Weaving through a sea of props, photographs and costumes, the Rude Mechanicals settle in at their rehearsal space in East Austin to discuss their upcoming show, Not Every Mountain.<\/p>\n
The piece, which the theater group will perform at this year\u2019s Fusebox Festival, combines the ethereal with \u2026 cardboard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese cardboard shapes, they push out from underneath the audience, and they collide like tectonic plates,\u201d says Thomas Graves, a performer and the set designer for Not Every Mountain. \u201cAnd little mountains start to rise up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The performance is done in the round, with the audience on the sides of the stage. \u201cBuilders\u201d move the 3D shapes into a mountain while a reader recites a script written by Kirk Lynn. At one end of the stage, composer Peter Stopschinski performs the live score, carefully timing the haunting sounds \u2014 Schumann\u2019s Resonances or the Earth\u2019s heartbeat \u2014 to the reactions of the audience.<\/p>\n
This is the third time the Rude Mechanicals have reprised, edited and re-worked Not Every Mountain. And the audiences at each of the group\u2019s four Fusebox performances this weekend will experience a different iteration.<\/p>\n
‘Lack of ego’<\/p>\n
Since 1996, the Rude Mechanicals, or Rude Mechs as they call themselves, have been an award-winning model for \u201cgenre averse\u201d theater. They produce their work collaboratively, and decision-making is done by consensus. There are at least six COPADs, or co-producing artistic directors \u2014 a rare occurrence in the art world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talk sometimes about feeling like a cycling team, that different people can take the lead at different times, and different people can sort of draft off of other people’s energy,\u201d Lynn says.<\/p>\n
One of the Rude Mechs\u2019 newest COPADs is Alexandra Bassiakou Shaw, an assistant professor in the Department of Theater and Dance at UT Austin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was astounded by the lack of ego amongst the Rude Mechanicals. After a performance, all the COPADs would come down to the audience and say, like, how do we fix it? What does it need? What do you hate?\u201d she says. \u201cIt was such a collaborative experience with the audience as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Listen to a conversation with Ron Berry, founder and co-artistic director of Fusebox Festival<\/p>\n
The Rude Mechs have been steadily producing, teaching and workshopping new works \u2014 such as Stop Hitting Yourself, The Cold Record, Requiem for (Nikola) Tesla, and Method Gun \u2014 at venues and festivals around the world. They have been lauded for their work as an ensemble and won numerous awards. Perhaps their most distinctive contribution to Austin has been the company\u2019s residency in UT\u2019s Department of Theater and Dance, where multiple Rude Mechs are faculty members.<\/p>\n
Some fans call the dozens of plays they\u2019ve produced \u201cexperimental,\u201d with an esoteric quality that may be hard to understand.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the term experimental theater scares people off,\u201d says Shawn Sides, one of the COPADs and the director of Not Every Mountain. \u201cBut really, it’s just about getting in a room and experimenting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Audience feedback<\/p>\n
The Rude Mechs have committed themselves to making original, challenging work \u2014 art for a roomful of people.<\/p>\n
The stage manager for Not Every Mountain, Madge Darlington, says it\u2019s important for people to get into a room together \u201cbreathing the same air and hearing the same things, and experiencing the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lynn says the group is interested in how the audience feels when they come together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat resonates with them in terms of the relationship of the mountain to their own life, to creation and destruction in their own life. What feelings did they have?\u201d he says. \u201cAnd there’s also some really basic things like, which parts did you like? Which parts were boring?\u201d<\/p>\n
He says every once in a while they\u2019ll get an email after a show saying the performance was awful. The group always responds with an apology and offers a refund.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd almost without exception,\u201d he says, \u201cthey’re like, \u2018Oh no, no, no, no. I like coming to your shows. And I like that I get to share these opinions with you. Like, I can’t wait to see the next iteration.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n