Rude Mechs Bring a Karaoke Christmas Carol Into Your Home and You’re the Star
By Wayne Alan Brenner, October 6, 2020, 3:15pm, All Over Creation
We mean, c'mon: You didn’t think they were just, like, sitting on their hands all this time, right?
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No, after having hunkered down pandemicwise for a few months and fomented like the brilliant theatre-fomenting fiends they are, Austin’s Rude Mechs come roaring (approximately) back into the performative fray with a new show that will put you and your quaranteam in the spotlight, on the stage, and playing the roles – and all of it happening right there in your own by-now-very-familiar home.
It’s part of the Rudes’ new Cyrano Plays project. It’s accessed via an app they’re developing with a founder of Kongregate and an all-star team of game designers in Austin. And it – this first one, this Karaoke Christmas Carol – is Charles Dickens’ classic as rewritten by the company’s Kirk Lynn.
Note: That acclaimed playwright is doing to the Scrooge tale what he’s so successfully and hilariously done to William Shakespeare’s oddlots in the past. Except, this time, you’ll totally be a part of the action.
How does it work?
Listen: “Download the app, open up the play, and choose your role. Do you want to play Scrooge? Is it your life’s dream to be Tiny Tim? Or the Ghost of Christmas Past? Then just pop in your earbuds, press play, and Rude Mechs will whisper in your ear so you become the star you know you are! Say what you hear, do what you’re told, and the epic story will unfold!”
That bit above is from the project’s Kickstarter campaign. That’s right: Kickstarter. That’s how you get hooked up with this thing from the get-go. That’s how you help make sure Karaoke Christmas Carol exists in time for this year’s holiday cheer. That’s how – what? The gift that keeps on giving, you say?
Why, yes. Because these guys aren’t busting their brains’ and their keyboard-fingers’ asses on developing a new app for just one show, friend. No, the Rudes will be uploading more shows to the app as the new year comes and the months continue on, because there are – right? – quite a few other holidays than just Christmas. Or, uh, Pikamas or whatever.
There are other holidays, and Kirk Lynn probably wants to fuck with each of them, and whether or not there’s still a lousy pandemic to deal with by the time Christmas rolls around again, you’ll want to enjoy those holidays with your closest friends and family. And we reckon these Cyrano Plays will always be an excellent way to do that.
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