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A SHOW OF HANDS

We are making a new play called HIGH CRIMES and until we can get back in the room together, we are going to work with you to create a digital project called A Show of Hands.

We will launch A Show of Hands April 24 – 26 in Fusebox 2020 Virtual Edition, and then we will keep running it until we feel like we have enough material to work with.

About A Show of Hands
We are asking for volunteers to answer questions in private, one-on-one interviews to discuss our current anxieties about what it means to be American. These conversations will be recorded for use in High Crimes, whenever we can get everyone back together to create it. We have questions about campfires, dancing, being young, immigrating, voting republican, and getting old. You decide which set of questions you’d like to answer. We are doing these interviews in Zoom for the ease of recording and storing them. But if you cannot abide, let us know. We’ll do a phone call. We have the technology.

Session 1 – Friday April 24 – Please join us any time between 7pm – 12am
Meeting ID: 923 5746 9724; Zoom Meeting linkpassword: 7833 (rude)

Session 2 – Saturday April 25 – Please join us any time between 12pm and 3pm
Meeting ID973 0067 3097Zoom Meeting linkpassword: 7833 (rude)

Session 3 – Sunday April 26 – Please join us any time between 10am and 2pm
Meeting ID988 5202 8261Zoom Meeting linkpassword: 7833 (rude)

If you want to join any of these sessions by phone instead of via the Zoom app, call +1 346 248 7799 or +1 669 900 6833 or +1 929 205 6099 and enter the Meeting ID of the session you wish to join.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE
We are doing these interviews inside of a Zoom meeting each day, for the ease of recording and storing them.

If you have Zoom, you can use the app. You can choose to join us with video or not. Either way, we will be visible to you. If you do not want to download Zoom, you can use your phone to dial in to the Zoom session.

Step one: Use the zoom link and password to join the meeting. If you are dialing in, you will need the Meeting ID as well. You will wait to be admitted to the meeting by the Host. If an interviewer is not immediately available, the Host will send you to a waiting room (where we do not control the music, and we are sorry for that) until an interviewer is available, or you can come back later – it’s up to you.

Step two: Once your interviewer is available, the Host will send you and the interviewer into a “breakout session” and you will chat.

All interviews will be recorded. If you would like a copy of your recording, let the Host know before you begin your session.

 

About High Crimes

It’s fair to assume that in any group of 100 citizens a third of them are time travelers. But why won’t they step forward and make themselves known?

In our current national anxiety we began to wonder: are we collectively wiser than our individual actions? And if we could get our play to speak in the audience’s voice rather than our own, would we learn more quickly about our current national anxiety? Could we diagnose and alleviate the causes of our next civil war?

The Rudes have been hired to sort the facts and make another presentation. We’re counting up our lives and not all of us want to go forward.

If history can’t be corrected who wants to live in it anymore?

Several messages are coming thru for you and each night’s audience will answer tailored questions as the walls will fall away. How do you want to die? What are you willing to trade for that outcome? And can the future make any promises worth our present consideration? If the worst president in U.S. History isn’t impeached by the time the show’s over we’ll teach you how to secede from history.

High Crimes is in deep development and hints to have more show than you can squirm into an hour of performance thought. We dare you.

Coronavirus

For these upcoming performances, know that we are following all suggested health precautions. We will fully refund tickets purchased for any shows cancelled for health concerns and/or for anyone letting us know they can’t attend due to illness.

We’ve got our ear to the ground for further developments or any public health mandates, and for this reason, we recommend that you check your email, our website, and/or our social media channels for the latest information about an event you are planning to attend.

We invite you to join us in following these guidelines:

  • Please stay home if you are included in a high-risk category.
  • Stay home when you are sick.
  • Wash your hands first thing when you get home, and first thing when you arrive where you’re going.
  • Cough into a tissue or your elbow, and avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth.
  • Clean frequently touched surfaces and objects within your home (like doorknobs and light switches). Regular household cleaners are effective.
  • Get plenty of rest, drink plenty of fluids, eat healthy foods, and manage your stress to keep your immunity strong.
Press

Arts Writing and Reviews

Special Thanks
Some Thoughts

We’re waiting to have thoughts until we make the piece.

Production History

Workshop September 10 & 11, 2019
at Crashbox

I have no idea what we did. I wasn’t there. I know we invited people to drop in anytime between 7pm and 9pm. These rehearsals were free. We wanted your brains, your feedback, your everything – join us!

Workshop March 18, 2019
at Crashbox

We explored the Congressional record with Sandy and Cynthia Levinson, and made wigs with Aaron Flynn. We invited people to drop in anytime between 7pm and 9pm. These rehearsals were free. We wanted your brains, your feedback, your everything – join us!

Workshop December 5, 2018
presented by Dionysium
at Alamo Drafthouse South

Production Team:

Writer – Kirk Lynn
Director  – Shawn Sides
Performer  – Marc Pouhé

Audience joined us at The Dionysium Autumn Show: History for some dramatic readings selected from the disastrous term of the 17th President of the US, Andrew Johnson, arguably our country’s most bigoted Commander in Chief. High Crimes, as imagined currently, will be a courtroom drama drawn from congressional records staging the larger than life characters, drama, bribery and violence that surrounded Johnson’s impeachment. Interwoven with this will be speeches from Frederick Douglass as well as Johnson’s disastrous “swing around the circle” tour. Look for our workshop production in March 2019.

Production Support

High Crimes is funded in part by ticket sales, and a grant from Thomas’ aunt. 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