Welcome to CRASHBOX.
While have no idea how long we will get to lease this venue, we invite you in.
THE SPACE
5305 Bolm Rd. #11 and #12, Austin, TX 78721
CRASHBOX is a 3000 square foot venue offering a 50-seat flexible black box theatre, dressing room, and rehearsal space. Crashbox includes two accessible restrooms and an enclosed lobby with a rolling garage door, but no climate control. CRASHBOX is fully accessible.
SPACE-USE
To make a space-use inquiry, please fill out the Venue Booking Inquiry form on this page. If you have trouble with the embedded form, you can access it here.
NONPROFIT / ARTIST RATES
If you are an artist / nonprofit organization and you cannot afford these rates, we will try to work with you.
If you are a private individual or a commercial renter, please contact us for rates. We will charge you more.
RENTAL INVENTORY
Rude Mechs runs a lending library of scenic, properties and costume elements for community use. Contact us for an idea of what’s available.
The entire inventory listed below is free to use in the space. Rental rates apply when anything is taken off site.
- 6 5′ conference room tables (on wheels, hinged for storage) (good shape)
- 9 conference chairs (decent)
- 32 stackable plastic chairs (like new)
- 60 brown restaurant chairs (very used)
- 30 metal folding chairs (shabby chic)
Light Gear inventory and rental rates upon request.
Sound Gear inventory and rental rates upon request.
Dance floor inventory and rental rates upon request.
Projection Gear inventory and rental rates upon request.
HISTORY OF RUDE STUDIOS AND THE OFF CENTER BEFORE THAT
April 2019 – present – Rude Mechs manages Crashbox
Crashbox is where we are right now. It is a 1500sf miracle of a space that Thomas Graves and friends have lovingly outfitted over the years to serve as a 50-seat black-box theatre with a lobby. In 2025, we assumed the unit next door and built out a dressing room, a rehearsal space and storage and shop space. We are where Big Medium used to be. We are where Line Upon Line used to be. They are a huge part of how and why we were able to take this space. Thank you to them! It’s so small that we’ve had to rent storage space over the years – that’s not cheap – to house our sets and props and costumes. We are doing everything we’ve always done – running a space and making it available to our community at the cheapest possible rates, subsidizing the work that goes on in our space to the tune of $50K per year. In 2024, Power Move joined us offering a reason to hang out after Crashbox shows. In 2025 we were thrilled to develop a partnership with Arcos Dance and Salvage Vanguard Theatre, who now co-locate with us, making the space exponentially more dynamic, vibrant, and, just, fun.
July 2017 – December 2018 – Rude Mechs manages Rude Studios
Rude Studios was an oddball little building inside an Austin American-Statesman warehouse that had been cleared out. Rude Mechs had an 18-month lease ending December 31, 2018. On June 14th, 2017, we held an open-house in that space to find out from the artists that attended what kind of space they need most and how much they can afford to pay for it. And because it is part of our mission to create community space that is affordable, we honored their needs. Artists mostly indicated cheap rehearsal space was their biggest priority, so the rates below were based on those conversations
April 1999 – May 2017 – Rude Mechs manages The Off Center
The Off Center was home to over 150 performing and visual artists and roughly 15,000 arts patrons walked through our doors each year. The Off Center featured a 100-seat performance space, a rehearsal studio / classroom, our administrative offices, a scene shop and scenic lending library, and five visual and performing artist studios.
Rude Mechs first produced a play at The Off Center when it was managed by a group of visual artists. That year they transferred their lease to us for the 3500 square feet that included the space, storage and offices, and we assumed management. We slowly acquired the Center Center (2000 sf adjacent to The Off Center) and The Off Shoot (1500 sf of renovated rehearsal/classroom space).
How we eventually lost The Off Center
In 2002, Lee Walker in his capacity as President of the Board of CMTA showed up at our space with developer Perry Lorenz to learn more about us and talk to us about our then landlord, Lee Williams. In May of that year, Perry Lorenz purchased the property adjacent/behind The Off Center (on 6th street). In March 2003, Lorenz sold the property to UT.
In 2004, we were informed our Landlord did not own the land, only the building and was in arrears on real property taxes, and that rather than pay those in full, he was relinquishing his right to the building. In 2005, CMTA became our new landlord and over time our rental rates increased from $600 to $1400 / year. That same year we made an offer to purchase the property which was declined. We asked for first right of refusal to purchase, which was granted.
In 2007, UT bought the adjacent property from Perry Lorenz and built UT Elementary (run by Lorenz’s sister-in-law).
In 2012, CMTA entered into a land-swap agreement with The University of Texas at Austin. UT became our landlord. UT Real Estate offered us a 5-year lease with two 5-year options at a 400% increase in rent (from $1400/mo to $5600/mo). We traded away 10 years of options to have the increase in rent graduate rather than be enforced right away. The neighboring charter school expanded onto the adjacent property, taking our free parking lot.
On May 31, 2017, we closed the doors on The Off Center – a 10,000 sf warehouse we operated for seventeen years.
The building was razed almost immediately upon our exit.
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. Hook ’em.