It's an old Austin tale: After 18 years at the Off Center, Rude Mechanicals—an ensemble-based theater collective better known as Rude Mechs—was forced to leave its home in May due to a hefty rent hike. But instead of folding, Rude Mechs had another plan: to crush the hell out of Austin.
Founded in 1995, Rude Mechs helped put Austin on the map with its original productions performed across the country. Yet its success couldn’t withstand the latest blow to the Austin arts scene, which lost 30,000 square feet of performance space in the past year. In response, the collective launched a new initiative, dubbed crushAustin, to redefine artistic space in a city where such territory is at a premium.
Featuring 10 events in Austin’s 10 districts throughout 10 months (from this past July to April 2018), crushAustin focuses on how the city plays a crucial role in collaborative artistic ventures. Each of the performances takes a wildly different form, including an intimate reading at a private home and fully staged productions at established venues.
Photograph: Ben Arons
“Austin has raised us and made us who we are,” says Lana Lesley, one of the group’s five coproducing artistic directors. “But now it needs some looking after, some care and attention as Austinites try to figure out what we value and what our civic life looks like.”
Past performances have included Lesley’s own co-creation, Grageriart, a “music and sound excavation of a home-shopping catalog”; along with the return of the Eye Ball, Rude Mechs’ annual fund-raiser party, held in District 3. Their next show is A Karaoke Christmas Carol, held on December 8, 9, 10, 22 and 23 at the Ground Floor Theatre—audience members will perform all the parts (and sing all the songs!).
Currently on an 18-month lease in the Austin American-Statesman warehouse, Rude Mechs refuses to despair. Instead it wants to view this time as an opportunity to redefine its role in Austin and, while it’s at it, explore the role of the arts in the city. That doesn’t seem rude at all.
Learn more about crushAustin here.
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