Strap on your snow shoes and join Rude Mechs on a surreal hike through one of the greatest—and longest!—novels ever written: The Brothers Karamazov. A physical meditation on Dostoevsky’s masterpiece, Field Guide enlists stand-up comedy, a dancing monk, and some old-school magic to explore faith, meaning, and morality.

Arts Writing

“‘Brothers Karamazov’ Inspires Experimental, Far-Reaching ‘Field Guide’ At Yale Rep” by Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant

Reviews & Citations

“Charming, Accessible, Provocative” – Hartford Courant, 2018 premiere

“Blazingly Imaginative” – Talkin’ Broadway, 2018 premiere

“An absolutely fucking hilarious work of art. Go see this play!” – Yale Daily News, 2018 premiere

“Deliriously imaginative” – New Haven Register, 2018 premiere

“Exuberant irony in an existential search for meaning and purpose” – New Haven Independent, 2018 premiere

“The show (it’s hard to classify it as a “play” in the classical sense) blends scenes from The Brothers Karamazov, imaginatively and energetically presented, with moments of stand-up comedy, direct address, dance, and personal confession.

At turns hilarious and heartbreaking, these separate building blocks accrete into a larger performative edifice that questions the ability to adapt something with the depth and complexity of a Russian novel for a visual medium like theater. Field Guide’s answer to this quandary is to create bare, simple, yet utterly amazing and inventive scenes of theatrical depth and complexity that explore the ability of the stage to probe deep into the human psyche in ways that a novel is unable to.” – Andrew J. Friedenthal, Austin American-Statesman, 2016 production

“The Rude Mechs take chances to create things that are different and to be invited to be part of their process is something that Austin audiences should be lining up for. This is a gloriously experimental, energizing evening of theatre… and I, for one, can’t wait to see the next draft.” – Broadway World, 2016 production

Rude Mechs creates new works collaboratively and relies on every artist in the room contributing to everything from design and direction to text and performance. Field Guide was created by Mari Akita, Lowell Bartholomee, Kenny Chilton, Madge Darlington, Eric Dyer, Robert S. Fisher, Aaron Flynn, Thomas Graves, Kevin Jacaman, Hannah Kenah, Lana Lesley, Kirk Lynn, Graham Reynolds, Brian H Scott, Shawn Sides, and Dallas Tate.

January 26 – February 17, 2018

world premiere at Yale Repertory Theatre

digital playbill

Text  – Hannah Kenah
Direction – Shawn Sides
Scenic Design – Eric Dyer
Sound Design – Robert S. Fisher
Original Music – Graham Reynolds
Lighting Design – Brian H Scott
Costume Design – Sarah Woodham
Production Dramaturg – Amy Boratko
Stage Manager – Bianca Hooi
Associate Sound Designer – Megumi Katayama
Fight Director – Rick Sordelet
Technical Director – Steph Waaser

The cast

Alyosha (son) – Mari Akita
Fyodor (father) – Lowell Bartholomee
Smerdyakov (son) – Robert S. Fisher
Ivan (son) – Thomas Graves
Grushenka (entrepreneur) – Hannah Kenah
Katya (Dmitri’s fiancée) – Hannah Kenah
Grigory (old servant) – Hannah Kenah
Dmitri (son) – Lana Lesley

April 7 – 30, 2016

2nd draft workshop showing

Ensemble: Mari Akita, Lowell Bartholomee, Robert S. Fisher, Thomas Graves, Hannah Kenah, Lana Lesley

Text by Hannah Kenah with Dostoevsky, Akita, Sides, Lesley, Fisher, Bartholomee, Graves, Kirk Lynn, and Allen Iverson

Direction by Shawn Sides
Lighting by Brian H Scott
Set by Eric Dyer
Costumes by Aaron Flynn
Sound by Robert S. Fisher
Original Music by Graham Reynolds
Choreography by Mari Akita, Vaslav Najinsky
Properties Design by Eva Claycomb
Production Manager: Dallas Tate
Production Stage Manager / Light Operator: Kenny Chilton
Technical Director: Kevin Long
Master Electrician: Kat Rodgers
Electrician: David Higgins
Asst. Stage Manager / Sound Operator: Nate Jackson
Sub Stage Manager: Courtney Cales
Box Office Manager: Tammy Whitehead
Front of House Manager: Rachel Gilbert
Carps: Kevin Jacaman, Rene Chavez, Matt Zapata

1st draft workshop showing
Creation Collaborators
Lowell Bartholomee, Madge Darlington, Robert S. Fisher, Thomas Graves, Hannah Kenah, Lana Lesley, Kirk Lynn, Graham Reynolds, Brian H Scott, Shawn Sides

Production Team
Lighting Design: Stephen Pruitt
Crew: Alexandra Bassett
Box Office and FOH Managers: Victoria and Tina Van Winkle
Stage Manager: Sam Accettulli

What We Were Ever Thinking

The creation process for Field Guide began in Fall 2014 with the Co-Producing Artistic Directors in the earliest concept phase. Company Members joined in November and then in December, we all headed off to Yale for a 9-day residency where we generated material. We put it all away until the first week of March – we generated more material and ruthlessly cut and shaped the piece to make it audience-ready.

Rude Mechs completed this workshop showing of the first draft in March 2015 (3/19 – 3/29). Tickets were free and a post-show feedback session was held after every performance to solicit ideas and critique from our patrons.

To date, the piece has been flitting around how to be a good person, or how to live the best life possible: The Brothers Karamazov; Yul Brynner’s forehead; stand-up comedy; dancing; meditation; Jack Kerouac; and acting cubes. We will present a more complete picture of the piece in April 2016.

“Alexei doesn’t get a lot of time in the stage adaptations and the movie we found because, I think, it’s hard to depict spiritual longing… as opposed to action – you know, like Dmitri running around drinking, gambling and hitting people – that’s easy.”