About Us

The Rude Mechanicals were founded in the Fall of 1996 by Michael Newberry and Christopher Nitchie, two Sophomore Engineering students who had been roommates at Freshman orientation the year before. The first thing they discovered about each other was their love of Shakespeare and theater in general. They had noticed that there really wasn't much place for a non-theater student to work on non-musical theater on campus; they decided to make their own opportunity.

The University Activities Center, at that time, had a subcommittee called SophShow. It was a committee that performed one musical each year in the Mendelssohn theater whose cast consisted entirely of Freshmen and Sophomores. They had done Little Shop of Horrors the year before, but had been inactive for two years prior to that, and looked to be inactive in '96. So Mike and Chris interviewed saying they wanted to transform SophShow into something else, a committee that performed at least one non-musical per year, with no restrictions on the age of the cast. They got the committee.

The first production of the Rude Mechanicals (though we were still technically SophShow) was King Lear in the Fall of 1996. The Winter semester followed with our first U-Club presentation, A Few Good Men.

Since that year, our level of involvement has steadily increased. Most people say the Mechanicals have, in some way, changed their lives. Incidentally, after founding the group, Chris left the Engineering department and became a General Studies major, and is now doing professional web design. Mike graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering and joined Teach for America; he currently teaches underprivilidged youths in Pheonix, Arizona. Give us a try. Maybe we'll change you.

List of Productions: