Category:

Dead Souls March
music,vocals: Peter Stopschinski / lyrics: Kirk Lynn / lead vocal: John R. Christopher / vocals: Alexandra Bassiakou Shaw

World Premiere March 2018

Written by Kirk Lynn | Directed by Alexandra Bassiakou Shaw

About The Play

Troilus and Cressida is the love story hidden in the center of history’s greatest war. As the Greeks enter their seventh year of hammering against the Trojan’s wall, one young warrior, Troilus, is ready to risk it all and pledge his loyalty to a new love. The young woman, Cressida, is cautious, having been punished for her father’s treason and made a servant to the Trojan princes.

The relationship is nurtured by the matchmaker, Pandarini, who advises, scolds, and pushes the lovers to trust one another. Around them war and chaos burn, Hector rages, Ulysses plots, Achilles stalls, Agemomnem tries to keep it all together, and Cassandra forsees death.

Let your heart be slaughtered by the Rudes’ take on Shakespeare’s take on Homer’s Illiad. We’re brave enough to tell you whether Helen really wants to be there and to once and for all find out if romance can survive politics or family.

Warning: Lots of “F” bombs.

About Fixing Shakespeare

Fixing Troilus and Cressida is the third installment in our Fixing Shakespeare series.

Taking place in rotation with our Contemporary Classics series, our new series, Fixing Shakespeare will make William Shakespeare's least produced works useful again. Ask yourself how many Shakespeare plays you know or have seen, subtract that number from thirty-seven (depending on who you ask), and those are the plays we are working to fix using our patented performance creation methodology, contemporary English, and adding curse words. (Shakespeare cursed plenty, but most Elizabethan curse words have lost their spice. Zounds!)

In some ways, we're offering you a more authentic experience of what a new Shakespeare play might be like than an actual Shakespeare play. In other ways, not so much.

Press

Arts Writing and Reviews

Reviews for Fixing Troilus & Cressida

Ultimately, though, Fixing Troilus & Cressida stands as a reminder that the entire Fixing Shakespeare project itself seems to function as a Trojan horse. Its existence is a big beautiful trick, disguised as a tribute, that allows a rag-tag band of interlopers access to a vaunted institution in order to throw open the gates to the rest of us. And in this spirit: may the Rude Mechs continue to bring the walls down.” – Cason Murphy, Project Muse

Nuanced, exciting, darkly hilarious” – by Andrew J. Friedenthal, Austin American-Statesman

Hilarious and engaging” – by Elizabeth Cobbe, Austin Chronicle

So good, so good!” – Judy, Audience

Arts Writing on Fixing Troilus & Cressida

KUT Arts Eclectic spot  by Michael Lee

Arts Writing on Fixing Shakespeare / Fixing King John

Preview Article in Arts + Culture by Lauren Smart

KUT Arts Eclectic spot  by Michael Lee

Austin playwright Kirk Lynn ‘fixes’ Shakespeare’s problematic plays  by Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, Austin American-Statesman

Reviews for Fixing Shakespeare / Fixing Timon of Athens

“Lynn has injected one of Shakespeare’s least performed plays with a dose of vitality that brings it vibrantly and hilariously (back) to life.” — Austin-American Statesman Review by Cate Blouke

“It’s clear that King John wasn’t fixed so much as MacGyvered with a rusty nail and a broken 40 oz. of Mickey’s.” —Arts + Culture review by Phillip John

“This loose and gangly treatment of Shakespeare’s history is both remarkably original and fiercely energetic.” —Austin Chronicle Review by Elizabeth Cobbe

Winner of two Austin Critics Table awards and seven B. Iden Payne awards – Fixing King John.

Winner of many B. Iden Payne Awards – Fixing Troilus & Cressida

Special Thanks
• Love and thanks to Nicole Blair and David Huebel for their gift to support the production.
• The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance: Doug Dempster, Brant Pope and Jessica Champion at UT T+D for being champions
• Quick Draw Photo Booth/Aron Taylor for t-shirt design
• Zach Theatre: Dave Steakley, Amanda Adams, Paul Flint, Chad Dike, Stephanie Busing, T Scott Wooten, Leslie Fairman, Renelle Bedel, and Keri-Dawn Solner for making it possible for us to rent the Nowlin Studio
• Elizabeth Berns for connecting us with Amanda Perry
• Michelle Polgar for connecting us with Maddie Scott
• Brian Hashimoto for puppet brain
• Gil Moreno for woodworking
• Kevin Cleave Jutson for the stationary bike
• Lindsey Culpepper for kababs
• Zac Crofford for helping get the towers out of the semis
• Amanda’s fiancé Ben for lugging and labor
• Natalie George Productions
• Natalie George and Sadie Langenkamp
• Blue Genie Art
• And to the folks who helped us develop it by performing in the public readings in November 2016: Megan Tabaque, Hannah Kenah, Martinique Duchene-Philips, Derek Kolluri, Noel Gaulin, Mike Joplin, Alexis Scott, Barbara Chisholm, Robert Faires, Robert Ramirez, Vince Tomasino, and Lowell Bartholomee
Some Thoughts

Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida is based in part on Chaucer’s poem Troilus and Criseyde, which is based in part on Boccacio’s Il Filostrato, which is based in part on the Iliad by Homer, who himself may never have existed. There is a pretty serious school of thought that ‘Homer’ is more of a label for an entire tradition that includes the working and re-working of the material in The Iliad and The Odyssey. So technically, if you take the time to describe what you see tonight to anyone, even to say it was total bullshit, you’re joining a long line of Homers. Welcome. It’s nice to have you.

There is contradictory evidence about whether Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida was ever performed in his lifetime. In one of its first appearances in print it’s described as “a new play, never staled with the stage, never clapper-clawed with the palms of the vulgar.” When they say, “the vulgar,” I think that’s us.

The idea behind the Fixing Shakespeare Series is pretty simple. Take Shakespeare’s least produced plays, translate them line by line into contemporary English, including the cursing and vulgarity, cutting the number of characters down to about 10, gender screwing them toward parity, and editing the whole thing for joy with no delity to the original text. There is a sincere attempt to learn how Shakespeare composes, how his ideas advance, how his characters develop, how his beautiful ideas sit so nicely with his love of dick jokes.

Troilus and Cressida is Shakespeare’s 8th longest play, at 26,089 words. We’ve cut ours down to about 16,000. You’re welcome. Critics agree that Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida was not popular in his time or much after. It was considered too dark, too critical; it treated epic heroes as awed humans, war as butchery, and love as temporary. So far we’ve fixed King John and Timon of Athens. Those scripts are available for free, just ask. And let us know which of Shakespeare’s plays you wanna see fixed, manipulated, mauled, updated and/or desecrated. We’re thinking real seriously about Henry VIII or Cymbeline. We’d love to hear what you think about the series, its future, or what you’ve seen. Write us at info@rudemechs.com

Production History

World Premiere March 8 – 31, 2018
at Zach Theatre Nowlin Rehearsal Studio

Production Team:

Writer – Kirk Lynn
Director  – Alexandra Bassiakou Shaw
Production Manager – Dallas Tate
Stage Manager – Madison Scott
Script Assistant – Tyler Kosmak
Fight Choreographer – Kenny Chilton
Costume & Props Design – Aaron Flynn
Lighting Design – Stephen Pruitt
Original Music & Sound Design – Peter Stopschinski
Scenic Design – Amanda Perry
Technical Director – Chris Conard
Asst. Technical Director – Zac Thomas
Lighting Crew – Kat Rogers, Matt Zapata
Deck Crew – Mathias Dominguez
Box Office Manager – Tammy Whitehead

Featuring:

Helen – Catherine Grady
a woman from Greece, aka Helen of Troy, aka it’s complicated.
Cressida – Crystal Bird Caviel
daughter to Calchas
Pandarini – Cassie Reveles
aunt to Cressida
Troilus – Noel Gaulin
Trojan, Paris’ brother
Paris – Derek Kolluri
Trojan, Helen-Stealer, War-Starterer
Hector – Rommel Sulit
Trojan, Paris’ brother
Cassandra– Kelli Bland
a prophet, Paris’ sister
Agamomnem– Lauren Lane*
the Greek general, kind of a big deal
courtesy of Actors Equity
Ulysses – Jeff Mills
Greek Commander
Achilles – John Christopher
Greek Commander, another kind of big deal
Patroclus – Vincent Tomasino
Greek Commander
Calchas – Mical Trejo
Cressida’s father, a Trojan priest who has gone over to the Greeks

Public Readings

The Off Center, Austin, TX | November 6th and November 13th, 2016

Production Support

The Fixing Shakespeare series is funded entirely by ticket sales. Our gratitude to the cast and production crew for working for what we can afford to make these performances happen. Rude Mechs is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department, and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.

Produce This Play!

If you would like to produce any of the Fixing Shakespeare plays, just let us know!
They are free and we hope everyone does them.

Support Rude Mechs

Production Stills

_DSF5064