First time writers/performers 	 Clinton Johnston 	 9:52 pm friday august 10, 2001 
No Shame continues to slowly grow in Charlottesville.  Something 
that I am really psyched about is that the last three weeks in a 
row, we have had first time writers testing the waters at No 
Shame.  That's great.  A lot of credit goes to Todd's brilliant 
door prize idea.  

For those of you in other No Shames, this is how it works.  Each 
week, we give as a door prize, a prop from Todd's prop closet 
(14 years in the making) that has been in one of Todd's shows.  
The person who gets the prop gets to keep it if the next week, 
that person comes back with a piece that uses that prop.  If they 
don't come up with a piece, they've got to bring the prop back to 
put it back into the kitty.  (Of course, we haven't figured out 
how to enforce this second rule.)  We've been doing this for 
about ten weeks and have only had one prop not come back yet.  I 
am so proud of Charlottesville!!


 Group Writing Project 	 Clinton Johnston 	 2:17 am saturday august 11, 2001 
For those of you in search of a topic or those of you who are 
interested in seeing what a group of people do writing on the 
same topic, we have the No Shame Group Writing Project.  We put 
out a topic, and you have two weeks to write a 3-5 minute 
original piece based on the topic.  In two weeks, we'll see how 
many of that topic come in.

Since I am told that my last topic was too specific, we have 
turned to topic maven Joan Ruelle for this one.

This week's (8/10/01) topic:  Taking Orders

Configure it anyway you want.  Knock yourselves out.  Have fun!

 expressing excitement 	 Jeff Kitchen 	 2:49 am wednesday august 15, 2001 
I just wanted to express how great I think this forum is. For 
nearly a year Offstage had Monday night readings, which will be 
starting again soon, and these proved to tap into many new 
writers in the area (including ones that have written and 
performed works at No Shame). However, this gives a wonderful 
chance for people to also try getting up and acting in front of 
a very supportive crowd. In addition, it gives writers the 
ability to try out new material, and see if it works or not. I 
am extremely proud that Charlottesville has this kind of outlet 
for creativity, that many cities much larger lack. My visits and 
performances at No Shame, have been great and have got the 
creative juices flowing once again. Bravo- and $1 PBR- golden 
idea. I would like to offer the support, although you have had 
if for awhile, of Offstage Theatre. If there is anything we can 
do to help out, please let us know.

You all Rock the House!

Jeff Kitchen
Artistic Director Offstage Theatre