Kathy Blackbird
The Barefoot Players formed in 1987. In the beginning the Barefoots were the result of one man’s vision: John White, who was driven to direct Macbeth and asked me, Don Brode, John Stokes, Shawn Sides, Jon Watson, and Horatio Alger to be involved. I think the name was generated so we could advertise the production (in a very low-budget way, mind you). The success of this production (it made enough money at the box office to cover costs) led to the next play, Lear, then Tempest and Twelfth Night. The group sort of disbanded in the early Nineties when John White moved to Poland, where he is still living and working with an experimental theatre company.
The Boxtree Players formed in 1995 for a production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona and included many but not all the Barefoots: Don, Jon, me, Shawn, Kirsten “Stan” Kern, Lana Lesley, Sarah Richardson, Madge Darlington. Problems in the collaborative process, huge dissension over the choice of the name for this production, and some pretty drastic artistic differences led to the demise of Boxtree and the genesis of Rude Mechanicals. (The original Rudes were the girls from the previous group: Shawn, Sarah, Lana, Madge, Stan, and me, with the addition of Kirk Lynn and Gavin Mundy.)
I believe generally, and certainly for my own part, the desire to perform theatre in Austin post-Winedale was driven by a newly acquired love of Shakespeare and a desire to perform again after the experience of Winedale. But primarily it was an attempt to recapture that level of creative stimulation, particularly in the collaboration with others creatively as a group, which seems to be the essence of the Winedale experience. It was something all of us were striving to tap into but was essentially impossible to achieve.
The results were of mixed success. The media characterized the groups and performances as “student productions” and lacking quality, seriousness, and professionalism. Given the extreme low-budget nature of the productions (we performed in basements, gymnasiums, and classrooms, and shopped for costumes at Goodwill), I cannot blame them, but it was hugely disappointing. I think artistically all of the performances were compelling, but I am biased. Anyway, this popular attitude led directly to the creation of the Rudes and the adoption of a real structure and organization, with a real budget, new plays, and subsequent local (and somewhat national) acclaim. – Kathy Blackbird
This article appears in July 23 • 2004.