Shawn Sides and Graham Reynolds: Rude and Golden

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

"...Well, yes, of course Graham Reynolds and Shawn Sides are a couple. A lot of people are..."

March 25, 2016 Arts Feature by Wayne Alan Brenner

Rude Awakening

Austin's Rude Mechanicals Get Inspired Training at SITI

"...Lana Lesley, Amy Miley, Gavin Mundy, Sarah Richardson, and Shawn Sides all wanted to go and, in a move..."

July 31, 1998 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Ripping the Shrew

The Rude Mechanicals Tear Into Shakespeare

"...Shawn Sides, director: Taming of the Shrew has been bubbling..."

Aug. 15, 1997 Arts Feature by Adrienne Martini

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.

"...be funny and smart in eloquent, original ways. Today, Shawn Sides, Sarah Richardson, Lana Lesley, Katie Glynn, and Madge..."

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."

"...of miles and a few years apart. One: Director Shawn Sides is working at the now-defunct independent Austin bookstore..."

Sept. 1, 2000 Arts Feature by Ada Calhoun

Leon and Stella Alesi: Love Conjures All

Leon and Stella Alesi provide ocular proof of a life in the arts

"...covered the bright, busy situation of theatre-and-music power couple Shawn "Rude Mechs" Sides and Graham "Golden Arm Trio" Reynolds...."

Oct. 28, 2016 Arts Feature by Wayne Alan Brenner

Wayne Alan Brenner's Top 10 Arts-Related Things I Enjoyed in 2017

Bold takes on history and art that moved around the city spoke to a growing, changing Austin this year

"...bilingual bio-opera created by composer Graham Reynolds and director Shawn Sides with Mexico City's Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol (and..."

Dec. 29, 2017 Arts Feature by Wayne Alan Brenner

Live Feed

Jason Phelps turns to his theatrical past to nourish the present with a Feast of My Heart

"...Madge Darlington, Lana Lesley, Kirk Lynn, Sarah Richardson, and Shawn Sides with the Rude Mechs. David Yeakle with Tongue..."

Dec. 12, 2014 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

The Method Gun

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

"...theatrical exercise, penned by Kirk Lynn and directed by Shawn Sides. It purports to re-create from the historical record..."

April 11, 2008 Arts Review by Robert Faires

Payback as Comeback

The Rude Mechs boost a resurgence with 'REVENGE!'

"...Wednesday rehearsal, the decisions were little and big. Director Shawn Sides was puzzling over nuances of choreography while playwright..."

April 14, 2006 Arts Feature by Steve Moore

More Places at the Table

The Austin Critics Table is about to hand out its annual awards for achievement in the arts for the 10th year, and the list of nominees is longer than ever.

"...Shawn Sides, El Paraiso..."

May 24, 2002 Arts Feature 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.

"...When Shawn Sides speaks these words near the end of the..."

Sept. 14, 2001 Arts Review by Robert Faires

Crafting the Song

Austin theatre actor Robert Fisher has the heart of a rock & roller, the work ethic of a medieval craftsman, and the style of a Bob Fosse. Either he's in the wrong business or he is, as playwright Kirk Lynn calls him, "a wonder."

"...Rude Mechanicals director Shawn Sides has one word to say about actor Robert..."

March 16, 2001 Arts Feature by C. Denby Swanson

Articulations

More Austin theatre turning up in New York: Despair’s Book of Dreams and Lipstick Traces set for spring 2001 runs.

"...and the Outstanding Director of a Comedy award for Shawn Sides), the upcoming New York run will actually be..."

Nov. 24, 2000 Arts Column by Robert Faires

B. Iden Payne Award Nominations, 1999-2000

"...Shawn Sides, Lipstick Traces..."

Aug. 18, 2000 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Greil Marcus and the Mad Parade

In his book Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century, Greil Marcus explained punk to the world and created a bible for that music's true believers. As Austin theatre company Rude Mechanicals opens its stage adaptation of Marcus' book, the author talks about the Stones, the Sex Pistols, and the "mad parade" of history.

"...writing to pique another young, curious imagination. Rude Mechanicals' Shawn Sides was working at Garner & Smith Bookstore when..."

Sept. 10, 1999 Arts Feature by Margaret Moser

'Bacchae' to the Future

How in (a Greek) god's name can the Rude Mechs re-create Dionysus in 69 in '09?

"...few platforms and close the space in some. Co-PAD Shawn Sides, who is also co-directing the re-creation and who..."

Nov. 27, 2009 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Among Us

The gypsy feet of playwright Ruth Margraff keep wandering back to Austin, and we're fortunate that they do

"...Devildare, commissioned and produced by Austin's Rude Mechanicals. Director Shawn Sides sees this collaboration as being about "martyrs and..."

May 7, 2004 Arts Feature by Cyndi Williams

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.

"...Director Shawn Sides provides clever guidance, finding stage images that bump..."

Sept. 8, 2000 Arts Review by Robi Polgar

Nonunion Actors: Raising It a Notch

"...Sarah Richardson and Shawn Sides of Rude Mechanicals have been part of many..."

June 9, 2000 Arts Feature by Robi Polgar

Mary Moody Northen Theatre's Men on Boats

With a diverse cast of women playing white men exploring the Grand Canyon, this show recasts history to show guys who just don't get it

"...With Shawn Sides of the Rude Mechs captaining Backhaus' time-warping, identity-flipped..."

Nov. 16, 2018 Arts Review by Robert Faires

I, Tonya

Belated biopic redress for America's skating punchline

"...Craig Gillespie have absolutely zero interest in hearing both sides of the story (Kerrigan is seen but utters not..."

Jan. 5, 2018 Movie Review by Josh Kupecki

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

"...Shawn Sides also put a bullet in the South Pacific,..."

March 28, 2008 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

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

"...set them on music stands. Choreographic blocking by director Shawn Sides shows us potential for something grand. Sides' signature..."

May 6, 2005 Arts Review by Heather Barfield Cole

Change in the Weather

A different kind of summer for the city arts funding process

"...muddied the waters of evaluation – and let both sides focus on the case for funding made in the..."

Sept. 3, 2004 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

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

"...by Liebrecht, Lana Lesley, Joey Hood, Robert Fisher, and Shawn Sides, and Sides' canny direction, supplemented by Graham Reynolds'..."

May 7, 2004 Arts Review by Robert Faires

Articulations

More bouquets for Lipstick Traces in The New York Times, and Austin theatre critics continue to take over the world

"...makes theatre matter again. In praising it, she said: "Shawn Sides, who conceived Lipstick Traces, and Kirk Lynn, who..."

Aug. 3, 2001 Arts Column by Robert Faires

Articulations

New York is calling, and Austin performers from the Rude Mechanicals to the Flaming Idiots to MOMFest are answering.

"...run), then winds up with a quote from director Shawn Sides. "We've been scrambling to call in every favor..."

March 16, 2001 Arts Column by Robert Faires

Requiem for Tesla

Local mavericks Rude Mechanicals have plundered biographies and scientific history to give us the whole story of maverick inventor Nikola Tesla, and their production Requiem for Tesla, with its unnervingly choreographed lights, arresting video, beautiful period costumes, original score on theremin, strange dance numbers, and working Tesla coil, literally crackles with current.

"...The show was conceived and directed by Shawn Sides, with a script by Kirk Lynn. Here, as..."

March 2, 2001 Arts Review by Wayne Alan Brenner

Working Worked Out

Theaterless Theater Corps, Rude Mechanicals, KAIROS! Co.

"...phone call. He then sought out the show's director, Shawn Sides, and told her there was somebody on the..."

Aug. 27, 1999 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

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