Video Promo: River of Gruel, Pile of Pigs: The Requisite Gesture(s) of Narrow Approach by Sibyl Kempson and Rude Mechs at the Salvage Vanguard, opening April 3, 2014

From www.newdramatists.org via Salvage Vanguard Theatre:

From the Pig Pile:

The Requisite Gesture(s) of Narrow Approach opens April 3

by Sibyl Kempson

For three {hundred thousand} years now the Pig Pile has squirmed and squealed its way across a vast landscape of deep associations and histories between seemingly unrelated objects. The closer we get to the complicated, complicated porcine truth of what it means to be human, the more our numbers have dwindled, to where we now begin to fear we are on the brink of extinction. Only you can help us to piece these pieces together so that we may know what we have learned, before it’s too late. Note: If you have any wooden items that you wish to be preserved for all eternity, you may please to bring them with you to the occasion.

Trailer with scenes from Fusebox Festival workshop performance at the Off Center, April, 2013

This is a collaboration between Austin-based theater companies Rude Mechs and Salvage Vanguard Theater, and a New Dramatists resident playwright. The group has gathered four times a year for three years in a chaotic work format known as a Pig Pile, with little discernible leadership or centralized structure - neither of narrative nor of process – and has assembled an unwieldy and highly associative collection of seemingly unrelated imagery, geography and aromas, that over time and layers of work has revealed an emerging, intimately connected web of enfolded and implicate mythology.

This project is one of five institutional New Dramatists/Full Stage USA Commissions for new work at an eclectic mix of producing organizations across the country. The Full Stage USA initiative, conceived by New Dramatists and underwritten by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, addresses the field-critical issues of new works “stalling” in development with no resulting full production and the special challenge of securing subsequent productions after a world premiere. Each partnership provides a $25,000 commission to a writer; supports two years of enhanced writer-driven development in New Dramatists’ Playwrights Lab; and culminates in the full production staged by the partner theater.

Read as posted at the New Dramatists website: click here

Rude Mechs Accepting Spring Semester Student Intern Applications to January 19, 2014

Posted on Facebook by the Rude Mechs, Austin:

Applications to intern for spring 2014 semester are due by January 19th. Internships will begin January 26th. Click HERE to go to on-line application form.

• Rude Mechs Internship Application

  If you aren't familiar with our company, please take a few minutes to browse our website - look at our mission, our past productions, our programming. www.rudemechs.com
• Our goal is to provide you with opportunities to either work or observe work in your area of interest, should your interest align with our schedule and projects this semester. We will not ask you to perform volunteer duties that do not build your desired skill set. (For example, if you are interested in learning arts administration, we will not ask you to perform in our next play for free. However we might ask you to help archive our marketing materials or create a production budget.)
  
  It is our expectation that you will commit 48 hours (approximately 4 hours per week) to Rude Mechs to complete your internship during the semester. Your internship will span roughly 12 weeks. We will never ask you for more than 10 hours in a given week. We expect you to work virtually or independently as much as possible, and to see you in person no more than twice per month (unless you choose a project that must be executed at the venue, or requires our supervision).

Arts&Culture Texas Feature on Fixing King John by Kirk Lynn, Rude Mechs, November 7 - 24, 2013

Excerpts from a feature published November 5, 2013:

Rude Mechs Launch Fixin’ Shakespeare with King John

by Lauren Smart November 5, 2013

Robert S. Fisher, Lowell Batholomee, Tom Green, Jay Byrd, E. Jason Liebrecht, Florinda Bryant, Jeffrey Mills (image: Bret Brookshire)

Leave it to Austin’s maverick troupe, the Rude Mechs, to tackle Shakespeare’s “problem plays.” Even the Bard’s esteemed canon contains a few duds, and in the new bi-annual series, Fixin’ Shakespeare, the Rude Mechs attempt to slice and dice these plays into more contemporary, and perhaps more palatable, shows. The series debuts with Fixin’ King John, Nov. 7-24, adapted by Kirk Lynn and directed by Madge Darlington.

“There are some Shakespeare plays that are really difficult to produce well, and this is one of them,” Darlington says. “For one thing, King John is too long and many of the plot points are convoluted.” [. . . .]

King John carries the company’s stamp in its collage-like synthesis of music, movement and text, but it deviates in one notable way. A month before rehearsals began, Darlington had a script in hand. “Kirk’s version has all the wonderful things of the original script, but through the lens of contemporary vernacular,” Darlington says. “He’s also added wonderful moments of connection with the audience that give this play more relevance.” [. . . .]

By bringing a new perspective to his work, the Rude Mechs hope to crack these plays open in a new way. “It’s similar to the relationship a cover band has with the original performer,” Darlington says. “Fixing it was a fun way to think about it, and of course there’s a little bit of hubris to that.”

Read full article by Lauren Smart at Arts&CultureTexas. . . .

Austin Statesman feature on Fixing King John, Kirk Lynn's Adapation for the Rude Mechs, November 7 - 24, 2013

For the record: the Austin Statesman publishes a feature on the Rude Mech's Fixing King John by Kirk Lynn (November 7 - 24 at the Off Center, 2211-A Hidalgo Street), available only behind its subscriber pay wall. One-day on-line access is 99 cents.

Kirk Lynn (via Austin Statesman)

Van Ryzin: Fix Shakespeare? Kirk Lynn and the Rude Mechanicals give it a try

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin American-Statesman Staff November 2, 2013

William Shakespeare wrote 37 plays.

Or 39 if you’re the Folger Shakespeare Library, which includes one play that scholars maintain was lost to history. Then again, some scholars claim there are two lost Shakespeare plays. (Counting Shakespeare’s plays is a veritable academic cottage industry and the source of much intellectual tussle.)

This story continues on our new premium website for subscribers, MyStatesman.com. 

Continue reading/get access here »

Rude Mechs Offer Theatre Internships in Austin to University Students

Applications Open for University Student Internships in Austin, Texas

Rude Mechs is proud to serve as the Resident Theatre Company for the University of Texas Department of Theatre and Dance. For more information about UT's Theatre and Dance Department, visit jointhedrama.org. Through this innovative partnership of a renowned Tier 1 research university and Rude Mechs, a generation of new undergraduate and graduate students will gain a unique perspective on collectively devising new plays and managing a mid-size theatre.
The fall internship begins September 15th and the application form is available here. 

If you aren't familiar with our company, please take a few minutes to browse our website www.rudemechs.com - look at our mission, our past productions, our programming.
Our goal is to provide you with opportunities to either work or observe work in your area of interest, should your interest align with our schedule and projects this semester. We will not ask you to perform volunteer duties that do not build your desired skill set. (For example, if you are interested in learning arts administration, we will not ask you to perform in our next play for free, but we might ask you to help archive our marketing materials or create a production budget.)
It is our expectation that you will commit 48 hours (approximately 4 hours per week) to Rude Mechs to complete your internship during the semester.
Your internship will span roughly 12 weeks beginning September 15 ^th and end December 15 ^th , 2013. We will never ask you for more than 10 hours in a given week.
Please know that we also accept internships from students around the country, so feel free to use this application to let us know you are interested in spending some time down here with us.

STOP HITTING YOURSELF, a work in progress by the Rude Mechs, September 19 - 28, 2013, 2013

i





is proud to present

STOP HITTING YOURSELF
A work-in-progress production of a new play created by Rude Mechs

Sept. 19 - 28, 2013 (Thurs - Sat) at 8 p.m.
at The Off-Center, 2211-A Hidalgo Street, near E. 7th Street and Robert Martinez (behind Joe's Bakery) - click for map
All tickets $10.00 - available at: http://rudemechs.com/

Rude Mechs invites you to join us for a bare-bones work-in-progress showing of STOP HITTING YOURSELF as we get ready for the world-premiere in Lincoln Center's LCT3 program in NYC January 2014.

We presented the first draft of this new play in April 2013 at our venue, The Off Center, as part of Fusebox Festival's Machine Shop Series. This time around, we are focusing on script, staging and music. So you won't see any scenic design, but a bare-bones lighting design and the same costumes we used in the last production.

ABOUT THE PLAY With Stop Hitting Yourself, Rude Mechs is embracing the fundamental beliefs underlying late-stage capitalism and indulging in our version of 1930's Hollywood glamour. Part Pygmalion, part Busby Berkley, part self-help lexicon -- all while dancing around a queso fountain. Rude Mechs borrows from the plots of 1930's musicals to dig into the contemporary conservative dilemma: how to honor steely individualism without disavowing the virtue of charity. Tap dancing, fine dining, and the missionary position will all be employed in order to help all Americans stop hitting yourself.

COLLABORATOR UPDATES We are thrilled to welcome new collaborators to the show's development process. Company member Joey Hood is stepping in to replace Matt Hislope as he is off living his dream in Kansas. And we are thrilled to work for the first time with Scenic Designer Mimi Lein and Costume Designer Emily Rebholz as they join Company members Brian Scott (lighting) and Graham Reynolds (original score) on the design team.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Dramatis Personae workshop with Kirk Lynn, Scriptworks, May 7, 2013

DRAMATIS PERSONAE WORKSHOP COMING UP!

Kirk Lynn of the Rude Mechs
place and time TBA

Contact Christi@scriptworks.org to sign up!

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

STOP HITTING YOURSELF, a work in progress by the Rude Mechs, April 4 - 21, 2013

[performing at the Off Center, 2211-A Hidalgo Street, near E. 7th and Robert Martinez, behind Joe's Bakery -- click for map]

present their work-in-progress


Stop Hitting Yourself
April 4- 21, 2013
Thursdays - Sundays at 8 p.m
at The Off Center

Tickets at: http://www.rudemechs.com/tickets/index.htm

The final weekend tickets will also be available through Fusebox Festival. Passholders must make their reservations through Fusebox Festival.

"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." -- Socialite

"Improvement. Succor. Fate. Queso. Wardrobe. Charity. Belief." -- Wildman

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 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 our version of 1930's Hollywood glamour. Part Pygmalion, part 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 steely individualism without disavowing the virtue of charity. 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: Sam Accettulli, Hope Bennett, Thomas Graves, Scott Guthrie, Heather Hanna, Matt Hislope, Hannah Kenah, Isaac Klein, Lisa Laratta, Lana Lesley, E. Jason Liebrecht, Kirk Lynn, Graham Reynolds, Brian Scott, Shawn Sides, Paul Soileau, Dallas Tate, plus amazing technicians, crew, interns, 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.

Creation support for this project also comes in part from from The MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, and The National Endowment for the Arts, because a great nation deserves great art.
(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)

Opinion from Rude Mech Lana Lesley: Building Audience into the Process, Howlround.com

Opinion from Rude Mech Lana Lesley, published in www.howlround.com:







PROCESS


Building Audience Into the Process
by Lana Lesley


December 16, 2012 | BY Lana Lesley

Recently we’ve started to see many a grant proposal and many a conference paper, and heard many a panel struggling with “audience engagement.” It’s the convening topic for the 2012 National Performance Network Conference, and a research topic for APAP’s Leadership Development group. It’s the next “new answer” to the questions that have been flummoxing the regions for the last ten years—how to attract audience under the age of sixty, and how to grow patron populations. Smaller independent companies have best captured the “under-sixty” audience, and because of that, some of the larger regional theaters have been supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (or have led themselves) to seek out these companies, commission works from them, and perhaps partner with them in order to attract new audience. These efforts and questions are laudable and necessary to making performance in the twenty-first century. Rude Mechs’ success in engaging our community and attracting new audience is entrenched in our programming, our aesthetic, and our longstanding partnership with our audience in the creation of our work—work that has become increasingly interactive over the years.

Rude Mechs’ demographic is 52% under the age of forty-five, 38% of that group ranges between eighteen and thirty-five. We create original work that springs from and speaks to our community. We have kept and grown our audience base because precisely how we engage with our audience has been a paramount part of our aesthetic since our inception. We think it’s the ongoing evolution of this engagement that is actually the important part. If trying out new ideas to reach a new demographic isn’t intrinsic to your artistic interests, and/or your institution’s programming, then it probably isn’t really going to “reach” anyone at all.

It has never been part of our mission to explore a singular form, or a particular set of performance ideas, or any through-line to our content. Our plays are wildly different from each other in terms of content, style, and form. Culturally, we have always seemed to be most attracted to the thing we’ve never done before. What our plays have in common is the collective aesthetic that resulted from our individual tastes and interests colliding play after play, year after year. And an ongoing and large part of that aesthetic is our deep concern for our relationship with the audience, and our audience’s relationship to the work. 


Read more at www.howlround.com . . . .

Opportunity: Rude Mechs Accepting Applications for spring 2013 Internships

Up on the Rude Mechs' blog, Wednesday, November 14:

Accepting Internship Applications for Spring 2013

By offering internships to interested students, Rude Mechs offers a new generation of undergraduate and graduate students a unique perspective on collectively devising new plays and managing a mid-size theatre company. We are interested in creating opportunities to interact with our company and receive training in the areas of creation, production, and administration, with a focus on devised ensemble creation.

If you are interested in working with Rude Mechs, please fill out an application at http://rudemechs.com/programs/Internships.htm.

If you aren't familiar with our company, please take a few minutes to browse our website - look at our mission, our past productions, our programming... rudemechs.com

Arts Reporting: Eric Dyer's Recollection/Interview of the Rude Mechs and Their Reconstruction of Dionysus in '69, Bombsite.com, November 7

Dyer's lengthy article with photos, via a link published by the Rude Mechanicals, Austin, TX:








THEATER
Bombsite.com, Issue 122 

Preview: Rude Mechanicals


by Eric Dyer Nov 07, 2012

An exclusive preview: Theater group Rude Mechanicals show Dionysus in 69 is at New York Live Arts through November 10.

Hannah Kenah, Jude Hickey, Katie van Winkle and others (photo: Bret Brookshire)

The first meeting between the Austin-based company Rude Mechanicals and NYC’s Radiohole was at the Orchard Project in Hunter, New York, in the summer of 2007. Both companies were in residency, developing new projects—the Rude Mechs (their common moniker) were beginning The Method Gun, which went on to premiere at Humana Festival in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2010, and Radiohole were beginning ANGER/NATION, which opened at The Kitchen in 2008. It was a beautiful summer romance.

That summer at Orchard Project was the first and, to date, only collaboration between Radiohole and Rude Mechs. It was a spontaneous single-evening performance witnessed by few, if any, outside the two companies, and it will never happen again. Thomas Graves, Kirk Lynn, and I performed naked Tai Chi in the dark of night on the rocks in the middle of the Schoharie Creek, illuminated by Scott Halvorsen Gillette standing in the river with an old fluorescent work light and occasional flashes of lightning. With Lana Lesley, Shawn Sides, Madge Darlington, and the other Rudes on the riverbank chanting, Kirk, Thomas, and I swayed gently back and forth until Radiohole’s Maggie Hoffman appeared on the rocks out of the darkness in her long black Carrie A. Nation dress. We hoisted Maggie over our heads and slowly carried her over the rocks. We reached the edge of a large, deep pool and, with a collective exhaling, dropped her into it—we had made our sacrifice. There was a splash and Maggie drifted downriver into the darkness while Kirk, Thomas, and I resumed our swaying.

I relate this story because I cherish the memory—this was a performance in itself, and the vast majority of our work as theater/performance artists takes place in this way, hidden from view, outside the social-aesthetic frame of our regularly scheduled performances. Both the Rude Mechs and Radiohole explore the idea of theater as ritual, as a form of communal religious experience, though in distinct ways. This is manifest in the Rude Mechs’ work on the Performance Group’s 1968 production of Dionysus in 69, directed by Richard Schechner—the first in a series of reenactments of significant experimental performances from the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s.

Our companies share a creative ethos that is reflected in some basic structural similarities. Each is collectively run: the Rude Mechanicals by six artistic directors (five of whom founded the company in 1995) and Radiohole by its four founding members. Each creates original works from scratch, and each founded and runs its own venue. Radiohole’s venue is Collapsable Hole in Brooklyn; the Rude Mechs’ performance warehouse, the Off Center, has become home to many of Austin’s visual, film, theater, and music artists.

The following conversation happened on the eve of the Rude Mechs’ New York tour. It is pieced together from many fragments: emails, poorly recorded phone calls, and letters exchanged through the mail (remember that?). The conversation is not linear and reflects the compositional process more or less characteristic of Radiohole and the Rude Mechanicals. By the time you read this, the Rude Mechs will have brought their re-construction of the Performance Group’s Dionysus in 69 to New York Live Arts. We hope you will have experienced it and that this conversation might retrospectively bring new insight into that experience.

Read more at Bombsite.com . . . .

Dionysus in 69, open rehearsal, Rude Mechanicals, October 29

(www.rudemechs.com)

Rude Mechs is proud to present a one-night-only open rehearsal of Dionysus in 69, our re-enactment of The Performance Group's radical 1968 re-imagining of The Bacchae.

In December 2009, Rude Mechs faithfully recreated the original Performance Group production, using Brian de Palma's filmed version of the play as well as the 1970 book, Dionysus in 69, as source materials.

Please join us on Monday Oct 29th to celebrate the god and gear up for our November tour to New York Live Arts in NYC, where we'll victoriously return this legendary work to its original birthplace, 44 years after its premiere.

Monday, October 29, 2012, 8 p.m.
The Off Center, 2211-A Hidalgo St., Austin, Texas 78702 (click for map)Tickets: $10 (only 50 seats available)
Get tickets at: http://dionysusin69.brownpapertickets.com/

Dionysus in 69 was the first production in Rude Mechs' Contemporary Classics series, focused on producing exact re-enactments of significant, experimental performances from the 60's, 70's, and 80's that radically influenced the work of contemporary performance artists, dancers, and theatre makers. Because all performances are ephemeral, and avant-garde performances even more so, most people never experience these germinal works. Rude Mechs remounts these productions as closely as possible to the originals to share these works with our Austin audience, to educate ourselves, and to celebrate 40 years of experimental (and "environmental") theatre, by experiencing and learning about Dionysus in 69 in the deepest way - through its performance.

"'Dionysus in 69' is strong stuff, but anyone who wants to know where the modern theatre is going will have to see it."---The New York Times, June 7, 1968

"Cunning. Joyful. Transcendent. Theatre at its absolute best." Austin Chronicle, 2009

The show runs approximately 90 minutes with no intermission. Rude Mechs invites you to attend and be moved by the spirit of 69: feel free to wander throughout the room, disappear and reappear, participate in the fun or fade into the background. We encourage respectful interaction. Photography of any kind will get you booted, your camera confiscated and your pictures deleted.

NOTE: All seating is on wooden platforms accessed by wooden ladders or on the floor. There are no chairs. If you need special accommodation, please let us know 24 hours ahead of time. Thanks!

WARNING: Nudity and adult content. No one under 18 will be admitted without a guardian.

Upcoming: Now Now Oh Now, Rude Mechanicals at the Off Center, May 17 - June 9

present

Now Now Oh Now

May 17 - June 9, Thursdays - Sundays

multiple sessions each night, starting as needed at 7:30 and 8 p.m.; possibility of adding 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. start times

audience limited to 30 persons per session

at the Off Center, 2211-A Hidalgo, behind Joe's Bakery and near E. 7th and Robert Martinez (click for map)

Tickets are $25 for general admission on Fridays and Saturdays, and "Pay What You Wish" on Thursdays and Sundays. Advance tickets go on sale staring April 17th. Tickets will also be available at the door for cash or check only. For more information and advance ticket purchases, visit www.RudeMechs.com.

The Rude Mechs will debut the first fully-mounted production of the original work Now Now Oh Now on May 17th through June 9th at The Off Center. Previously presented in various workshop versions under the working title CL1000P, the fully-realized staging creates interactive puzzle about the importance and impermanence of selecting pleasure over survival.

The concept, structure and content of the work were developed by Madge Darlington, Thomas Graves, Hannah Kenah and Shawn Sides. With a book by Kenah and staging by Sides, the production will feature actors Graves, Kenah and Sides joined by Robert Fisher, Lana Lesley and Jason Liebrecht.

Inspired by evolutionary biology, the Brontës, and live-action-role-play communities, Now Now Oh Now is performed as "a triptych tribute to everyone's inner geek." Embodying Rude Mechs' desire to create a more tangible, social, active and personal experience for their audiences, the performance marries serious scientific content and virtuosic movement with the nerdy pleasure of puzzles and gaming - with the guilty pleasure of Murder Mystery Theatre.

An intimate consideration of how individual choices lead us through life and impact the world, the staging takes a locked room puzzle, a lecture on sexual selection in evolutionary biology and the world's weirdest night of Dungeons and Dragons - and weaves them all together to "paint a picture of why the things you find beautiful are important to the world," according to the creative team.

Now Now Oh Now is a recipient of the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Theatre Pilot. The goal of the program is to encourage artists and their collaborators to create high-quality works of contemporary theater - and provide for extended life of these works through touring to multi-disciplinary presenters, producing theaters and other venues.

Performances will be staged on Thursday through Sunday nights at The Off Center. Now Now Oh Now will be performed for an intimate audience of only 30 people per show, so several showings of the performance will be offered each night. Tickets will first be sold for a 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. showings each night. If these performances sell out, additional performances will be added at 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

Arts Reporting: L.A. Stage Times on the Rude Mechanicals' I've Never Been So Happy, October 5

Via a link tweeted by the Rude Mechs:

The Rude Mechs Return to LA and They’ve Never Been So Happy

Feature by A.R. Cassell | October 5, 2011

Yippee-ki-ay! The West is about to get even wilder with the arrival of the Texans who make up the Rude Mechs, the experimental theater company whose latest creation I’ve Never Been So Happy will begin performances this Thursday at the Kirk Douglas Theatre.

Continuing their relationship with the Center Theatre Group (audiences may recall their production of The Method Gun at the Douglas during the RADAR L.A. festival in June), the “Rudes” are blazing new frontiers with their first bona fide musical…that is, if a “musical” is what you’d call it.

Otherwise called a “transmedia hootenanny,” I’ve Never Been So Happy, written by Kirk Lynn, centers around two star-crossed lovers in the wild wild West who, along with the help of some talking dachshunds (it’s true), must fight to stay together despite the efforts of their parents, a mountain lion, and whole slew of colorful characters. Composer Peter Stopschinski’s score ranges everywhere from down-home country, to ballads, heavy metal, opera and R&B. During the extended intermission, there is a shindig, which is described as a “interactive carnivalesque performance party.”

[image: Paul Soileau, Jason Liebrecht and Jenny Larson, via www.lastagetimes.com]

Read more and view additional images at www.lastagetimes.com . . . .

Upcoming: New Russian Drama Festival, Breaking String, Rude Mechs, Scriptworks and UT at the Off Center, January 28 - 31

Found on-line:

in association with the Rude Mechanicals and the Fusebox International Theatre Festival proudly presents

The Breaking String New Russian Drama Festival

at The Off Center 2211 Hidalgo Street, Austin, TX 78702 (click for map)

January 28th through January 31st

Thanks to support from the Center for International Theater Development and its director, Philip Arnoult, Breaking String is proud to host two of Russia’s most important contemporary playwrights: Maksym Kurochkin and Olga Mukhina.

All Festival events, except performances Flying, are free and open to the public. Join us!

Friday, January 28

• 8:00 PM: North American Premiere of Flying by Olga Mukhina, translated by John Freedman.

Saturday, January 29

• 12:30 PM: Discussion on New Russian Drama. Panelists: Olga Mukhina and Maksym Kurochkin
• 2:00 PM: Panel Discussion: New Russian Drama in Context. Panelists from the University of Texas at Austin: Elizabeth Richmond-Garza, Thomas Garza, and Seth Wolitz
• 4:00 PM: Staged Reading of YoU, by Olga Mukhina, translated by John Freedman. Directed by Liz Fisher
• 8:00 PM: Flying by Olga Mukhina, translated by John Freedman

Sunday, January 30

• 1:00 PM: Discussion of the Center for International Theatre Development's New Plays for Russia Initiative, with CITD Director Philip Arnoult
• 3:00 PM: Staged reading Repress and Excite, by Maksym Kurochkin, translated by John Freedman. Directed by James Loehlin.
• 8:00 PM: Flying by Olga Mukhina

Monday, January 31

• 6:00 PM: Austin Scriptworks Panel Discussion on new play development in Russia and the United States. With Scriptworks Director Christi Moore, Olga Mukhina and Maksym Kurochkin.