Stop Hitting Yourself Austin American-Statesman Review - 2 weeks left!

a work-in-progress showing created by Rude Mechs and part of Fusebox Festival's Machine Shop series

The Austin American-Statesman Review is in!

"But what makes this show exceptional is the way it brings together a medley of styles, ideas, and theater magic to both delight and deliberately unsettle its audiences." - Cate Blouke
read the full review here

Now thru April 21st - only 8 performances left and tix are moving fast!

WHEN:
Now - April 21, 2012
Thursday – Sunday at 8:00 pm.

WHERE:

The Off Center

2211 A Hidalgo, Austin, TX 78702

TICKETS:

All tickets are Pay-What-You-Can on a sliding scale

Thursdays & Sundays are $5 to $25

Fridays & Saturdays are $12 - $25.

Tickets for the final weekend (4/18 - 4/21) will also be available via Fusebox Festival. 

Passholders must make their reservations through Fusebox Festival.

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There's still time to sign up for the Grrl Action Summer Workshop!

Grrl Action Summer 2013 Info and Application

When: July 1 - July 21, 2013
Where: The Off Shoot (2211-A Hidalgo St., Austin, TX 78702)
Grrl Action is a three-week intensive workshop for teenaged girls, run by Rude Mechs, in which girls envision, create, publish, and perform original works for the stage based on their own life experiences. The three-week intensive culminates in two performances that are free to the public. Don't miss them!
The day-camp runs July 1st through July 21st, 9 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on weekday mornings (except for July 4th). Public performance of the participant work will be on July 20th and 21st.
Apply to Grrl Action: If you know a girl between the ages of 13 and 16 with a desire to express herself through autobiographical writing and performance, send her to the online information packet and application, or email grrlaction@rudemechs.com.

Support Grrl Action: Grrl Action is reliant on donations from the community and local foundation grants. We hope you will contribute to sustain this invaluable program. We are thrilled to announce Friends of Grrl, a group dedicated to supporting the activities of this very special program. If you would like to know more about this group, or to attend their first annual fundraiser, please contact our Development Director, Erin Harrell at harrell@rudemechs.com.

New video from I've Never Been So Happy in LA

We know - almost a year later... and not even the whole show, but it's something! 

Click on the link below to see 7 short clips (2 to 3 minutes each). 

We think they are beautiful and sound great. We hope those of you that didn't get to see the show in LA will enjoy them, and those who did will share our very fond memories. 

We've never been so nostalgic.

click here to see them in vimeo at their truly luscious size.

or don't move a muscle and watch them below.

Rude News - A Few Things to do This Spring, Starting Tonight!

IN BRIEF: This issue is dedicated to telling you we are in rehearsal until May. In the meantime, here are just a few events to keep you busy - our friends are making great art that we hope you will get out and support! WEDNESDAY MARCH 14TH!!! Kirk Lynn to moderate the post-film Q&A at Austin Film Festival's screening of Trip to Bountiful - more below Rubber Repertory presents JUBILEE, their last show in Austin for a while, Jubilee, at The Off Center. You cannot miss this. Rude Mechs is super proud to host Gloria's Cause, by Dayna Hanson (choreographer, I've Never Been So Happy), and presented by Dance Umbrella as part of Fusebox Festival. Go see it! Grrl Action Summer Workshop Summer Workshop dates are June 25 - July 15. Contact madge@rudemechs.com to get an application. A wee Rude update. Austin Film Festival presents A TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL part of their Made in Texas: Adaptations Series When: Wednesday, March 14th at 7:30pm Where: Texas Spirit Theater at the Bob Bullock Museum Tickets: $5 (print this newsletter and get $1 off the ticket price when you show it at the door!) Parking: Free parking in the museum parking lot after 6pm Our own Kirk Lynn will moderate the post-screening Q&A, with Producer Dennis Bishop (THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS, HBO Pictures, “Dexter”) in attendance! Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see one of the finest stage-to-screen adaptations of all time, THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL, written by legendary playwright, Horton Foote (inaugural recipient of Austin Film Festival’s Distinguished Screenwriter award). This moving, magnificent film won the hearts of moviegoers and theatergoers everywhere in the 1980s, as well as a Best Actress Academy Award for star Geraldine Page. Page won the Oscar® for her portrayal of Carrie Watts, a sixty year old woman living with her son and daughter-in-law in 1940's Houston, Texas. Carrie wants nothing more than to return to her hometown one more time before she dies, but her son and his wife don't think it's a good idea. Picking the right time, Carrie escapes and begins her trip. Rubber Repertory presents JUBILEE When: April 5 - April 21, 2012 Where: The Off Center Tickets: $15 (Thursdays are PWYW) Get Tix Here What's wonderful about Rubber Repertory is that they take the concepts, the tenets, the expectations of theatre, and blow them out of the water." -Avimaan Syam, Austin Chronicle This will be Rubber Repertory's last show before an indeterminate hiatus, and they're looking for more than just a good idea; they're looking for atonement. They want to find the very proper time to sound the trumpet. They want to put on the clothes that will make them disappear. They want to arrange their bodies in a way that gives real comfort. Part dance and all devotion, JUBILEE is a nonstop, non-narrative, and non-denominational leap of faith. [NOTE: To carnal minds they may appear to act absurdly, but the path of duty is rarely the path of safety.] ABOUT RUBBER REPERTORY: Since 2002, Co-Directors Josh Meyer and Matt Hislope have created some of the most unique theatre in Texas. With shows such as Biography of Physical Sensation, The Casket of Passing Fancy (2007 Rockefeller MAP Fund grant), Surprise Annie, RED CANS, At Home With Dick, and the American premiere of Wallace Shawn's notoriously "unstageable" A Thought in Three Parts, Rubber Rep pushes boundaries and creates work that's high on invention and surprise. Their productions have garnered B. Iden Payne and Austin Critics Table Awards for "Outstanding Theatrical Innovation," "Outstanding Direction," "Unique Theatrical Experience," and "Outstanding Late-Night Adventure." For more information, visit www.rubberrep.org.

Dance Umbrella and Fusebox Festival present GLORIA'S CAUSE When: April 26-27, 2012 7:00 pm, and April 28, 2012 9:00pm Bonus: Dayna Hanson's band, Today!, plays Friday, April 27, 2012 at Fusebox's late night venue. Where: The Off Center Show Info: Fusebox Festival website Tickets: Get your Fusebox Festival Pass while there's still a discount available! Inspired by the complex ironies of the American Revolution, Gloria’s Cause is a full-length dance theater work by 33 Fainting Spells’ co-founder Dayna Hanson (the amazing woman who choreographed the dances in I've Never Been So Happy). Co-commissioned by On the Boards and Under The Radar Festival, this rock-driven piece exhumes the colonies’ forgotten players and offers a layered, colorful and gritty look at the roots of America’s inequities. ABOUT DAYNA HANSON: A 2006 Guggenheim Fellow in Choreography and 2010 United States Artists Oliver Fellow in Dance, Hanson is joined by longtime collaborators Dave Proscia and Peggy Piacenza. Seattle-based performers Wade Madsen, Maggie Brown, Paul Moore, Jim Kent, Pol Rosenthal and Jessie Smith join the cast, together creating a kinetic, darkly funny world where incongruous sources clash and morph. After multiple presentations of 33 Fainting Spells' work by Dance Umbrella in the past, Dayna returns to Austin in this co-presentation between Fusebox and Dance Umbrella, hosted by Rude Mechs.

Tell the nearest Grrl to apply to Grrl Action Summer Workshop! When: June 25 - July 15, 2012 Where: The Off Shoot (2211-A Hidalgo St., Austin, TX 78702) The Grrl Action Summer Workshop is a three-week intensive workshop for teenaged girls, run by Rude Mechs, in which girls envision, create, publish, and perform original works for the stage based on their own life experiences. The three-week intensive culminates in two performances that are free to the public. Don't miss them! Support Grrl Action: Grrl Action is reliant on donations from the community and local foundation grants. We hope you will contribute to sustain this invaluable program.

A Rude update seems in order We premiered I've Never Been So Happy in Los Angeles at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theater in October, and while we were having a blast, building good houses, and getting mixed reviews, we happily accepted a few awards for INBSH from the B. Iden Payne Awards. At the same time, we produced a beautiful re-creation Mabou Mines' amazing play, The B. Beaver Animation, to somewhat confused houses. We promise to offer a little more background and support for the next installment in our Contemporary Classics series. The Method Gun, a project of Creative Capital, was filmed by OntheBoards TV and is available at ontheboards.tv - we get 50% of all the income, so download away! Just remember that video of live performance is, well, video of live performance... We mounted a wee work-in-progress showing of CL1000P (working title, still, yes), which we are rehearsing right now for a full production in May. Stay tuned! Then we toured The Method Gun to Brisbane Powerhouse's World Theatre Festival in Brisbane Australia - could not have had more fun. If you were ever curious about what the City of Austin could have done with the Seaholm, check out Brisbane Powerhouse.

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.

Announcing I've Never Been So Happy World Premiere!

Rude Mechs, in association with Center Theatre Group, is proud to present the world premiere of

I'VE NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY

 

I've Never Been So Happy, with music and lyrics by Austin Experimental Punk Grand Wizard Peter Stopschinski (Brown Whornet, Golden Hornet Project), and book and lyrics by Austin Experimental Theatre Mascot Kirk Lynn, fluxuates freely between high art and Hee-Haw, treating both with respect. The music pits a "Grand Ole Opry" style West against an "El Topo" style West. The writing butts lyric poetry up against bar jokes with finesse. Directed by Thomas Graves and Lana Lesley, the evening challenges what it means to "go to the theater" in 2011.

WHEN: April 21 - May 7, 2011
Thursday - Saturday at 8 PM
Additional Sunday performance on May 1st
10 performances only!

Friday April 22 - Opening Night Gala - see details below. 

Saturday May 7 - Special Closing Night Performance featuring post-show concert by Austin's newest Alt-Country phenom Chablis (Best Local Show 2010, Austin Chronicle Critics Poll), and good eats from La Condesa - tickets $25

WHERE: The Off Center, 2211 A Hidalgo, Austin, TX 78702

"The Rudes continue to deepen their creative process and challenge themselves in new ways. And that results in smart, terrific theater that takes us some place new." - Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, Austin-American Statesman review of December 2008 workshop production.

"BEST INVESTIGATION OF THE WEST: The Rude Mechs' funny, well-informed multimedia performance was a refreshingly queer interrogation of the West. - Claire Ruud, ...might be good (Fluent-Collaborative's contemporary arts e-journal Best of 2008)

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YOU ARE INVITED TO I'VE NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY'S

OPENING NIGHT GALA!

 

This unprecedented evening of celebration and performance will include:

A pre-show toast with the Board and Artistic Directors of Rude Mechs

Amazing complimentary food and drink curated by Edible Austin

The world-premiere performance of our new western musical & transmedia shindig

And post-show two-stepping with the cast and crew with cash bar provided by the side bar

Plus 75% of your ticket price is tax-deductible to the full extent of the law!

Your unwavering support has helped Rude Mechs have a spectacular year, including a premiere at the 34th annual Humana Festival of New American Plays, a wonderful, critically acclaimed tour of The Method Gun, and the development of a radical new play here at home.

 

Come celebrate this world premiere in Austin with a company that is garnering high critical praise and building audience around the country.

Time Out New York says of Rude Mechs, "They keep taking perilous theatrical leaps, but we are the ones to feel sweaty-palmed, nearly vertiginous exhilaration."

The New York Times says Rude Mechs "...makes the Wooster Group look conservative."

Time Out Chicago calls our work "...relentlessly inventive... "Beneath its zany, passionate surfaces lie some fierce investigations into the nature of art... brilliantly orchestrated"

The Louisville Courier-Journal calls us "..absurd and awe-inspiring."

Some facts about I've Never Been So Happy:

• It is 1 of only 5 projects selected from a national pool for the National Endowment for the Arts New Play Development Program.
  
• It received a work-progress-presentation at Washington D.C.'s prestigious Arena Stage at the New Play Festival.
  
• It is featured in an upcoming PBS documentary by Rob Levi about "how America makes theater."
  
• It is produced in association with Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group.
  
• It features a cast of nine, a small orchestra, a dance team, video animation and a mountain lion!
  
• It is not just a show, it's also surrounded by a transmedia shindig which includes food, games, and wild western fun.
  

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I'VE NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY features the extraordinary performing / design / production talents of:
Cami Alys, Kerri Atwood, Lowell Bartholomee, Noel Gaulin, Thomas Graves, Amy Hackerd, Hannah Kenah, Jenny Larson, Lana Lesley, E. Jason Liebrecht, Erin Meyer, William Moses, Paul Soileau, Peter Stopschinski, Meg Sullivan, along with Eric Roach on guitar, four very fine string players / Laura Cannon (Portland), Dayna Hanson (Seattle), Miwa Matreyek (LA), Stephen Pruitt, Leilah Stewart / Woody Golden, Charlie Llewellin, Jazz Miller, Lorenza Phillips, Denise Martel, Rick Thompson, and two thoroughly awesome interns, Taylor McCaslin and Ashley O'Brien. And creating the carnival so far we have the fabulous Jodi Jinks, Kirk Lynn, Edmund Martinez, Robert Pierson, Rachel Shannon, Silky Shoemaker, and Aron Taylor.

I’ve Never Been So Happy was selected for the NEA Distinguished New Play Development Program, and received a development residency at The University of Texas Department of Theatre & Dance’s Musical Theatre Initiative. Creation support for I've Never Been So Happy also comes from The Orchard Project Theatre Residency Program, the National Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Arena Stage's New Play Festival, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Method Gun at Dance Theater Workshop

Right, so we finished up our perfect week at  Yale Rep's - No Boundaries festival and landed our tails in NYC that Sunday with a van full  of Method Gun set, props, costumes.

Monday morning we loaded that puppy in to Dance Theater Workshop, and thanks to no light hang, a crack crew, and volunteers  Michael, Megan, and Zach, we did it in record time. Tuesday, our sweet friend D. tuned the room. And Wednesday, well, Wednesday, we did tech/dress and our first photo line-up ever, ate a little food... and then we had what we can only describe as the most perfect opening night possible - and it was press night, so we were more than a little freaked out.

We papered the house with many friends and friendlies, gave as relaxed a performance as we could under the circumstances, and were lucky enough to have a warm, generous, and supportive full house. Thursday, Friday and Saturday went pretty much the same - loving audiences and good times at the bar afterwards. Lowell with Brittany, Tina, Meredith, and Max hit new highs in tech supremacy - they ran a tight tight show, and made everyone's jobs a pleasure. Major props and thanks to Vincent, Mike and Chloe. And of course to Carla! Next time we will hang out!!

Most gratifying, though, was the support we received from our buds in NYC, and the really beautiful emails and notes - thank you all so so so much for coming out and spending time with us and making us feel so at home there.

Here's the review call - it's overall pretty dang nice. There is one shite review from legit source - New York Post - man, we pissed her off ("But overall, this "Method Gun" shoots a blank."). And a couple of shite reviews from non-legit sources, like theatremania and some california lit magazine thingie, so if you're LA press, feel free to copy the good ones listed below when we get there. Or if you want to copy a bad one, at least lay off the Boston Globe review - he gets a lot of shit wrong and you just look stupid when you ape him. I'm talking to you, theatremania.

"I was left breathless... Who knew experimental theater could be both daring and sentimental all at once?" Jerry Portwood, New York Press

"In this immensely funny, abruptly touching physical-theater work... They keep taking perilous theatrical leaps, but we are the ones to feel sweaty-palmed, nearly vertiginous exhilaration." - Helen Shaw,  Time Out New York Review

"The Method Gun: Our own Helen Shaw raves about the Rude Mechs' "intensely funny, abruptly touching" play in her review in this week's issue, and having seen the show last night, I couldn't agree more. This is a special piece of work that will leave you thinking about theater, people, theater people, teachers, students, nostalgia, kisses, perfection, balloons and tigers. As of this writing, a few tickets remain to the show's last three performances at Dance Theater Workshop, tonight at 7:30pm and 10:30pm and tomorrow at 7:30pm. Buy them." - Upstaged Blog Post - Time Out New York  

"This weekend sees the closing of several of my favorite shows, so this edition of Critic's Picks is less a case of "run, don't walk" than a "stand in line, don't take no for an answer" set of recommendations." - Critics' Picks - Time Out New York

"All I can say is get tickets to this show. It is not to be missed." - Jeremy M. Barker,  Culturebot

"...a fiendish piece of post-ideological work. And like any great piece of theater — or theory — it lies shamelessly to tell the truth." - Scott Brown,  New York Magazine Critics Pick

"...a tender, smart play." – Jason Fitzgerald, Backstage Review  

"Leave it to the Rude Mechs to take a topic that would seem to only speak to insider (aka theater insiders), and make it not only fabulously funny, but also universal. " - Amanda Cooper, Curtain Up

"Coming off the 2010 Humana Festival (and no doubt on its way to a theater near you), "The Method Gun" is a choice example of Rude Mechs' satirical wit and inventive performance style." - 

Variety Review

"It’s nice to finally see a company from Texas that I’ve been hearing and reading about for years, and to find that they’re as good as the advance word suggested." -  New Haven Advocate Review

"The Method Gun is funny, bleak, satirical and serious in equal parts, so well-balanced and timed that you trust it implicitly and just follow along without questioning its intentions. " - New Haven Advocate Review

And last but not least... the fun one

New York Times Review - Jason Zinoman - Yeah - we're told this is a nice review "for The Times". The only real reason to share this slap/tickle paragraph is to let us all stare slack-jawed at The Times for being so freaking lazy, and sexist.

Zinoman writes: "But despite the sophomoric moments the performers win you over with sincerity and even showmanship. Lana Lesley spins mundane moments with a delightful quirk. And the director, Shawn Sides, lanky and swaggering, doubles as a performer whose persona might be called Indie Rock Brando. He stages a lovely montage sequence, including swinging industrial lights, that gives the piece an elegant finish."

This is the correction after we alerted NYT to the fact that Shawn is, in fact, a woman.

"But despite the sophomoric moments the performers win you over with sincerity and even showmanship. Lana Lesley spins mundane moments with a delightful quirk. The actor Jason Liebrecht, lanky and swaggering, has a persona that might be called Indie Rock Brando. Shawn Sides stages a lovely montage sequence, including swinging industrial lights, that gives the piece an elegant finish."

Rude Mechs Feature in The New York Times

Many Methods to Collaborative Madness

Alan Simons

From left, Hannah Kenah, rear; Lana Lesley; Jason Liebrecht; and Thomas Graves of Rude Mechs perform “The Method Gun.”

By JOAN ANDERMAN

Published: February 22, 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.

Alan Simons

Shawn Sides, left, one of the Rude Mechs’ co-producing artistic directors, in “The Method Gun” with Jason Liebrecht, center, and Thomas Graves, another one of the ensemble’s “co-pads.”

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.

“Humor leavens the cringe-worthy part of being totally earnest,” said Kirk Lynn, who wrote the script. “It makes a little space for us to speak our desires or, God forbid, our message.”

Themes of community bubble up in many of the Rude Mechs’ shows, including the current work in progress, a musical exploration of the American West called “I’ve Never Been So Happy.” It is a big moment for the company, which received one of only five inaugural grants from the National Endowment for the Arts’ New Play Development Program.

Last month the company presented a concert staging of “I’ve Never Been So Happy” at Arena Stage, in Washington, which is administering the Endowment program. “One of the things that’s so disarming about them is how much they are themselves,” said the Arena Stage associate artistic director David Dower of the members of Rude Mechs. “It’s challenging, not so much for them but for East Coast audiences, which are much more used to irony.”

The company’s unstructured methods place it alongside the New York contemporaries Radiohole, Nature Theater of Oklahoma, and National Theater of the United States of America. Six of the Rude Mechs’ seven founding co-producing artistic directors , or co-pads, shared (or, as they put it, survived) a common guru in the late 1980s and early 90s. The University of Texas professor emeritus James Ayres ran the school’s demanding and rigorously communal Shakespeare at Winedale course, a nine-week play-performance program 75 miles from Austin.

“I’m not going to say that Winedale is a cult,” said Shawn Sides, who directed “The Method Gun.” “But we were isolated, there was sleep deprivation and a charismatic leader.”

The Rude Mechs’ 1996 debut was staged with cardboard sets and clip lamps in a rented hall. Three years later they landed the lease on 10,000 square feet of cinderblock and tin in east Austin, dubbed it the Off Center and christened the space with an unlikely adaptation: “Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century,” based on rock journalist Greil Marcus‘s mind-bending, plot-free ode to fringe cultural movements. It toured internationally, and blew Mr. Marcus away.

“There was an energy, a flair, a looseness, a daring in their play that I felt I was always reaching for,” Mr. Marcus said in an interview. “For me their production was the completion of the book.”
“The Method Gun” was the Rude Mechs’ first play to receive significant development support, including grants from the Creative Capital Foundation and the MAP Fund. It was hatched at the Orchard Project, a theater retreat in the Catskills where company members began to build the Stella Burden myth and formulate the fictional Approach. In one series of workshops members masterminded their own training methods and put their colleagues through the paces. It was intense.

“At some point one of us just sort of had a tantrum and screamed and got up and left the room,” Ms. Sides recalled. ”We were all pretty sure it was a put-on, but we were 20 percent worried that she was going to quit the company.“

It wasn’t the first time, nor would it be the last. “The collective remains tenuous,” Mr. Lynn said.
The idea for “The Method Gun” stretches back to 2005, when after receiving numerous invitations to teach master classes on the company’s process the co-pads realized they didn’t have a process. Soul searching ensued around notions of structure, self-transformation and what on earth it is that actors do. “I feel like this show is, in a lot of ways, as silly as some of the moments are, pretty naked,” Ms. Sides said. (In one scene some of the actors are thoroughly naked, if you don’t count the balloons tied to the men’s penises.)

Because the Rude Mechs operate as a consensus democracy, with forays into a sort of ardent autocracy, there is no hierarchy, no decider. A reporter is instructed to e-mail the co-pads en masse; a response from one is accompanied by an invitation to the others to confirm or deny. Asked to explain how they make choices, one of the co-pads, Lana Lesley, said, “Sometimes there’s a particular person who’s particularly passionate about a particular thing.”

That’s an arduous way to create, and a rarity, even in experimental theater.

“It’s very, very tricky,” said Anne Bogart, the artistic director of the SITI company in New York and, as co-developer of another performance-training technique, called Viewpoints, something of an expert. Rude Mechs has close ties with SITI, having trained and worked with that company over the years.
“My company is very collaborative, but there has to be, I think, a leader,” said Ms. Bogart. ”Somebody has to say, ‘We’re going over here.’ What Rude Mechs manage to do is nothing short of remarkable.”
The secret to the Rude Mechs’ success? Amnesia. “Putting on a play is hell. But once we get the production up, we forget about how hard it was on all of us to do it and how hard we were on each other,” Ms. Lesley said.

The payoff erases the memory of pain, a version of transcendence that “The Method Gun” captures in its penultimate scene.

Think of Indiana Jones dodging boulders and knives. Onstage. While performing a classic.

A version of this article appeared in print on February 27, 2011, on page AR4 of the New York edition.

Coming Up This Year from Rude Mechs!

RUDE MECHS ANNOUNCES ITS FIFTEENTH SEASON OF NEW WORKS FOR THE STAGE

Rude Mechs is proud to announce the following plans for their fifteenth season of creating, premiering and touring new works for the stage. This upcoming year includes tours of The Method Gun to five national venues; the creation of a new piece CL1000P (working title); a lark of a holiday show featuring egg-nog and Rude Mechs performing The Nutcracker As Best We Can; and the world premiere production of I've Never Been So Happy, our new transmedia musical performance party. I've Never Been So Happy will also tour to the American Voices New Play Institute festival at Arena Stage. And of course, our annual programming will include Grrl Action - our year-round arts mentoring program for teenaged girls; Rude Fusion - our co-production series to support local arts groups; and The Oyster Club (sign up now!) - our members-only culture club celebrating music, dance, food, art, architecture and oddities in Austin and the surrounding areas. We need your help to support this astoundingly full year - come to the Aye Eye Ball - or if you can't, go to the event page and donate!

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THE METHOD GUN - National Tour!

written by Kirk Lynn | directed by Shawn Sides | created by Rude Mechs

Fresh from the 34th Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays, Rude Mechs will tour The Method Gun in 2010/2011 to five prestigious national venues. The Method Gun explores the life and techniques of Stella Burden, actor-training guru of the 60s and 70s. Ms. Burden’s training technique, The Approach (often referred to as “the most dangerous acting technique in the world”), fused Western acting methods with risk-based rituals in order to infuse even the smallest role with sex, death and violence. 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. Visceral and visually haunting, The Method Gun is a play about the ecstasy and excesses of performing, the dangers of public intimacy, and the incompatibility of truth on stage and sanity in real life.

Tour Schedule for The Method Gun

October 13-17, 2010: Emerson College (Boston, MA)
October 21-24, 2010: Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus OH)
February 23-26, 2011: Yale Repertory Theatre and World Performance Project at Yale (New Haven CT)
March 2-12, 2011: Dance Theatre Workshop (New York, NY)
June 14-26, 2011: Center Theatre Group (Los Angeles CA)

“charming... gorgeously rendered... both stunning and haunting.” - American Theatre Magazine

“If you only have time to see one show, make it The Method Gun. It is an honest, brave and often hilarious exploration of the creative process…as absurd and awe-inspiring as it can be.” - Louisville Courier-Journal

Download high-res production stills for The Method Gun here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rudemechs/sets/72157623794005685/

The Method Gun has received support from Creative Capital Foundation, MAP Fund, The Orchard Project, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Humanities Institute and The Harry Ransom Center.

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I'VE NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY - World Premiere and National Tour!

a new musical transmedia performance party, and then some from Rude Mechs!
book and lyrics by Kirk Lynn | music and lyrics by Peter Stopschinski | directed/curated by Lana Lesley & Thomas Graves

World Premiere Production: April 2011
at The Off Center, Austin, TX

After two workshop productions at The Off Center in Austin, TX (2008 and 2009), and residencies with The Orchard Project and The Musical Theatre Initiative at The University of Texas, I've Never Been So Happy, will see its world premiere at The Off Center in Austin, TX in April 2011. Co-directors Graves and Lesley are pleased to announce the addition of Dayna Hanson, experimental stage artist, filmmaker and 2006 Guggenheim Fellow in choreography; award-winning animator designer and artist Miwa Matreyek, and internationally acclaimed designer Brian Scott (SITI Company) to the production team.

I've Never Been So Happy, with music and lyrics by Austin Experimental Punk Grand Wizard Peter Stopschinski (Brown Whornet, Golden Hornet Project), and book and lyrics by Austin Experimental Theatre Mascot Kirk Lynn, fluctuates freely between high art and Hee-Haw, treating both with respect. The music pits a "Grand Ole Opry" style West against an "El Topo" style West. The writing butts lyric poetry up against bar jokes with finesse. The evening challenges what it means to "go to the theater" in the 21st century.

National Tour: January 2011
Arena Stage, Washington DC

The American Voices New Play Institute at Arena Stage will feature full-length presentations and readings from the seven inaugural selections of the National Endowment for the Arts New Play Development Program. I've Never Been So Happy was one of five productions selected for the Distinguished New Play Development Program in the first-round, 2008. Rude Mechs will present work-in-progress selections from the production.

"The Rudes continue to deepen their creative process and challenge themselves in new ways. And that results in smart, terrific theater that takes us some place new." - Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, Austin-American Statesman review of December 2008 workshop production.

"BEST INVESTIGATION OF THE WEST: The Rude Mechs' funny, well-informed multimedia performance was a refreshingly queer interrogation of the West. Moreover, I’ve Never Been So Happy felt like a Brechtian extravaganza for art and theater geeks, evoking everything from WOW Café camp to Bruce Nauman’s post-minimal studio practice..." - Claire Ruud, ...might be good (Fluent-Collaborative's contemporary arts e-journal Best of 2008)

Download high-res production stills for I've Never Been So Happy here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rudemechs/sets/72157622372086808/

I've Never Been So Happy has received support from The National Endowment for the Arts, The Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, The NEA Distinguished New Play Development Program hosted by Arena Stage, The Orchard Project, The University of Texas Musical Theatre Initiative, and Center Theatre Group.

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CL1000P (working title) - work-in-progress showing
November 18-19, 2010 at The Off Center

The MAP Fund supported exploration of public secrets and games we play to keep the powers that be happy will span the city as we invite audience to participate as we break the code of the way things are to reveal the secrets of what could be. We are so early in the process we have almost nothing to say about it yet, but it will be very cool. We will rehearse a few weeks in November to kick off the project and share what we know on those two very scary days.

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THE NUTCRACKER AS BEST WE CAN - World Premiere
December 9 - 19, 2010 at The Off Center

We've done some pretty serious work over the last three years during the holiday season, and this year we thought we'd get into the holiday spirit with our version of the world's favorite holiday show, The Nutcracker. We can only promise that Rude Mechs along with hordes of Austin theatre folks will do our level-best to perform The Nutcracker. There will be libations, and the audience will surely be allowed to jump in and perform as much as they can remember from their childhood. More details will come as we know them!

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THE AYE EYE BALL - Annual Fundraiser

Our annual fundraiser to support all of the artistic activities in the 20010/11 season. The Eye Ball (named for our logo - a flaming eyeball) is our annual fundraiser to support our artistic activities. As we kick off our 15th year of making work together, we aim to launch another 15 years by giving a nau(gh)tical theme to this year's event The Aye Eye Ball, hosted by diva mistress Rebecca Havemeyer.

date: August 21, 2010
time: 7:00pm to midnight
location: The Off Center
tickets: $70 (pairs); $40 (individuals)
reservations: http://ayeeyeball.eventbrite.com/

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THE OYSTER CLUB - Members-Only Culture Club

Rude Mechs announces registration is

Publish Post

open to its annual members-only culture club, The Oyster Club. With two years of smashing success under its belt, last season's Oyster Club saw the best off-beat art in Central Texas. And this year is going to be even bigger and even better! Meeting once in every month whose name contains an "r" (September-April), the Oyster Club is a new 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. And once again this year, Edible Austin Magazine will partner with Rude Mechs to showcase the best of Austin's local food scene at every event! The Oyster Club will keep you active without making you busy.

tickets: $300 (pairs); $200 (individuals)
reservations: http://oysterclub10-efbevent.eventbrite.com/