XL COVER

Small arts groups go long

New center makes room for the Rude Mechanicals and other Austin performing arts organizations.

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN ARTS WRITER
Saturday, March 29, 2008

Location, location, location.

Like in real estate, in the arts, where you are

can matter just as much as what you do.

That's why next week, when the first of many shows by some of

Austin's small and midsize arts groups start filling the new Long Center for the Performing Arts, it might seem that some of these groups

are having their very first premiere.

Groups such as the Rude Mechanicals, for instance.

When "The Method Gun," a new play by Rude Mechanicals playwright-in-residence Kirk Lynn, opens April 2, the Austin theater group will be the first to be presented by the Long Center. And it's probable that in the audience will be people who have never seen a show by the award-winning internationally touring theater collective, even though the group has been around for 13 years. For the past nine, the group has been filling the seats in the Off Center, the East Austin warehouse theater they call home.

"It's kind of like we're going on tour west of IH-35," says Madge Darlington, one of the Rude Mechanicals' five co-founders and co-producing artistic directors. "We've had some really wonderful things come our way over the last few years. But this feels like quite an honor to be presented in our own town like this."

Though the $77 million Long Center was initially kick-started by backers of Austin's three major performing arts groups — Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Symphony Orchestra and Ballet Austin — to create their own permanent performance home, the project broadened early on. In addition to the new 2,400-seat Dell Hall, the small flexible Rollins Studio Theatre can accommodate 80 to 225 people, depending on how the stage is configured. It was built for use by the dozens of smaller performing arts groups that call greater Austin home. (There are also plans to build a third, medium-size venue.) While many organizations have rented the Rollins with bookings extending well into 2009, "The Method Gun" is the first production that the Long Center will present — an agreement that has the center waiving the cost of renting the Rollins and underwriting part of the cost of the show.

As Darlington said, the Rudes, as they're commonly called, have had some good things come their way. Since 1995, the group of five University of Texas graduates has created strikingly original plays, crafting them in an intensely collaborative process. After generating a loyal — and by indie theater standards a quite sizable — local audience as well as plenty of critical accolades, the Rudes garnered rave reviews in 2001 when they toured the country with "Lipstick Traces," their supercharged adaptation of music critic Greil Marcus' book that traces the history of anarchy and punk rock. They took the show to Europe in 2003. By 2006, the Rudes had another hit on their hands. The politically charged "Get Your War On," adapted from the online comic of the same name by David Rees, played several theater festivals across the country and in Europe. At the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the show won the coveted "Total Theatre Award," beating 1,800 other plays.

Even before they had finished touring "Get Your War On," the Rudes had already begun work on "The Method Gun," receiving several competitive grants to support the play's creative development. (While Lynn as the group's playwright-in-residence takes authorship credit for individual scripts, the productions are created by the group with everyone contributing ideas; the five artistic directors are joined by more than 20 company actors.)

"The Method Gun" explores the life, philosophy and techniques of an illusory actor-training guru named Stella Burden. According to the play, the training technique developed by the supposed Burden, called "The Approach," fused modern Western psychology and acting methods along with more esoteric exercises and often bizarre approaches. Burden's intense influence on her followers and her mysterious disappearance form the dramatic backbone of "The Method Gun" while the complexities of group dynamics and the dangers of following one school of thought shadow the on-stage action.

The Rudes were developing the play to present at the Off Center until they began talking with Long Center officials, who were scouting Austin arts groups.

"We were on the front lines of the skeptics who were questioning once upon a time whether the Long Center was really going to embrace Austin's smaller groups," says Lana Lesley, a Rudes co-founder.

And they wondered whether the Long Center folks would embrace the Rudes' experimental and provocative style.

Apparently, the answer was yes.

"How wonderful is it to have the Rollins premiere with one of our more prominent arts groups," says Tammie Ward, Long Center director of programming. "It's important that (the Austin arts community) know that we won't step on their artistic toe, but that we will be their showcase."

For their part, the Rudes are looking forward to introducing themselves to a whole new segment of Central Texas. "My hope is that at the Long Center we'll reach people who wouldn't typically come to see a new play at all," says Shawn Sides, another Rudes co-founder.

But what about a new crowd adjusting to their edgy style?

"In the age of reality television, it's kind of a regular mode now for people to watch another group of people talk about what they're doing," says Lynn, the playwright. "We are in love with theater and in love with working with each other, and we hope that 'The Method Gun' mirrors that, and the audience will make a connection to that."

jvanryzin@statesman.com; 445-3699

Michelle Schumann, pianist and artistic director of the Austin Chamber Music Center, is absolutely adamant about one thing: "Chamber music is the original party music."

She's right.

Before recordings and radio broadcasts and heck, even before electricity, if you wanted music at, say, your palace party, you hired a small ensemble to rock it out in your party room — or, party chamber. A church, with its somber atmosphere, is the last place chamber music would have been played, Schumann says. But like so many other cost-challenged nonprofit classical music organizations, the Austin Chamber Music Center has long relied on presenting its gigs in churches, which are both affordable and acoustically suitable for nonamplified music.

But beginning April 13, the award-winning Schumann and her organization will use the Long Center's Rollins Studio Theatre for the majority of their concerts. Bringing "the original party music" closer to Austin's entertainment-focused downtown seems natural to the 34-year-old Schumann, who since taking the helm of the long-standing organization in 2006 has doubled concert attendance with modernized programming and daring offerings such as a bold production of the short yet emotionally charged 1969 opera "The Diary of Anne Frank."

"Austin is a smart town," she says. "People here want their brains fed." In other words, there's no reason chamber music shouldn't be just another live music option for an evening on the town. And with Schumann's consistent presentation of the chamber music of today alongside the classics, she's positioned her organization to entice a young audience — the ever-elusive and much-needed demographic that classical music groups across the country are so anxious to attract. "The Rollins is a hip space and I think chamber music is the hippest thing there is," she says.

True, its bare-bones industrial look may give the Rollins a lot of street cred. But the venue is designed more as a small theater venue and doesn't offer the ideal acoustic setting for chamber music. Schumann acknowledges that it'll be a challenge, but it's one she's willing to tackle with the hope that a more centralized, and secular, location will win out with new audiences and old. "If we're going to appeal and attract new audiences, we can't not look for new venues that will do that for us," she says.

But there's also a considerable financial challenge for the chamber music center, which has an annual budget of $375,000, to use Rollins.

The cost of renting a church for a performance can start as low as $200 a night, with the group taking in all the profits from ticket sales. Compare that with the cost of the Rollins Studio Theatre. Austin Chamber Music Center will pay $300 for the April 13 gig plus ante up $2 per seat occupied in a facilities charge. If all 225 seats are filled, the organization will get a total bill of $750. And when it uses the Dell Hall this summer for part of its popular summer chamber music festival, the check will be even higher. Schumann will have to ante up $4,000 for a one-night gig plus a $4 per seat facility charge. An audience of 750 — not unexpected for one of the festival's popular shows — will total out at $7,000. And then there's the fact that the audience — if they choose to park in the Long Center's parking garage — will have to hand over $7 for parking.

Schumann is adamant about not raising the ticket prices (usually $20 to $25) to her shows for now. "There's no way I can ask my audience to foot the bill for my decision (to play the Rollins)," she says. "And I don't want to price my concerts out of the market, especially not the market for a younger audience."

And besides, Schumann points out, it's more important to consider the bigger picture — not just her organization's growth but the Long Center's position as a venue for everyone. "The community-wide aspect of the Long Center's mission is incredibly important. Change is happening out there, and I don't just want to stick my toe into it. I want to jump into it now and be a part of that change."

'The Method Gun'

When:7:30 p.m. April 2-3, April 5, April 8-10; 7 and 10 p.m. April 4 and April 11; 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. April 6 and April 12

Where:Rollins Studio Theatre, Long Center, 701 W. Riverside St.

Cost:$15 on April 2, $28 all other days

Information: 474-5664, www.thelongcenter.org

Note:For mature audiences. Contains nudity.

'Nobody likes a show-off — Well, maybe just this once'

What:Beethoven, Ravel and Tchaikovsky from members of the Cleveland Orchestra and pianist Michelle Schumann

When:7:30 p.m. April 13

Where:Rollins Studio Theatre, Long Center, 701 W. Riverside St.

Cost:$20

Information: 454-7562, www.austinchamber.org