Image courtesy Rude Mechs The Method GunThru 12/15, Th/Fr/Sa at 8pmThe Off Center (map)[info] | [tickets] The Dick Monologues12/16 at 2pmHyde Park Theatre (map)12/12 at 7pm (sold out)[info] | [tickets]In this season of family-friendly fare, we're pleased to highlight a bit of naughty-naughty for your holiday pleasure. Admittedly it's something of an intellectually flavored naughty-naughty, but hey, that's how we like it. Rude Mechanicals' current show The Method Gun contains nudity! Whee! Nude Rudes!! Which......

Célébrez la performance! Entertain, or die. The mutli-faceted, loosely-connected, intellectually-rigorous fare that’s common from the Rude Mechs is again on display in Have You Ever Been Assassinated?. The boisterous-while-intricate, convention-bending staging by director Carlos Treviño coupled with the sharp dialogue and big-ideas-in-small-packages text by playwright Rebecca Beegle is often exceptionally witty and delightfully clever. So clever, in fact, that even though we hardly cared about the characters—a circumstance that’s generally a one-way road to......

Welcome to the Halloween edition of This Week in Theatre, and the first time since we’ve been in Austin that some company hasn’t produced a play about mystical and spooky stuff to commemorate this festive occasion. So, in lieu of seeing a “horror” play this weekend—an event where busty blondes disappear for no reason, only to return later after a highly unfortunate series of events has stripped them down to their underwear; or, you......

It's a "high-brow party with a low-brow soul" featuring Jennifer from Ear Candy (one of our favorite radio shows in town), free beer, Graham Reynolds, and 250 of your closest performance-loving friends -- all to "put the arty back in party". That's how the Rude Mechs roll. They'll be bringing all the Pop Art-themed goodness to you this Saturday at their East Austin home, the Off Center. Doors open at 7pm*, with admission at $15......

A couple of shows with big phatty hype open this week. So ph-ph-phatty, that we’re bringing back the word phat (with a p.h. homeslice!) just to emphasize how phatty it really is. PHAT. PH. AT. Ok. Our Austinist Pick of the Week is a toss-up. Red Cans is the show the press just can’t get enough of. Josh Meyer and Matt Hislope, the delightful duo behind Rubber Repertory – the company producing the project......

(Photo by Matt Wright) As children, we were a car trip family. Five of us would pack into a Subaru and set sail from Cleveland for other, even more Midwestern destinations. Places like Lawrence, Kansas, where great grandmother lived until her death in 2004. In high school, we'd stand in the alley behind Grandma's house, sneaking cigarettes where the family couldn't see. Back there we saw the sordid underbelly of Lawrence -- kids up......

Off like a prom dress indeed. This summer, theatre in the A-burg is gonna get all raucous on yah ass. The newbies, the small, feisty, ain’t-takin’-no-shit-from-the-man performance companies du resistance are all comin’ outta the woodwork to rock your sweet casbah. With that in mind, our Austinist pick of the week is Minus Tide. It’s a co-produced effort from Bayou Radio Productions (which isn’t too dissimilar from the dirigo group) and Austin fringe heroes,......

We’ll just come right out and say it: it’s a slow week in Austin performance. Our normally buoyant theatre and dance communities seem to be taking a break, gearing up for what looks to be an amazing summer. Before the UT kids come traipsing back into town in August, we’ll have seen productions from Rude Mechs’ Second Stage, Salvage Vanguard, Yellow Tape Construction Co, Dirigo Group, Rubber Repertory, Hyde Park Theatre, Zach Scott Theatre,......

For anyone who still hasn’t made it out to see Decameron Day 7: REVENGE, even though we loved it, the Statesman loved it, and the Chronicle loved it, you’ve now got six more chances to check out the faux soap masterpiece. The show was originally meant to close this Saturday, but after public outcry, massive demonstrations at the theatre, and pleas for clemency from celebrities on both coasts, the Rude Mechs decided to cave......

It's been all talk of days gone by in Austin's land-o-live performance. Robert Faires remembers 1985, when the original version of this week's In2 The West put our local theatre community on a national stage. Michael Barnes recalls the life of Alfred King -- a long time arts donor who sadly passed away this week. And most notably, Steve Moore and Wayne Allen Brenner document the storied histories of Austin's two fringe theatre giants......

Ah, the Decameron. Proof that even medieval folk can get down and dirty. It suggests the “soap opera” is not merely a contemporary cultural phenomenon – but instead a timeless beacon of truth a la tragedy, forever nestled comfortably in the very fabric of that ridiculous farce…humanity. At least that’s what the Rude Mechs think – as, with their usual aplomb, they’ve taken Boccaccio’s famed allegory and mashed it together with modern soap opera,......

Grrr. There's some straight-talking, cut-that-jive-or-I'll-slap-you karma in the air this week. Out in Washington, members of congress are smacking around their local law enforcement, in NYC, city detectives have been shooting people for money, and here in Texas, some ass on the Sunset Advisory Commission has issued fightin' words 'gainst our arts community. Well theatre-goers, we're fighting back. Grrr, again. Earlier this week we told you how local artists have rounded up mad cash......

[Update: All the tickets have been claimed! Thanks to everyone for playing, and congrats to the lucky winners -- enjoy the show! -Ed.] Wanna see the latest star-packed thriller from the Rude Mechanicals: Decameron Day 7: REVENGE? Wanna go for FREE? Be one of the first five people to send us an email (be sure to take the () off the @), and we'll set you up with two tix, complimentary of the Rudes.......

Wow, we know, that title was so lame (sorry 'bout that). But fortunately for you, dear lover of new theatre/dance/music/film/art/allofthosethingsmushedtogether this upcoming performance happening will not be lame. At all. Brought to you by the always delightful Refraction Arts, this artistic melee will feature cutting edge work from the likes of Phil Soltanof of Mad Dog Theatre Company the Zellner Brothers, Sara Richardson of the Rude Mechs, Joe Swanberg of Nerve.com, Yellow Tape Construction......

What a possible travesty! Might the Texas Commission on the Arts -- provider of grants, information, and technical assistance to artists and arts organizations in visual arts, theatre, dance, music, media and literature -- be destroyed? The organization, which has been the primary source of governmental funding of the arts in Texas for over forty years, was under the Sunset review this year, a process all state agencies undergo every 12 years to determine whether......

Even though St. Genesius doesn't celebrate his feastday until August, it seems the Theatre Party stars must be in alignment or something because this weekend brings you not one, not two, but four -- you heard us -- four theatre party-benefit thingees. All from companies we love, so if you want to rub shoulders with some delightful, talented people, check out any of the following! Friday, 3/24 Rob Nash's Birthday Benefit for the Vortex.......

As your eyes try to focus through the after-party-induced, post-intoxication (or still intoxicated) haze that's been your modus operandi this week, don't feel bad that you're a little...less productive than normal. The theatre community isn't getting much done either. But, while this may be a slow week on the boards, coming next weekend only, ProArts Collective is bringing you Kissing the Goodbye, written and directed by the fabulous Zell Miller (who we love). Also,......

We were among a highly select group of ridiculously hip industry insiders (that was a self-aggrandizing lie) invited to attend the preview performance of dirigo group’s latest production, A Human Interest Story, by Carlos Murillo. Little darlings of the Austin fringe performance scene, dirigo group are commonly mentioned in the same sentence with companies like the Rude Mechs, Salvage Vanguard and Refraction Arts. (Like we just did) We saw a lot we liked in......

This comes from new contributor Jonathon. You know that Rude Mechs show we've been talking, and talking, and talking about? ('Cause we loved it, and the Statesman loved it, and the Chronicle loved it.) You know how you were crying in your latte because your boyfriend forgot to buy tickets and now it's all sold out? Dry your tears. The Rudes have added three more shows next weekend (February 10 & 11). Friday @......

F R I D A Y [16] [theatre] Rude Mechs present Pale Idiot by Kirk Lynn at The Off Centre (Through Sat, $12, 8pm) [Austinist Review] [theatre] Langston Hughes' "Black Nativity" at Austin Playhouse on Penn Field (Through Sat, $20, 7:30pm) [theatre] "When Pigs Fly" at Arts on Real (8pm) [theatre] Shrewd Productions presents "Xmas Unwrapped! A Holiday Burlesque" at Hyde Park Theatre (Through Sat, 10pm) [theatre] "A Christmas Carol" at The State Theatre......

M O N D A Y [12] [music] UT Ethnomusicology Dept Ensembles at Momo's (8pm) [music] David Newbould at Flipnotics (8pm) [music] Singer-Songwriter Night at Longbranch Inn [music] Elizabeth McQueen at Theadgill's (8pm) [music] Listening party for Ludacris' new album, Disturbing Tha Peace at Nasty's (8pm) [music/shopping] Armadillo Christmas Bazaar with the Eggmen at Austin Music Hall (Check website for dates/hours) [party] Friends of the Spade Christmas Party at Velvet Spade (11pm) [film/food] "Narnia"......

M O N D A Y [ 2 8 ] film · End of an Ear hosts a free screening of Lee Ranaldo and Leah Singer's "Drift" at the Alamo South Lamar (Free, 10pm) [link] music · The Kingsbury Manx, The Standard and The Heavenly States at Emo's film · KOOP Radio's Monthly Film Benefit at MonkeyWrench Books - Gillo Pontecorvo's “The Battle of Algiers”, about the French occupation of 1950s Algeria. (Inc. Beer and......