Category:

Now Now Oh Now

Created by Rude Mechs

Guiding 30 random people through such an exercise might be a fool’s errand, but Rude Mechs’ assured performance, technical flair and idiosyncratic storytelling made it seem worth reaching for.” – Jason Morningstar Indy Week Review of Sept 2014 tour to Duke University

By choice and by chance, I had gone out on a dark and stormy night, followed the clues, and found a gathering of the Choose Beauty Clan. What a game, this artful life!” Kate Dobbs Ariail, CVNC Review of Sept 2014 tour to Duke University

“The Rude Mechs’ latest show is a mind-blowing roll of the die.” – Elizabeth Cobbe, Austin Chronicle Review of May 2012 production

“…utterly engaging and a wonder unto itself .” –Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, Austin American-Statesman Review of May 2012 production

About The Show

Inspired by evolutionary biology, the Brontës, and LARP** communities, Now Now Oh Now immerses the participants in an interactive puzzle reflecting on the challenges of navigating a world driven by competition, pleasure and random events. A triptych tribute to everyone’s inner geek, Now Now Oh Now embodies Rude Mechs’ desire to create a more tangible, social, active, and personal experience for the audience. The performance marries serious scientific content with the nerdy pleasure of puzzles and gaming and the undeniable satisfaction of Murder Mystery Theatre. This intimate evening takes a locked room puzzle, a lecture on evolutionary biology, and the world’s weirdest night of Dungeons and Dragons and weaves them all together to paint a picture of how choice and chance impact our lives, and shape the world around us.

“NOW NOW OH NOW” is performed for an intimate audience of 30 people, so there will be multiple showings of the performance each night. The audience experience is roaming so we recommend that you wear comfortable shoes and consider leaving big purses and bags at home.

Production Support

Now Now Oh Now was created with support from the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theatre Pilot and The MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Rude Mechs is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department.

Press

Arts Writing

Preview Article of Feb 2015 tour to Miami by John Thomason, Miami New Times
Preview Article of May 2012 production by Phil West, Culture Map
Preview Article of May 2012 production by Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, Austin American-Statesman

Reviews & Citations

Top 10 Theatrical Wonders of 2012 by Robert Faires, Austin Chronicle, January 2013 (Now Now Oh Now)

Top 10 Theatrical Joys of 2012 by Jillian Owens, Austin Chronicle, January 2013 (Cl1000P/Now Now Oh Now)

Top 10 Designer Contributions of 2012 by Elizabeth Cobbe, Austin Chronicle, January 2013 (Now Now Oh Now)

“The best kind of theatre, in my opinion, is that which makes you think. NOW NOW OH NOW will have you thinking and discussing your experience long after you’ve left the theatre.” – Frank Benge, Broadway World Review of 2015 Austin Premiere

Guiding 30 random people through such an exercise might be a fool’s errand, but Rude Mechs’ assured performance, technical flair and idiosyncratic storytelling made it seem worth reaching for.” – Jason Morningstar Indy Week Review of Sept 2014 tour to Duke University

By choice and by chance, I had gone out on a dark and stormy night, followed the clues, and found a gathering of the Choose Beauty Clan. What a game, this artful life!” Kate Dobbs Ariail, CVNC Review of Sept 2014 tour to Duke University

“The Rude Mechs’ latest show is a mind-blowing roll of the die.” – Elizabeth Cobbe, Austin Chronicle Review of May 2012 production

“…utterly engaging and a wonder unto itself .” –Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, Austin American-Statesman Review of May 2012 production

Video

Video is available upon request.

Production History

Thanks to generous support from New England Foundation for the Arts, and MAP Fund, Now Now Oh Now received a December 2010 workshop, a February 2012 workshop, and a May 2012 full-length presentation, all at The Off Center, Rude Mechs’ performance warehouse in Austin, Texas.

Touring

Miami Light Project – February 2015
Fringe Arts (Philly) – April 2015
Yale University– December 2014
Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans – November 2014
Duke University – Sept 2014

Development and Premiere

December 2015 Austin Premiere at The Off Center (special thanks to Joey Hood for stepping in for Jason Liebrecht)

September 2014 World Premiere at Duke University

June 2014 Development Residency at Playmakers (UNC)

May 17 – June 9, 2012 Full-Length Showing at The Off Center

Show Team:

concept, structure, and content development: Madge Darlington, Thomas Graves, Hannah Kenah, and Shawn Sides with strong assists from Lana Lesley, Lowell Bartholomee, and Robert Fisher. Rude Mechs creates new works collaboratively, and we believe it is important to acknowledge that the work wouldn’t exist without the generative contribution of every Rude artist in the room.

Staging: Shawn Sides
Writing: Hannah Kenah

Design: Madge Darlington, Rowan Doyle, Robert S. Fisher, Peter Stopschinski, Thomas Graves, Lisa Laratta, Michelle Marshesseault, Brian H Scott, Leilah Stewart

Ensemble: Robert S. Fisher, Thomas Graves, Hannah Kenah, E. Jason Liebrecht, and Shawn Sides

Management: Lowell Bartholomee (Stage), Madge Darlington (Production), Denise Martel (ASM)

Original Music: Peter Stopshinski / Thomas Graves

Operators / Crew: Samantha Accettulli, Erin Meyer, Blake Montgomery, Aron Taylor, Tina van Winkle, Tammy Whitehead

Performers: Robert S. Fisher, Thomas Graves, Hannah Kenah, Lana Lesley, Jason Liebrecht, Shawn Sides

Technical: J. Scott Guthrie, J. E. Johnson

Volunteers: Eva Claycomb, Ari Guerrero, Ezel Lever, Erin Meyer, Hannah Schatzle, Austin Sheffield

Special Thanks: Austin Scenic Coop • Cami Alys • Jesse Bertron • Yvonne Boudreaux • Patrick Bresnan • Eva Claycomb • Barbara Darlington • Cheryl Drown • Rosalind Faires • Frog Design • Chris Hrasky • Andrew Kenny • Mary Moody Nothern Theatre • John Maisano • Michael Massey • Griffin Mauser • Lisa Moore • Dorian Robison • UT’s Department of Theater and Dance • Buck Van Winkle • Robert Whyburn • and all the amazing artists that came in and devoted their time and talents to assisting the scenic designers

A very special thanks to Jacob Musser of Yale University’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and all of the workshop audiences for their incredible feedback, especially Steven Tomlinson, Robert Faires, and Kurt Hildebrand.

The River Valley Cordial was created especially for this production by Hank Cathey, Culinary Arts Coordinator for Fusebox Festival and curator of the Digestible Feats series. Interested in your own customized cocktail experience? Contact Bottled-in-Bond Cocktail Catering at 512-736-5424.

The table in Act II was designed and created by Hatch Workshop. By combining a love of traditional wood joinery, old machinery and dumpster diving, Hatch Workshop produces furniture that is durable, resourceful and comfortable. Find out more at www.hatchworkshop.com.

February 2 – 11, 2012 Work-In-Progress Showing at The Off Center

(working title was CL1000P – round 2)

Presented: Brand new version of Acts 2 and 3, and draft of Act 1 during the second weekend only

Show Team: Lowell Bartholomee, Robert Fisher, Thomas Graves, Hannah Kenah, Lana Lesley, Jason Liebrecht, Blake Montgomery, Peter Stopschinski

December 6, 2010 One-Night-Only Work-in-Progress Showing At The Off Center
Presented: Adaptation of Crying of Lot 49 using group-solve puzzles to navigate select scenes
Show Team: Lowell Bartholomee, Robert Fisher, Thomas Graves, Hannah Kenah, Lana Lesley, Jason Liebrecht, Blake Montgomery, Peter Stopschinski

 

Creation History

What We Were Ever Thinking

The December 2010 workshop focus was on actual puzzle building – which evolved from our conversations surrounding Deleuze’s 1000 Plateaus. While we were greatly inspired by the book and the idea of working in Cagney & Lacey, our focus shifted more toward audience engagement as we continued our work on I’ve Never Been So Happy. Our concept for this iteration of NNON revolved entirely around puzzle building / solving. Could we build interesting puzzles that an audience of 100 could collaborate on solving? Would the audience collaborate? Would they find solving enjoyable? Could the puzzles operate as structure for the overall piece by, for instance, having the solutions unlock the next scene? For this version we did a loose adaptation of Crying of Lot 49 – because its content was already focused on clues and conspiracy – knowing we would abandon that text, and knowing that we would only perform the workshop once for 100 people. Oedipa Maas served as the main character and as the “cursor” – meaning when she was done performing a scene she would pause and wait for the audience to give her orders which she would execute as they solved the puzzle (eg “Go to the bar and mix a drink!” “Pour the drink into the potted plant!” “Spin the revolving door one-quarter turn!”). Once the puzzle was solved, the revelation would begin the next scene.

After a full year away from the piece as we toured The Method Gun and I’ve Never Been So Happy and Dionysus in 69, we came back to the work with a deeper desire for a more immersive environment and a more scientific context for the work. While at Yale University with The Method Gun, we met a grad student studying evolutionary biology. He gave us a tour of his ornithology lab where he is studying “hidden preference” in sexual selection – for us these ideas resonated deeply and we focused our play on his work, examining the value of aesthetic selection – the value of selecting for pleasure, beauty – the value of art. We applied these ideas to LARPers (Live-Action-Role-Players) who invent entire fantasy worlds and act them out with each other. Environmentally we spread the play out throughout 3 rooms in our venue so the audience would be required to solve their way out of one room to get to the next. This worked well enough that the production in May was simply a refining of those ideas – deeper text work, better puzzles, more beautiful dioramas featuring natural and aesthetic selection scenes, and a custom table with a 3-D model of our imagined world inset in the table.

While the May 2012 production is not the final version – doing an extended run of the piece taught us that – we are deeply proud of this highly conceptual work, as we thoroughly succeeded in continuing to engage our audiences in new and unexpected ways. It’s thrilling for us to perform, and for them to experience these three vastly different worlds. The play’s end is dictated by one choice and one act of chance taken by the audience in the first 15 minutes of the piece. Depending on whether they experience the “happy” or the “sad” ending, they walk away feeling proud or implicated – but satisfied with their sense of ownership. The work we still have to do involves continuing to finesse Act 3, and also structuring the piece so that it can cycle. At present only 30 people can see the piece at a time. For it to be tour-able, we have to increase that 4-fold, at least. The play is written to allow actors to move from world to world, but we needed to learn the audience puzzle solve times before we could begin to run it in rotation (ie starting one cycle, then beginning the second cycle 40 minutes into the first cycle). It will require precision and we wanted to be sure we were focused on making the best possible play first – before we began to dismantle it to accommodate this plan. We are hoping the piece will see a longer life through touring, and plan to revisit the work in October 2012 to
finish it (no production planned, just work).

Available for Tour

Rude Mechs Exclusive Worldwide Tour Representation
Thomas O. Kriegsmann, President of ArKtype
Phone: (917) 386-5468  |  Email: tommy@arktype.org

Support Rude Mechs

Video

Video is available upon request.

Production Stills

Rude Mechs | Now Now Oh Now