Rude Awakening

Austin's Rude Mechanicals Get Inspired Training at SITI

"...Rude Mechanicals were among them. Kathy Blackbird, Katie Glynn, Lana Lesley, Amy Miley, Gavin Mundy, Sarah Richardson, and Shawn..."

July 31, 1998 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Who Is Stella Burden, and Why Are They Saying Those Terrible Things About Her?

When the Rude Mechs do a show about acting, they find madness in the Method

"..."But that's one thing you must fake," notes copad Lana Lesley. And if the audience knows it's fake, does..."

March 28, 2008 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

B. Iden Payne Award Nominations, 1999-2000

"...Raiford, who received four nominations, and for Peyton Hayslip, Lana Lesley, Sarah Richardson, Kirk Smith, Scott Thompson, and Joe..."

Aug. 18, 2000 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Two Generations, One Art

Like twins who have grown up apart and are finally reunited, writer-performer Terry Galloway and the Austin theatre company Rude Mechanicals are creative soulmates who have at last discovered their kinship through their collaboration on Galloway's dark comedy In the House of the Moles.

"...in eloquent, original ways. Today, Shawn Sides, Sarah Richardson, Lana Lesley, Katie Glynn, and Madge Darlington -- all Rude..."

Feb. 25, 2000 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Everything Is Possible ... Again

Seemingly unadaptable, Greil Marcus' 1989 opus Lipstick Traces proved to be the foundation for the Rude Mechanicals' strongest theatre work to date. As they revive their hit adaptation, the Rude Mechs reflect on its creation, its success, working as a collective, and being told by Marcus, "You staged the book I wanted to write."

"...to a dark Eastside bar two weeks ago. Actress Lana Lesley is leaning over her beer, asking the rhetorical..."

Sept. 1, 2000 Arts Feature by Ada Calhoun

Land of 1,000 Dramas

Venues

"...(Kirk Lynn). In the wings: don b's Snow White (Lana Lesley)...."

March 12, 1999 Arts Feature

City of Brotherly Rudes

The Rude Mechs hit Philly with 'How Late It Was, How Late,' while company member Lana Lesley goes touring with SITI Company

"...Shawn Sides is taking the roles originally played by Lana Lesley, who's on what may be an even sweeter..."

Sept. 3, 2004 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Austin Theatre Critics' Table 1999-2000 Nominations

"...Lana Lesley, Lipstick Traces..."

May 12, 2000 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Fast, Cheap, and in Control

Cost-of-living increases are making local artists do more with less

"...and garnering more attention at a time when, as Lana Lesley of the Rude Mechs says, "The arts in..."

Feb. 3, 2017 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

El Paraiso

The Rude Mechs took a road trip to see the Marfa lights, and their journey has been translated by playwright Kirk Lynn, director Shawn Sides, and a gifted ensemble into a raucous, sweet, funny, fanciful meditation on the tension between desire and intellect, and heaven as embodied in the land called Texas.

"...a man and a woman, and the gal -- Lana Lesley's tight-lipped, buckskin-clad Marfa, giving a tip o' the..."

May 17, 2002 Arts Review by Robert Faires

Big Love

Charles Mee's Big Love swirls almost madly from brainy discourse to visceral activity to contemplative imagery and back again, like a manic dance or, well, life, and the Rude Mechanicals, who are always up for a good dance, take Mee's play and tear up the floor with it.

"...physical aspects an exhilarating energy. "Sisters" Sarah Richardson and Lana Lesley make their entrance clambering through a window, then..."

Sept. 14, 2001 Arts Review by Robert Faires

Young Guns and Typewriters

"...and crew. There, Lynn, a native San Antonian, met Lana Lesley, a Houstonian, and the two of them decided..."

Sept. 18, 1998 Arts Feature

Stadium Devildare

The Rude Mechanicals' Stadium Devildare, from a script by Ruth Margraff, offers a muscle-bound riff on reality game shows and superpatriotism, but its torrents of text eventually leave the brain numb

"...coming. The performance of it is virtuosic by Liebrecht, Lana Lesley, Joey Hood, Robert Fisher, and Shawn Sides, and..."

May 7, 2004 Arts Review by Robert Faires

Lipstick Traces: Rock On!

With Lipstick Traces, the Rude Mechanicals have adeptly created a theatrical adaptation of Greil Marcus' legendary book that is loud, defiant, intelligent, funny, absurd, literate, physical, and fun, a rock concert for your head.

"...As the group's lead singer, if you will, Lana Lesley radiates a captivating mix of innocence and smarts...."

Sept. 8, 2000 Arts Review by Robi Polgar

In The House of the Moles: Live, Love, Get the Fuck Up!

Writer Terry Galloway and theatre company Rude Mechanicals are "an amazing match" in the slapstick-and-death piece In the House of the Moles.

"...a magnetic presence evocative of Ginger on Gilligan's Island. Lana Lesley, who did a brilliant job in Lipstick Traces,..."

March 10, 2000 Arts Review by Ada Calhoun

Street Corner Arts' Grounded

Every element of this production works together to get us inside the head of a troubled military flyer

"...including a hilarious piece by Peter Stopschinski (performed by Lana Lesley) that is better left as the hilarious surprise..."

April 13, 2018 Arts Review by Shanon Weaver

Rude Mechs on the Move

Having left the Off Center, the theatre company is now planning to #crushAustin in all 10 council districts and opening new studios Downtown

"...("No huge surprise there," notes Rudes co-producing artistic director Lana Lesley.) From that input, the Rudes adopted base rates..."

June 30, 2017 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Rude Mechs' Requiem for Tesla

The Austin theatre collective's biography of inventor Nikola Tesla literally makes sparks fly

"...fabulous cast is rounded out by Hayley Armstrong and Lana Lesley, who most notably depict hilarious gender-bent versions of..."

Dec. 9, 2016 Arts Review by T. Lynn Mikeska

The Rude Mechs' Field Guide

There's much to ponder in the second draft of the Rude Mechs' mash-up of Dostoyevsky, stand-up comedy, and spiritual belief

"...The father, Fyodor (Lowell Bartholomee), and his son Dmitri (Lana Lesley) are both chasing the same woman, Grushenka (Hannah..."

April 15, 2016 Arts Review by Elizabeth Cobbe

Shawn Sides and Graham Reynolds: Rude and Golden

How two of Austin's top creative stars meld a busy life of art and love

"...to grad school. And I met Kirk [Lynn] and Lana [Lesley] in New York, and we worked on some..."

March 25, 2016 Arts Feature by Wayne Alan Brenner

Actors' Inequity

The Cost of Art IV: The artists onstage in Austin aren't just not paid what they're worth, many aren't paid at all

"...be a burden on a tight production budget," allows Lana Lesley, one of the six co-producing artistic directors, but..."

Jan. 23, 2015 Arts Feature by Katherine Catmull

Collective Strength

The 2014 class of the Austin Arts Hall of Fame

"...the five founders (Kirk Lynn, Madge Darlington, Sarah Richardson, Lana Lesley, and Shawn Sides) still at the helm and..."

May 23, 2014 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

The Method Gun

With this play about theatre and tigers, the Rude Mechs earn their stripes forever

"...Thomas Graves, Heather Hanna, Jude Hickey, Hannah Kenah, and Lana Lesley. They've sussed the system and timed the diversions..."

May 1, 2009 Arts Review by Wayne Alan Brenner

The Method Gun

The Rude Mechs' latest pays at times comic, at times touching tribute to the strange craft of acting and its practitioners

"...no idea how to act in my life," laments Lana Lesley's Koko at one point, and the line ought..."

April 11, 2008 Arts Review by Robert Faires

Payback as Comeback

The Rude Mechs boost a resurgence with 'REVENGE!'

"...Madge Darlington, Robert S. Fisher, Thomas Graves, Heather Hannah, Lana Lesley, Jason Liebrecht, Michael Mergen, Leilah Stewart, Lynn, and..."

April 14, 2006 Arts Feature by Steve Moore

'Pale Idiot': Return to the Rudeness That Started It All

As a celebration of 10 years of rudeness, the Rude Mechanicals are reviving the show that started it all, Kirk Lynn's absurdist comedy 'Pale Idiot'

"...was talking with him about it last year when Lana Lesley [one of the Rudes' five co-producing artistic directors..."

Dec. 2, 2005 Arts Feature by Barry Pineo

Match-Play

From Deborah Hay's dance 'The Match,' the Rude Mechanicals pull 'Match-Play,' a hilarious, intellectually striking bit of absurdity with the feel of 'The Real World' as conceived by Eugene Ionesco

"...also frequently and consistently hilarious, given the way Rudes Lana Lesley, Shawn Sides, and Lynn, with special guest Rude..."

Sept. 30, 2005 Arts Review by Robert Faires

Brawl in the Family

It's Round 10 of the Rude Mechanicals' annual fundraiser, and the Black Eye Ball promises to pack enough punch to send a herd of Santa Gertrudis to Slumberland

"...Thus he eventually hooked up with Shawn Sides and Lana Lesley and Sarah Richardson and Madge Darlington to form..."

Aug. 19, 2005 Arts Feature by Wayne Alan Brenner

Get Your War On

The Rude Mechanicals' 'Get Your War On' bulldozes through the buried media and lost horrors of the post-9 / 11 years with a sarcasm that strikes sparks

"...with coordinated stillness. Rude's company members Jason Liebrecht and Lana Lesley stand virtually motionless except for their robotic flipping..."

May 6, 2005 Arts Review by Heather Barfield Cole

Playing Around With the Evil Empire

The Rude Mechanicals go Russian with a play -- well, a performance piece -- umm -- a performance collage -- well, '300 Plays About Vladimir Putin.'

"...Playing around? The Rude Mechanicals playing around? Actors like Lana Lesley, Lowell Bartholomee, and Judson Jones just playing around?..."

Dec. 12, 2003 Arts Feature by Barry Pineo

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