Rude News: UT Residency, D69 in NYC, E.A.S.T. and more!

IN BRIEF:

• Rude Mechs is named Resident Theatre Company by the University of Texas Dept. of Theater and Dance.
  
  
• Board Member Michael Yates offers great way to support Rude Mechs and the visual arts scene at E.A.S.T.!
  
  
• Dionysus in 69 tours to New York Live Arts, November 6 - 10th.
  
  
• Rude Mechs adds Scenic Shop to Austin's Scenic Coop, supporting Austin's arts scene.

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Rude Mechs Selected as Resident Theatre Company Rude Mechs is thrilled to begin a three-year residency at The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance as their Resident Theatre Company. We look forward, through this partnership, to enhancing educational resources for Theatre and Dance students by providing opportunities for both graduate and undergraduate students to interact with a professional theatre company and receive training in the areas of creation, production, and administration, with a focus on devised ensemble creation. Rude Mechs has a long and strong history of engaging with students throughout the City of Austin, and around the country, and are eager to further strengthen our ties with the University and its talented student body.

Support Rude Mechs and the Visual Arts - go E.A.S.T.

We know you've already got the Eastside Artist Studio Tour (EAST) on your calendar for November 10,11, 17 & 18. As you gallery hop on Tillery St, be sure to stop at Michael Yates Design (Stop #134 at 618 Tillery St). Once you've fallen in love with his refined tables, chairs, and cabinets, ask him to design your perfect new bedroom set or living room chair. Michael joined the Board of Directors this year and when you mention Rude Mechs as you commission a new piece, he'll generously donate a portion of that commission in support of the current season.

"EAST is the only opportunity that most people have to see the working studios of artists. Of course it's a great time to see fresh work too, but there's something more interesting and quite personal about seeing the process and space where the artist works on a day to day (and night to night) basis. And every year I find something right around the corner from my spot that I was totally unaware of before, it's so dense over here with artists that you can literally cruise around the East Side and just accidentally bump into something exceptional." – Michael Yates

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New York Friends - Come Visit Us!

Dionysus in 69 tours to New York Live Arts

Please join us at our re-creation of Richard Schechner and The Performance Group's Dionysus in 69 presented by New York Live Arts as part of their Replay Series.

Nov 6 at 7:30PM Preview
Nov 7 - 10 at 7:30PM, Nov 9 at 10:30PM
Nov 8 at 6:30 Come Early Conversation: The (Re)performance of Discussing “Dionysus in 69”. Moderated by original conceiver /director Richard Schechner and production directors Shawn Sides and Madge Darlington.
Nov 9 Stay Late Discussion*

Directed by Richard Schechner and created collectively by The Performance Group (TPG), Dionysus in 69 is widely regarded as one of the germinal works of American experimental performance. Influenced by the work of Jerzy Grotowski, Happenings, the Freedom Movement, and a "birth ritual" from West Irian (part of the island of New Guinea), Schechner and TPG radically interpreted The Bacchae as both a celebration of ecstasy and a critique of false prophets.

In December 2009, Rude Mechs remounted this legendary work, offering Austin theatre-goers an extraordinary opportunity to relive history. 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.

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

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Rude Mechs adds Scene Shop to our Scenic Coop

As you may already know, Rude Mechs has been managing a Scenic Coop at The Off Center since 2008, a sort of lending library furnishing the entire performance community access to free materials for their scenic needs. It was the brainchild / Master's Thesis of Co-Artistic Director, Thomas Graves. A few years ago, Salvage Vanguard got a TCG grant to support the Coop, which is also being managed at their venue.

And now, we are thrilled to announce the addition of a fully operational Scenic Shop to the Coop, run by the fabulous Scott Guthrie. This Scene Shop will be available for low rent to the Austin theater community, whom we love.

Give the Gift of RUDEness! Oyster Club on the Half Shell is Here!

IN BRIEF:

• Looking for a gift for the person who has everything? Oyster Club on the Half Shell is the answer!
  
• Our own Kirk Lynn was awarded a USA Artist Fellowship.
  
• Method Gun gets Best of 2011 in New York Magazine.
  
• More Rude shows on tour! Dionysus in '69 at Princeton in December and The Method Gun heads Down Under in February.
  
• Keep an eye out for the workshop production of our NEXT NEW PLAY in January/February.

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Give an awesome gift that supports the arts!

Looking for a gift for the person who has everything? Something that supports the arts in Austin AND provides you with something special to give? Or maybe you just need the promise of something special in the new year?

Click here to find your answer: A half-season membership to the Oyster Club!

Purchase a half-season membership and attend the remaining four Oyster Club gatherings this season:

January 15th - Behind the scenes tour at the new studios of locally-based internationally-acclaimed artist collective OK Mountain. Wash it all down with award-winning Balcones Whiskey and other edible treats.
February 9th - Rude Mechs' own Kirk Lynn and his beloved partner, National Poetry Award Winner, Carrie Fountain, kick off an open mic for love poems and songs in a unique private home. Austin KOOP radio DJ's will move you with their favorite love songs while you succumb with our intoxicating Love Potion. And yes, there will be cupcakes.
March - Award-winning Austin filmmaker PJ Raval curates a night at the movies. Buttered popcorn will pale in comparison to the treats we will serve!
April - A special night at the wildly popular Fusebox Festival for Oyster Club members. Reception to accompany the event with artful food and drink curated by Edible Austin. (not included: ticket to the performance)

What is the Oyster Club? Meeting once in every month whose name contains an "r" (September-April), the Oyster Club is a way to find pearls of art, architecture, music, film, food, and performance in the oceans of culture in Austin and Central Texas. Rude Mechs will lead this off-beat culture club to backstage access, private tours, secret after-parties, and once-in-a-lifetime spectacles. The Oyster Club will keep you active without making you busy. 

Dionysus in '69 and The Method Gun on tour

After knocking the socks (and shirts, and pants, and many undergarments) off of Austin audiences in late 2009, Rude Mechs' faithful re-enactment of The Performance Group's legendary Dionysus in '69 is headed back east for two performances at Princeton's Lewis Center on December 9th and 10th. The performances will be presented in conjunction with a 2-day Performance Studies Symposium that is free and open to the public.

So we hit nearly every corner of the US with The Method Gun in 2011, and ya know, we're just plain b-o-r-e-d with the Nothern Hemisphere. What's a restless theatre company to do? Head Down Under, of course. February 22 - 26, Rude Mechs will make their first foray into Australia with a week long run of The Method Gun at Brisbane Powerhouse's World Performance Festival. We're trying to act all cool and shit, but we're pretty freakin' excited.

Statesman Review: Dionysus in 69

"This 2009 ‘Dionysus in ‘69’ is an keen, spirited, brilliantly acted paean to experimental theater past, present and future." – Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, Austin American-Statesman

Click here for full review.

Statesman Article on Dionysus in 69

ARTS

Fleshing out innovative '60s theater

With help from 'Dionysus in 69' director, Rude Mechanicals tackle free-form production.

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN ARTS WRITER
Thursday, December 03, 2009

For 'Dionysus in 69,' actors let the audience be part of the production. Richard Schechner, the original director of the 1960s production, will give a pre-show talk on Friday.

Time was when a stage with no boundary between audience and actors — and a play that changed each night according to how the audience might react — seemed all so terribly new.

It was in 1968 when theater pioneer Richard Schechner led the collective known as The Performance Group in a radical new version of the Greek tragedy, 'The Bacchae,' which Schechner called 'Dionysus in 69.' In a converted garage in New York City's Soho, Schechner and his troupe explored the limits of audience participation, kept the focus of the action always variable and flexible and even moved the show out to the street at times. Actors shed their clothes and spent most of the play naked. They switched characters and invited the audience to dance. In response, audiences staged spontaneous sit-ins or other group actions.

'Dionysus in 69' gave a 1960s spin to Euripides' tale of the struggle — to the death — between self-control and collective passion.

Click here to keep reading.

Austin Chronicle Feature Article on Dionysus in 69!

'Bacchae' to the Future

How in (a Greek) god's name can the Rude Mechs re-create 'Dionysus in 69' in '09?

BY ROBERT FAIRES

Excerpt:
"...Now, four decades after Dionysus in 69 rattled the cages of the American theatre, Schechner has come to Austin much as the titular god came to Thebes: a much-lauded figure out of the East seeking new participants in his revels. The key difference here is that Schechner doesn't need to bring a band of dancing, drinking, true-believing maenads with him; they're already here. Local theatrical mavericks the Rude Mechanicals have been carrying the torch of the Performance Group and incorporating many of its tradition-busting practices into their own productions for 13 years now. In fact, within the company, Dionysus in 69 has been the stuff of legend, a production revered for its innovation and daring and impact on audiences. So esteemed is the work by the Rudes that they are taking on their shoulders the ambitious, audacious task of re-creating the production four decades after the fact, something almost no one has attempted in all the years since."

Click here to read entire feature article.