Time: Tue, 02-Apr-2002 00:29:41 GMT     IP: 66.25.166.104

Just a reminder to all that read this list that the Ratgirl of No 
Shame Theater fame will be performing her famous Baba 
O'Ratgirl act at my Soul Fantastic party this coming 
Thursday April 4th.   If you would like to see the show and 
enjoy the party, email me for a special VIP admission.

Time: Wed, 03-Apr-2002 22:22:28 GMT     IP: 66.68.113.171

To Evil Ratgirl # 5,
The Special Pack has been prepared as well as the 
Assimilation Conveyor and the Colour Coded Progression 
Processor.
Your Dutiful Servant,
ERG #11

Time: Thu, 04-Apr-2002 23:01:00 GMT     IP: 216.243.220.117

And, of course, that means I will not actually get pie.

*sigh* 
*walks out to the old dock on Carter Lake* 
*skips pebbles*
*watches ducks for a while*
*whittles*
*goes back inside*

Time: Fri, 12-Apr-2002 21:51:31 GMT     IP: 205.188.193.37

I don't know if any of you do any cross reading of message 
boards, but while you have to be kind of careful when posting 
from "outside" to the "original" Iowa board, I'm hoping cooler 
heads prevail over here.

In Charlottesville we don't have the luxury that IC does in the 
gigantic stable of writers and performers.  Also, not being an 
academic no shame we go year round, every Friday.

Some fridays we come no where near having 15 pieces.  In fact, 
last week we were 11 pieces far away from 15 pieces.  Seems like 
not too long ago you guys were having some similar concerns.  
Glad to see you are still going strong!

We have been doing what might be heretical, but since I was the 
guy who owned that first No Shame Truck, I'm going to claim that 
its Kosher.  We have peformed some scripts submitted to us by 
out of town writers (Gasp!) who want a venue and to be able to 
participate in the "no shame experience" even though they can't 
go drink a beer with us afterwards.

This gave me an idea.  I have started to set up what I call the 
No Shame Emergency First Aid Script Box for nights when our 
order has less than 5 submissions.  It doesn't happen very 
often, but man it sucks when it does.

If you guys have no shame pieces that can be done by people 
other than yourselves--send them to me as text in an email with 
a note giving permission to perform them and I will print them 
out and keep them in the First Aid Box.  If we have a slow night 
I'll pull out a script (probably in a panic and at random) from 
the box and we will do it that night.  Afterwards you will be 
immortalized in our order here in Virginia, have a new and nifty 
production credit for your resume, and I'll send you an email to 
let you know that your piece was performed.

I don't think this violates the no shame spirit too much, the 
whole reason for the origninal pieces rule was "originally" to 
not have to worry about royalties.

The other thing that is nice about this idea is that it really 
does begin to do something about the fact that all us no shames 
are a network, but there doesn't seem to be anything connecting 
us except the name of the venue, and the website, and that's 
just wrong.

All us no shamers need to be doing whatever we can to support 
each other's work and venue, because doggone it, that is what No 
Shame is all about in the first place.  Why should a no shame 
script have to disappear forever once its been performed and not 
chosen for a Best Of?

Discuss here what you think of this idea, and if you want to 
send scripts to us and be part of not just Cedar Falls, but as 
we say in Virginia, "the global communications network that is 
NO SHAME" we are just dying to hear from you.

Also, if you'd be interested in setting up your own "First Aid 
Kit", I'm sure we have people here in Virgnia who would be 
flattered as all hell to have their pieces done in Austin.  What 
do you think?

Thanks

Todd

Time: Fri, 12-Apr-2002 21:54:56 GMT     IP: 205.188.193.37

I'm currently 
working on an article about the history of No Shame.  The idea 
arose out of David Gothard's visit here and his enthusiasm when 
he discovered we were doing a very careful documentation of our 
No Shame with archives and photos.  He encouraged me to start 
collecting a short history of No Shame which might be suitable 
for submissions, either to theatre journals or grant writing.  
I'm not sure how far it will go, but I think if nothing else, 
those of us who were involved would appreciate it finally being 
put together in some form or another.  Sort of like the TDR 
article but nearly two decades later.

Since No Shame isn't any one voice or opinion, I'd like to get 
input from all of you out there.

I know that the Iowa No Shame was important to a lot of people, 
and that the various franchises which have popped up have also 
allowed many to gain some experiential learning and stage 
experience in a low risk environment that they might not have 
gotten anywhere else.

The angle of the article is going to be on how important that 
venue was to people on a personal and professional level. 

It would be a great help to me if you could send your thoughts, 
etc, on what No Shame meant to you, means to you, and so forth.  
Also how, if at all, you feel No Shame helped (or hindered) your 
professional advancement as theatre artists.

If you have a favorite no shame story you'd like to share, that 
would be great too, just send it to me off list and I'll start 
compiling.  Also, please forward this to people who have a No 
Shame connection (performers, writers, faculty, theatre owners, 
etc) but who don't check message boards.

If nothing else, I am sure that Jeff and I will find a way to 
feature the final article on the no shame web-hub, and we've got 
a few other ideas that this type of info would be useful for.  
Nothing will be shared or published or submitted or posted 
without passing the material by the contributor first for 
approval, so feel free to say whatever you like.

thanks in advance for all your help.

Todd

Time: Fri, 12-Apr-2002 21:59:09 GMT     IP: 205.188.193.37

Sorry, I copied the bulk of that message from the post I made 
over at the Cedar Falls board and forgot to change this to Austin.

Todd

Time: Mon, 22-Apr-2002 14:51:07 GMT     IP: 128.83.112.65

I wasn't able to make it to Friday's anniversary show, but by 
the total silence on this board, I'm guessing that either:

a) It was so incredibly amazing, everyone is stunned into 
reverent contemplation.

b)  It was so horrible, everyone wants to pretend it just didn't 
happen.

So somebody spill it. Good show?  Good house?  Favorite pieces?  
Enquiring minds...

- Megan G.

Time: Mon, 22-Apr-2002 15:32:21 GMT     IP: 198.214.104.100

Actually, neither was the case. I thought it was a decent, 
typical show, with the usual amount of good stuff and mediocre 
stuff. Perhaps others would differ with me. On second thought, it 
was a bit on the thin side, but there were some good pieces.
Quick run through of what I thought was memorable--Julie 
Strycker's video piece. Shana Merlin's piece. Tommy Vasquez's 
ass. My piece was interesting for me to perform, but I don't know 
what other people thought. The brief appearance of Bill Stern was 
also good. Oh yeah, I think Travis and Brandon's play looks 
promising. It was good to have a slice of a more traditional play 
(at least in that in centered around characters and dialogue)
inserted into a night of mostly performance art/monologues. 

Anyway, I think the recent silence is due to the fact that for 
both this No Shame and the past one, I have been completely 
swamped with other theatrical stuff on the weekend after the show 
and haven't gotten around to posting the order. And people act 
for some reason as if my posting the order were the official sign 
for discussion to begin.

Well folks, begin discussing anyway. Don't worry, I'll have all 
the missing orders for this year up in the next few days, and we 
can chat to our hearts content, but don't wait for me. OK, talk 
to you soon.

Shannon

Time: Tue, 23-Apr-2002 23:38:28 GMT     IP: 66.25.129.75

I enjoyed the evening quite a bit.  It was nothing like my 
marathon first night at No Shame (queefing, Rat rap, and 
wookies), but still quite entertaining.  

I've spoken with my friends who attended the show about which 
pieces we all liked.  Between all of us, we have probably 
mentioned every single piece that went up that night.  So, 
that's good.  Different works for different tastes.  

Personally, I thought the Erotic Aquatic piece was pretty kick 
ass.  It made me laugh out loud several times, though I did 
feel that it ran a little long.  Personally, I thought the joke 
was nice and solid and didn't need the bit at the end.  But, 
then again, I could be dumb.

I also liked the guy who mooned us.  It's nice to see a male 
ass on stage.  Especially when you really don't want to see 
it.  When all you really want is for that male ass to get 
packaged right back up in its drawers and never see the light 
of stage again.  And definitely right after you have left the 
stage yourself.  Under those circumstances, it's good to see a 
male ass on stage.

The pussy poem was a lot of fun.  It kept me intrigued, the 
woman is a good performer, and I was just happy that each night 
I have been to No Shame someone has performed a piece devoted 
entirely to pussy.  Makes me think this crowd is ready for my 
superhero musical epic, The Adventures of Pussy Face.  Oh, it 
will happen.  It will, indeed.

The voice recognition piece had me almost in tears, but I can't 
tell if that's because it was a great piece or because I'm a 
computer type who appreciates computery-typery humor.

And really, everything else was great.  I'd elaborate, but I 
have to go read a book about some rats and some French people.

Oh, and speaking of rats, I dig the new Evil Ratgirl look.  
Quite fab, really.

Time: Sat, 27-Apr-2002 02:41:50 GMT     IP: 64.12.101.161

Personally, i find it hard to organize my thoughts without the 
show order since after years of memorizing scripts, sheet music 
and pop culture minutiae the steel trap of my mind sometimes 
gets a bit incoherent.  That, and Shannon's just fucking clever 
as shit (hey, it's never too early to be thinking about Best of 
No Shame...;) ).  With that said, i'm going to attempt to give 
my raw and unformatted thoughts on the show while my pasta 
boils...

I thoroughly enjoyed most of the pieces presented and found 
myself gut laughing throughout most of the evening (however, 
this was as often from a sense of "what the fuck" as genuine 
comedy, such as too much coffee girl...though the Shannon 
Wheeler cameo warmed this comic book fan's heart).  I've 
noticed, and been slightly guilty of, a trend in recent No 
Shames in which people want to be funny.  It's a trend i see 
happen a lot in theatre where people go for the laughs in lieu 
of genuinely communicating something or telling a story.  
Because laughter is an immediate response and validation of what 
you've done...whereas you can't "hear" when an audience is moved 
by what you've done or given some grand new insight.  If i had 
to list one weakness with this past show, that would be it. 
Thinking of it now, not a whole lot sticks in my mind as totally 
brilliant.  Shana's piece stands out as the highest quality 
stuff, and the "Ode to My Pussy" which while funny also had some 
genuinely beautiful moments.  Other pieces could've been much 
better with more preparation (this is a personal note to myself 
since i didn't get to rehearse nearly as much as i would have 
liked to or develop some of the jokes enough, as well as to 
close personal friends. So don't think i'm picking on you, 
people i don't know).  However, i felt very good about how well 
my piece went over...not saying it's an incredibly good piece, 
just that it was much better received than i had thought. Jokes 
that even i thought were vague were embraced, toweled off and 
given a nice cozy sit beside the hearth.  Overall, a pretty 
light night but enjoyable.  A trifle, all things said and 
done...a sweet confection.  And what's wrong with that?

Oh yeah, love the new Evil Ratgirl looks too.  :)  LIVE EVIL!

PS: Go see Catch 24. They're funny and smart and they give great 
hugs.

PPS: Happy Birthday BILL!

PPPS: Go check out the new issue of Captain America.  Fuckin 
incredible.

PPPPS...nothing here, just giving y'all a raspberry.

Time: Mon, 29-Apr-2002 18:21:14 GMT     IP: 165.97.10.201

Dear Grand Master Earwig,

To my udder discomboobulation, I believe you are misconfusing the 
Evil Ratgirls with the Ratgirls of all people.

The Evil Ratgirls, we, performed our fascinating rendition of 
your ecumenical description of the Oscar Wilde piece by Stang 
One, at the Hideout No Shame theatrical doings on 19 April, a 
balmy Friday evening several weeks ago.

What has been advertised on this platform as The Ratgirl Show, 
refers, however, to the highly disgusting doings of the creatures 
known as the Ratgirls. Whilst we evils know that the Ratgirls are 
safely detained in an animal suspension somewhere in Western 
Mongolia at an establishment known as The Waffle House, we have 
intelligence that a young weirdo named Spanky Parts has been 
claiming to have the Ratgirls in his control at another venue in 
this city. That venue carries the dubious moniker: Le Catalogue.

Our sources tell us that one evening at Le Catalogue, Ratgirl 
appeared to perform her nuclear waste ritual, accompanied only by 
the man known as Big Stoogums, who we believe is kung fu master 
to the Ratgirls, and the other Ratgirl, known also as Ratgirl.

We have not corrugated these alligators.

We have reason to believe that we, The Evil Ratgirls, are far 
superiour in talent, charm, and general humor, to the Ratgirls. 
We are much more popular. Our recent performance on 19 April only 
proves this out, by golly.

If it hadn't been for Evil Ratgirl's breakaway trousers failing 
to breakaway properly during our rendition of Mr. Stang One's 
dramatic oevre, we no doubt would have been proclaimed kings of 
our fair city.

Oddly enough, no one mentioned Oscar Wilde to us after the 
performance, when, clearly, we were augustedly portraying the 
inner feelings of Oscar Wilde whilst he pondered his own death 
and funerary particulars. It was rather obvious, so we didn't 
mention it beforehand.

I must note that Evil Ratgirl especially liked rubbing the man's 
face in the crotchtal area. What a marvelous bit of creativity 
you, Grand Master Erwin and the mysterious Mr. Stang One have 
produced. I believe it will change the face of No Shame and 
Western Culture.

You will get your pie when Evil Ratgirl jolly well removes it 
from the eternal fires of damnation.

I believe it is a fur pie.

Your Servant in evil,
Evil Ratgirl #13

Postus Scrotus: Very sorry, but Evil Ratgirl tells me she found a 
mysterious looking hair in your pie. It will have to be 
reconfectioned. I apologize for the delay. RG#13