Rude Mechs
Rude Mechs is an ensemble-based theatre company that operates with a full company of 28 members. We create original plays in Austin, TX, and tour nationally and internationally. Our touring productions include "The Method Gun", “Get Your War On”, “How Late It Was, How Late”, “Cherrywood”, and “Lipstick Traces.” Our Off-Broadway productions include “Get Your War On” and “Lipstick Traces.” Our most recent original production, "The Method Gun," was presented by The Long Center for the Performing Arts as the inaugural production in the Rollins Studio Theater.
Rude Mechs uses performance to explore collectivity, collaboration, and community. The result is a mercurial slate of original theatrical productions ranging from Low-Fi, Agit-Prop, Lec-Dems to Multi-Media, Romantic-Era, Closet Dramas. What they hold in common is bold physicality, intellectual savvy, a preference for the actor above the character, and an irreverent sense of humor. We tour these performances nationally and abroad; maintain The Off Center, a performance venue for local arts groups of every discipline; and manage an Arts Access program to ensure that everyone in Austin who wants to participate in the arts, can.
Since our inception in 1995, we’ve produced 26 original theatrical productions and received over 170 awards and nominations for artistic excellence, most recently the Total Theatre Award for "Best Original Work by an Ensemble/Collective" for “Get Your War On” at Assembly/Aurora Nova in Edinburgh, Scotland. We’ve enjoyed two Off-Broadway premieres and toured to top national venues such as The Walker Arts Center (Minneapolis, MN), The Wexner Center (Columbus, OH), and Woolly Mammoth (Washington D.C.). We seek to participate in the international community of artists by touring to festivals such Austria’s SommerSzene, the Galway Arts Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Kiasma Festival (Helsinki), the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, and the Under the Radar Festival in NYC. Our emergence into this community was marked by a feature in the New York Times that identified Rude Mechs as one of three companies in the country “making theatre that matters.” We are deeply proud to represent Texas as a home for cutting-edge theatrical practice.
In 1999, Rude Mechs assumed the management of The Off Center, a performance warehouse in East Austin. The Off Center houses a flexible 100-seat theatre, the administrative offices of Rude Mechs, and studios for visual artists. The company also presents the work of nationally recognized theatre artists and produces Grrl Action, a year-round program in autobiographical writing and performance for teenage girls. Few theatre companies in the history of Austin’s arts community have seen such an explosion of audience enthusiasm and artistic growth in such a few short years. Most importantly, the quality and innovation of the company’s theatrical productions have firmly established Rude Mechs as one of Austin’s most highly valued cultural assets.
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