The Method Gun Explores Risky Technique

Imagine an acting technique so extreme that it took all those who used it to an entirely new level, a technique designed to inject even the smallest role with a dose of sex, violence and death. Such a technique exists, and is known as “The Approach.” It was created by acting instructor Stella Burden, and combines “risk-based rituals” as well as various western acting methods. “The Approach,” known among some circles as “the most dangerous acting technique in the world,” is also the subject the upcoming theatrical performance of The Method Gun.

The Method Gun will be performed at College by an acting troupe known as The Rude Mechanicals (or The Rude Mechs, for short) at 8 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 18 and 19, at the Seeler Studio Theatre in the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts.

Tickets will be $20 for Middlebury ID holders and $6 for students.

The Rude Mechs are an Austin, Texas-based 28-person acting company that according to that has been dubbed by the New York Times as one of theater companies in the United States “making theater that matters.”

The Rude Mechs has been the recipient of over 180 combined nominations and awards for their various works and has been given two off-Broadway premieres and have performed in various well-known national venues such as the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, the Wexner Center in Ohio and Woolly Mammoth in Washington, D.C.

The play will be based on various journals and texts of Burden’s acting company of the past. The Method Gun will be exploring the last months of Burden’s acting company rehearsing an enactment of Tennessee’s Williams’ classic drama A Streetcar Named Desire, this rehearsal was the culmination of nine years of production time.

According to the Rude Mechs’ press release, the “diaries and letters from actors in the company express a sense of desperation, inadequacy and frustration inherent to the process of creating meaningful work for the stage and in everyday life.”

In addition to their performances of The Method Gun the Rude Mechs will also participate in a week-long residency of workshops which will be available to students.