April 12th

MAKE YOUR RESERVATION NOW!

written by Kirk Lynn
directed by Shawn Sides
featuring: Thomas Graves, Heather Hanna, Jude Hickey, Hannah Kenah and Lana Lesley

”Nothing short of the best work this theater collective has done in its 13 years as it has carved out its well-respected reputation on the international indie theater scene...This is the Rude Mechanicals doing what they do best: crafting a rich series of stunning and surprising visual moments, lacing those moments with kinetic physical movement and wrapping it all together with a script both lyrical and cheeky.” — Austin American-Statesman

“The ‘final performance’ of Burden’s Streetcar features a characteristically Rude-ish blend of physicality and audaciousness... so precisely timed, so crisply executed... almost hypnotic.” — Austin Chronicle "Top 10 Theatrical Treasures and Pleasures of 2008" — Austin Chronicle

"In the arts, the Eight from '08" — Austin American-Statesman

In preparation for our Spring 2010 national tour, Rude Mechs is proud to present a revisited, reworked and recast encore performance of our original play, this time on our home turf, The Off Center.

The Method Gun explores the life, ethos, and techniques of actor-training guru, Stella Burden, as recounted through the eyes of her students. Ms. Burden’s training technique, The Approach, fused Western acting techniques and more dangerous METHODS in an effort to infuse even the smallest of roles with SEX, DEATH and VIOLENCE.

We promise: guns, pendulums, “Streetcar,” and physical danger. We make no claims on behalf of narrative, common sense, or safety.

Using found text from the journals and performance reports of Stella Burden’s company, “The Method Gun” re-enacts the final months of her company’s rehearsals for their nine-years-in-the-making production of “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Stella left the company under mysterious circumstances in 1972. Diaries and letters from actors in the company express a sense of desperation, inadequacy, and frustration inherent to the process of creating meaningful work for the stage and in everyday life.

Set amid swinging pendulums and talking tigers, “The Method Gun” bounces between interior monologues, rehearsal sequences of “Streetcar,” and group interactions - all gleaned from historical documents - to express a longing for the return of inspiration and a more believable presentation of self in everyday life. Click here for a production history, reviews of the April 2008 production, photos, video clips and more.

ATTENTION FUSEBOX PASSHOLDERS!!!
The Method Gun will also be featured in The Fusebox Festival (April 23 - May 2) alongside new works from Rotozaza, Forced Entertainment and tEETH, as well as works from Nature Theater of Oklahoma, local heroes Rubber Repertory and showings from LeeSaar the Company. We will accept a limited number of Fusebox Passes each night of the festival. To make your reservation, secure the passholder password from Fusebox and make your reservation using the Brown Paper Tickets link above. Select "Fusebox Pass" as your ticket type. You must arrive at the box office no later than 7:45 pm with your pass and valid ID in hand. Unclaimed passholder reservations will be released at 7:45 pm each night.

The Method Gun has received support from Creative Capital Foundation, Rockefeller MAP Fund, The Orchard Project, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Humanities Institute and The Harry Ransom Center. Rude Mechs is supported by the Texas Commission on the Arts and the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division.

TENEBRISM
featuring Jeremey Catterton and Jayne Deis

THREE NIGHTS ONLY!!!
April 16 - 18, 2009 (Thurs - Sat @ 10:30 pm) each night after The Method Gun at The Off Center

CLICK HERE FOR TICKET INFORMATION

"Fans of more traditionally-structured theater may not be thrilled by the informality and edginess of this dark farce, but I really enjoyed it." – David De Young, www.HowWasTheShow.com

Rude Mechs is crazy proud to host the work of Minneapolis-based theatre company Lamb Lays with Lion with their original performance, Tenebrism.

Tenebrism is the first experiment in the Theatre of Disruption. Performed in an intentionally fragile atmosphere, Lamb Lays with Lion blurs the line of performance and reality by sharing its failure with the audience.

Tenebrism is inspired by the religious imagery of Renaissance painter Caravaggio, Martin Scorsese’s "The Last Temptation of Christ," and legendary rock star Ian Curtis and his iconic post-punk band, Joy Division. The host, Jeremey, promises the audience a show about Jesus, Joy Division, and Caravaggio. However, as Tenebrism unfolds, it becomes clear that the real performance is in witnessing just how hard it is for Jeremey and his assistant, Jayne, to get the show to “go on” at all.

Tenebrism is the result of Lamb Lays with Lion’s “Theatre of Disruption” approach to creating ensemble performance.

Tenebrism is performed by Lamb Lays with Lion founding-members, Jeremey Catterton and Jayne Deis.

Tenebrism promises to be an unforgettable evening of entertainment.

ABOUT LAMB LAYS WITH LION Lamb Lays with Lion is an original and experimental theater company. We dedicate ourselves to the maintained integrity of performance, the exploration of unique and radical new forms, the discovery of virtual and spectral expressions, and most importantly, we strive toward being a leading force behind the thrust into a new age of art. For more information about this production or the company, please visit http://lamblayswithlion.org/. Lamb Lays with Lion company includes: Cameron Brainard, Jeremey Catterton, Jayne Deis, Julia Mae Fairbanks, Jake Lindgren, Katie Rose McLaughlin, Melissa Ann Murphy, Jacob Mullis, Dan O’Neil, Ashley Smith and Carl Atiya Swanson.

Review: Best of FronteraFest Short Fringe, Week 3, Hyde Park Theatre, January 31

In the Austin Chronicle of February 5, Hannah Kenah summarizes the "best of the week" offerings on Saturday, January 31:

Lascivious Lunches and Decadent Diners, by Patricia Sample

Our Angle in Heaven by Maggie Gallant (left)

Folding House by Sheila Gordon

TBA by Stephen Pruitt

Nine Hundred Pound Goose by Walter Miranda

Click for Hannah Kenah's review of best of FronteraFest, Week 3

My Bugatti Story by/with Paul Ehrmann, Salvage Vanguard, January 19, 24, 25, 31

My Bugatti Story is playing at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre as part of the 2009 FronterFest Long Fringe. Writer Paul Ehrmann plays Alexander, the principal character. Though there's a cast of six, the show is essentially a long monologue by Ehrmann, interspersed with illustrative scenes. The near-monologue format is appropriate, for most of the action is taking place in his head, or at least in his fantasies.

At the opening, Alexander is found in a psychiatric ward, just about to undergo a board review of his non-voluntary commital. He has refused to participate in drug trials that would take away his memory and he has hoarded enough doses of potent sedative Thorazine to commit suicide. The bout with the review board is unsatisfactory to both sides.

Before chomping down those fatal pills, Alexander tells us his story. When he was seven years old, his parents took him to Paris to visit the neighborhood from which they'd fled the Nazi occupation. His parents tell him of the arrest, brutal mistreatment and deportation to Germany of one of the bakery workers, a simple boy who unknowingly was wrapping bread in copies of the newspaper of the French résistance. Alex is horrified by the pictures in a book on the résistance movement,including a Gestapo "machine pour découper les mains" - - "a machine for cutting off hands."

He returns to the United States forever shaken. We witness some of his unsuccessful attempts to overcome the neurosis and become a "spacious guy" like other American yokels. We do not really understand when or how, exactly, he wound up in the bin.

As Alexander thinks of suicide, he is saved by the return of one of the luminescent memories of that séjour in Paris -- the sight of a Bugatti dealership with its powerful, fantastically styled sports cars.

"I escaped into my dreams," he exults, and we follow him into a fantasy world of occupied France where he is a much admired mechanic and driver for Bugatti (played by the imposingly authoritative Frank Benge).

There's a girl, of course, the delicate artist and advertising designer played by Cici Barone,seen here in a light-as-air confection of a dress.The crass American boys of his youth played by Matt Connely and Craig Nigh have transformed into confident coveralled Frenchmen, with pretty good French accents.

We follow the plot as the rotten Nazis oblige portly Bugatti to convert his factory to produce torpedoes, the nobly patriotic French (plus Alexander) scheme to frustrate them, and Alexander's love escapes over the Pyrenees to Lisbon and, eventually, the United States. Alex triumphs over all the bad guys, both those in his fantasies and those running the psychiatric institute.

Publicity for the show asserts that it is "71 percent true."

Paul Ehrmann's heroic little story reminded me irresistibly of a literary genre little known in the United States. Beginning immediately after World War II, principally in Belgium, artists such as Edgar P. Jacobs and Hergé drew and published what we with current political correctness now call "graphic novels." These were fantasy pieces for French speaking boys, in which intrepid adventurers travelled the world, foiled crooks and fought maniacal villains who resembled the worst caricatures of Prussians, Nazis, evil eastern Europeans and third-world dictators. These were not pulp publications, exactly, although they often appeared as serials in boys' magazines. Publishers offered them as albums. Despite dusty concepts and pre-CGI FX, they remain popular today.

Every French bookstore deals in bandes dessinées. And behind the manga and French surrealist sexy space and crime albums there sits a solid shelf or two of these classics. Paul Ehrmann's pleasant fantasy reminds me particularly of the various adventures of Jacobs' "Blake and Mortimer," a pair of very British gentlemen who were always foiling the wicked.

Ehrmann's writing is vivid. His images are often surprising, even poetic -- for example, his description of the first Bugatti shown above, which he hails as "hot cheese poured over a rollerskate." When he imagines an impossible story of pursuing with his fleet, muscular Bugatti the train carrying Louis toward Germany, we accept the story, however far fetched.

Some of his jokes succeed less well -- a gibe about nepotism in Texas state contracting is incongruous. The momentary return of captive Louis as a hostage is the occasion for a dumb sally about "not being the only 33-year old Jew who has ever returned."

By his own admission, Ehrmann has a lot of himself invested in this narrative. At times he comes across as confessional or woodenly self-obsessed, characteristics which are perfectly in keeping with his imaging of Alexander.

Afterwards, I spent some time trying to picture in that role some other Austin actor who could bring more delight and mischief to the portrayal, qualities that could "sell" us more convincingly the happily surreal dénouement. Ben Wolfe, perhaps, or Tyler Jones?

Review by Clayton Maxwell in Austin Chronicle of January 30

Hannah Kenah's advance piece in the Austin Chron icle, January 16

Best in 2008, according to Austin journalists

Austin Live Theatre hasn't been active long enough to offer a "10 best of 2008," but here are opinions from the Austin arts journalists.

ALT agrees with some of them and disagrees pretty strongly about others. If you've been following this chronicle of Austin theatre, you'll have a pretty good idea of ALT's differences.

"10 best" picks from the Austin Chronicle, by:

Robert Faires

Wayne Alan Brenner

Barry Pineo

Hanna Kenah

Avimaan Syam

Elizabeth Cobbe

Over at the Statesman, Jeanne Claire van Ryzin's "8 best arts events," a portmanteau article that groups under heading #8 her choice of eight "jewel-like exhibits and performances."

A thumping raging explosion of marvelous light and texture, Salvage Vanguard Theatre, October 2 – 11

This short spectacle at the Salvage Vortex is a lot of fun.

Masonic, a foursome of indie rockers from Austin, cut loose and six young women dancers gambol through a happy, energetic evocation of childhood fun.

When the lights come up, each is perched on a round cross-cut plaque of wood. To the driving sounds of the band, they mime dizzy capers, initially as if they were at the top of a pinnacle and then as if they were on a firm spot in a liquid world.

As the band segues from one piece to another, the six young women caper onstage in a fluid but meticulously choreographed series of scenes that call forth the wonders and delights of young girls.

There is a refreshing innocence here and a sense of play throughout. They wear simple shifts and they resemble one another in age, in demeanor and in flexibility. Over our hour with them we can pick up clues to personalities and capture faces, but they remain very much alike.

One girl teases another; another intervenes; someone shoves, someone twists, someone hides, turning the minimalist space of the Salvage Vanguard into a playground. Girls try to carry the wooden plaques across the stage and other girls mischievously block them.

The dancers show us impressive energy, much like young children who burn away at high speed until they drop.

There are amusing interludes – for example, all six sprawl on their backs at the front of the stage, pumping away with their legs as if on recumbent bicycles. They accelerate, slow, veer from one side to another, puff as they climb imaginary hills and shriek as they descend imaginary slopes.

Again and again they do lifts or tumbles or somersaults.

Theirs is an autumn playground, and the girls discover handfuls, then armfuls of dry leaves. They frolic in showers of them, making patterns, pelting one another and clambering up a ladder to bring down leaves hanging above the dance space.





At the finale, the red-headed girl with a sly smile brings out a large fan. When she sets it going, all of the children take turns savoring its blast and glorying in the novelty of it.

Amanda Butterfield created a thumping (. . . etc.) and appears in it along with Brazie Adamez, Lisa del Rosario, Hannah Kenah, Erin Molson, and Holly Wissman.

I enjoyed the music by Masonic, a tight group with a lithe red-headed woman singer who except for the fact she was in jeans could have been one of the dancers.

It was loud, though – the Yellow Tape house staff offered foam earplugs to any of us who looked like candidates for them. And I wish I could have followed the lyrics, in addition to rocking with the rhythms.

Wylie Maercklein has done a colorful series of photographs of the dress rehearsal, which the Yellow Tape Construction Company has posted on their Flickr site [Click here for the photos]. Some of his images are reproduced here. Others were taken from the front row during the Saturday night performance.

Elizabeth Cobbe's review in the Austin Chronicle, October 9

Mention by Jeanne Claire van Ryzin in her arts blog at the Statesman, October 10

Yellow Tape Theatre Company (YTTC) Website

Yellow Tape blog on blogspot.com

YTCC on MySpace

Website for Masonic

Masonic on MySpace