The Rude Mechanicals - edgy, innovative classical theater

The Washington DC theater scene is moving through a cultural Renaissance, and the Rude Mechanicals are right at the forefront of the revolution. Wildly inventive and original, they re-infuse classical works with edge, intellect and a message that resonates brilliantly with the modern age.

That message comes from a deep and profound love of classic works, and a belief that reexamining and questioning the assumptions keeps art and theater alive. The Rude Mechanicals are rebels. They reject the mold because they have the freedom to make more interesting, less commercial choices. As a non-profit theater company, they're in it for pure love of the work.

And they're drawing an audience of like-minded rebels, sophisticated and savvy. The Rudes are a forum for challenging ideas, for love of Shakespeare and other classic works, for method workshops, for love of the craft, for theater that truly holds the mirror up to nature. For a kind of theater you won't see anywhere else.

The Rude Mechanicals are a home away from home for both amateur and professional actors and directors, for artists, scientists and scholars, for one of the most diverse and eclectic and talented companies you'll find anywhere. Young actors have started here and moved on to the Folger, the Shakespeare Theatre, the Kennedy Center, the Washington Shakespeare Company and the Studio Theater. Other actors have come to the Rudes from New York, or from the Globe Theatre in London, bringing exciting ideas and a strong technical grounding in the craft along with them. The Rudes are a nebula for emerging area talent, a home for some, a place to begin for others. A place where critics describe the theater as "completely riveting...superb...miraculous."

The Rude Mechanicals want to take the classics they love, from Aeschylus to Shakespeare and beyond, and make you see in them all the passion, grief, humor and fire that they do. If they have a single driving creed, for acting and for life, it's that anything worth doing is worth doing well.