2011 Went Like This, Mostly

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

We hope that you and yours are making a perfect end to 2011 and starting off 2012 in style. One sure way to do both is to honor the philanthropist inside you by making a donation to Rude Mechs!

DONATE TO RUDE MECHS TODAY! That's right - No sassy print mailing this winter asking for your fantastically reliable annual gifts (thank you!), just this simple email letting you know we are in it for the long haul and hoping you can pick up where The Lazy Eye Ball fell short. You can make your tax-deductible contribution via Eventbrite by clicking any one of the buttons below. The site will stay open through January 31, 2011, and we'll probably give you at least one more reminder between now and then.

Rude Mechs really has had a banner year around the country, and here at home in Austin, so we thought we'd share a quick recap - the links will take you to other entries here in our blog, where we dabble in keeping you au courant, like this:

January 2011
• perform I've Never Been So Happy at Arena Stage in Washington DC for their New Play Festival
from Javier Rivera: "Terrific work at Arena last night...never stopped smiling...and I still felt a little sad. Congratulations."
• host Breaking String's New Russian Festival at The Off Center

February 2011
• perform The Method Gun at Yale University's No Boundaries Festival 

from: Catherine Foxahouse: "Method Gun blew me away--incredible!" 

• host Breaking String's New Russian Festival at The Off Center

March 2011 

• receive a huge awesome feature in The New York Times 

• perform The Method Gun at Dance Theatre Workshop 

from Kourtney Rutherford: "You guys have tiger blood and adonis DNA. Obvi. Loved the show!! Congrats!" 

• host Dystheatre's The Duck Variations; rehearse I've Never Been So Happy

April 2011 

• perform world premiere of I've Never Been So Happy at The Off Center 

from Mark Macek: "Participated in I've Never Been So Happy last night. Inventive, complex, and absolutely ecstatic. The ancient Greeks would have been proud of you. Thank you Rude Mechs for blowing me away."• host Rubber Repertory's Biography of Physical Sensation at The Off Shoot

May 2011 

• present Grrl Wrap - Grrl Action's Year-Round Workshop presentations at The Off Shoot 

• host Guerilla Girls workshop for Grrl Action at The Off Shoot

• host Salvage Vanguard's Guest By Courtesy rehearsas at The Off Shoot

• host Andrea Ariel Dance Company's The Grand Theory Of EVERYTHING BETWEEN at The Off Center

• host Ready Set Go Dance's Up, Down, Under, and Through AT THE OFF CENTER

June 2011 

• perform The Method Gun at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre as part of RADAR LA Festival 

• host Breaking String's Uncle Vanya at The Off Center 

from Clayton Farris: "thank you for bringing Method Gun to LA. it was one beautiful piece of theatre." 

• I've Never Been So Happy garners awards for "Production of a Musical", "Music Direction", "The David Mark Cohen New Play Award", and "Ensemble Performance" from the 2011 Austin Critics Table

July 2011 

• conduct Grrl Action Summer Workshop at The Off Shoot 

from Bryanna Estrada: "Whilst writing about Grrl Action in one of my college essays, I was reminded of what an impact this organization had on me! Thank y'all for coming together and forming such an important organization for young women."  

• present Grrl Action public performances at The Off Center

August 2011 

• host Austin Drama Club's Hamlet at The Off Center

• create The Oyster Club season and launch it with a happy hour at the side bar (thank you!)

• host The Lazy Eye Ball in the ether 

from Leslie Bonnell: "Lazy Eyeball = GENIUS."

September 2011 

• perform The Method Gun at Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Portland Institute for Contemporary Art's TBA Festival 

from Alejandro Novie: "Simply wonderful performance last night for TBA. Ya'll kick ass!" 

The Method Gun performances in Portland were filmed and it is now available to rent or buy the full HD film here: www.ontheboards.tv www.ontheboards.tvHome: host Chaotic Theatre's Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) at The Off Center

• host Loaded Gun Theory's Slapdash Flimflammery VIII: Back to the Flim Flam at The Off Center

• I've Never Been So Happy gets Charles McNulty's Fall Arts Pick in Los Angeles Times 

• rehearse I've Never Been So Happy at The Off Shoot

October 2011 

• perform I've Never Been So Happy at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theater in Los Angeles, CA 

from Ilana Turner: "I had a chance to tell some of your cast, but I wanted to tell you all ... Thank you, Rude Mechs, for your incredible show, I've Never Been So Happy! I have continued to burst out in laughter when I think about it and I can't quite explain it to others. (I was part of the Loudly Laughing Crew in the 2nd row on Friday.) With this show and Method Gun you people have reinvigorated my love of theater! Truly inspiring." 

• rehearse the legendary The B. Beaver Animation by Mabou Mines at The Off Center

• receive prestigious National Theatre Grant from American Theatre Wing

November 2011 

• perform the legendary The B. Beaver Animation by Mabou Mines at The Off Center 

from Allison Asher: "In a post-B.Beaver feather-dream today. Thanks, Rude Mechs, for continuing to delight. I caught Method Gun at Humana two years ago, and it was one of the reasons that I decided to move to Austin. Can't wait for the next project!" 

• host out of context production's Look Back in Anger 

• I've Never Been So Happy garners awards for "Outstanding Production" and "Outstanding Direction" from the 2011 B. Iden Payne Awards

December 2011 

• perform Dionysus in 69 at Princeton University 

from Dan Bauer: "Only in Princeton! Thanks you Lewis Center Princeton for presenting Rude Mechs (Austin, TX) recreation of the legendary and groundbreaking experimental theater piece "Dionysus in 69." A memorable and brilliant performance!!" 

• receive Best of 2011 for The Method Gun in Time Out New York and New York Magazine, and for The Method Gun and I've Never Been So Happy in the Los Angeles Times 

from The Fringe at CTG: "We loved having you at the Kirk Douglas Theatre twice this past season. Charles McNulty is right, you definitely brought the theatre to life!"   

• Kirk Lynn receives a USA Artist Fellowship - with a $50K prize!!

• host David Berman Gallery's presentation of George Krause Sfumato Nudes

ABOUT 2012

Last year we were awarded (as one of six companies in the country) a prestigious play development award from the New England Foundation for the Arts for a new play we can't seem to title - we will send an invitation for you to view our work-in-progress showing this Jan/Feb. We will premiere the new play in either April, May or June! In February, we will tour The Method Gun to Brisbane Powerhouse's World Theatre Festival (yes - in Australia!!). We are planning summer residencies to workshop Decameron Day 3: Revolution! so you can look forward to new episodes of our original soap opera Harbor Cove. That gets us up to the Summer, and that's about as far ahead as we ever get.

THANK YOU

We sent this very thank you to you last year, but we suspect it slipped by a lot of you, and we made a lot of new friends this year, so here it is again.

We are lucky to live in Austin. We are lucky to live in a city where the press engages the arts in ways that are deep and supportive.

We are lucky to live in a community this creative and hard working and confident and intelligent. All this new work and all these open minds. We are lucky to live in a community where artists support one another, rather than compete with one another – where we lift each other up instead of trying to tear each other down.

We are lucky to have so many amazing creative people that can make work with us, that are interested in making new work of their own, that understand failure is a symptom of working well and working hard and working right, not a predictor of future success.

We are lucky to live in a city where the audience is well-read and has a good sense of humor and brags on itself and yet somehow doesn’t take itself too seriously. We are lucky to have an audience that wants to participate in the creation of the play – that knows it isn’t finished until they show up and bring their own associations and dreams to the piece. And yet an audience that holds us accountable – with honesty but never dismissiveness.

We are lucky to live in a city that is full of bands and reads a lot of books and likes the outdoors and knows that a creative community isn’t just the money-generating ‘movers and shakers’ but also the teenage punk rockers and the quirky artist who builds spaces from trash and the hippies with their butterfly bicycles and the students making films and plays and music and their own new thing, whatever the new form will be.

We are always asked why we chose to live in Austin, so far from the artistic meccas on the coasts. Why would we have chosen anywhere else? Here we have friends and colleagues who know the value of a life lived making art with comrades and taking time to relax on the patio and share a beer and not get all het up about ‘making it’ because ‘making it’ isn’t how much money is in your bank account or how famous you are, or how ‘respected’ or ‘hot’. But how rich the hours in your day are, surrounded by people you love and admire, in a beautiful place that is both a safety net and the trapeze high above it.