Unofficial Order 9/23/05
I don't have the official order, so this is just a half-assed recap based on my memory for the purpose of sparking discussion. Please feel free to correct me and/or post a real order if you have the means.
EDITED TO ADD: Thanks for all the help, everybody. Also, feel free to actually discuss the pieces.
1. Jonathan Shelton talks about the absurdity of Archie comics.
2. "several terrible puns in sucsession" by Mirri (Mirri's puns and eating Pat Sajak)
2.5 . "It's Apple Time," by Aprille Clarke (Aprille and Sadie eat apples nourished by a forgotten baby)
3. "It Is Not Ever Who You Think That It Will Be" by King Sophie (smallest man in the world is actually a pop tart... so what's in the toaster?)
4. Timm Sitzmann talks about the living room orgy in Argentina
5. Seth's piece about the offensive Christian Scrabble game
6. Sadie's piece--drooling on Patrick's stomach
7. "Five More Minutes," by Danielle Santangelo (Danielle and Seth trade short lines back and forth (I'm coming I'm coming I'm coming))
8. "Anachronism" by the Dread Pirate Evan Schenck (a guy double majored in Piracy and Women's Studies)
9. "How to Make Penguins Even Cuter Than They Already Are" by Ryan
10. "Gomez Anew" by John Leigh (Aprille and Beth (mom) argue morals)
11. "Bully Beans" by Bernice Wells Carlson (a bully wanting lunch money, being chased by dogs)
12. "Fun with Felons," by Katy Baggs (Katy tells us about a program in which she has taken a felon under her wing; felon turns out scary and dangerous)
13. Louie: The robot sings love song to mom
14. "Exercise in Politeness: Penultimate Movement" by Alisa Rosenthal (man gets a haircut by a speechlessly sad woman; towel, scissors, electric razor)
15. Patrick's piece about dropping the cell phone into the poo
16. "Eli's Coming and going Straight to Hell," by Eli Wilkinson (Eli masturbates with tears, ejaculates, wipes up semen with a Bible. He also may or may not have AIDS.)
16.5 Timm does a .5 about seeing the beautiful woman out the window, gets rejected
17. "Twenty-Minute Macbeth, Act III" by William Shakespeare, Special Edition Director's Commentary by Adam Hahn
Please post comments and reviews, and flesh out the order if you can. I know I'm missing a couple.
EDITED TO ADD: Thanks for all the help, everybody. Also, feel free to actually discuss the pieces.
1. Jonathan Shelton talks about the absurdity of Archie comics.
2. "several terrible puns in sucsession" by Mirri (Mirri's puns and eating Pat Sajak)
2.5 . "It's Apple Time," by Aprille Clarke (Aprille and Sadie eat apples nourished by a forgotten baby)
3. "It Is Not Ever Who You Think That It Will Be" by King Sophie (smallest man in the world is actually a pop tart... so what's in the toaster?)
4. Timm Sitzmann talks about the living room orgy in Argentina
5. Seth's piece about the offensive Christian Scrabble game
6. Sadie's piece--drooling on Patrick's stomach
7. "Five More Minutes," by Danielle Santangelo (Danielle and Seth trade short lines back and forth (I'm coming I'm coming I'm coming))
8. "Anachronism" by the Dread Pirate Evan Schenck (a guy double majored in Piracy and Women's Studies)
9. "How to Make Penguins Even Cuter Than They Already Are" by Ryan
10. "Gomez Anew" by John Leigh (Aprille and Beth (mom) argue morals)
11. "Bully Beans" by Bernice Wells Carlson (a bully wanting lunch money, being chased by dogs)
12. "Fun with Felons," by Katy Baggs (Katy tells us about a program in which she has taken a felon under her wing; felon turns out scary and dangerous)
13. Louie: The robot sings love song to mom
14. "Exercise in Politeness: Penultimate Movement" by Alisa Rosenthal (man gets a haircut by a speechlessly sad woman; towel, scissors, electric razor)
15. Patrick's piece about dropping the cell phone into the poo
16. "Eli's Coming and going Straight to Hell," by Eli Wilkinson (Eli masturbates with tears, ejaculates, wipes up semen with a Bible. He also may or may not have AIDS.)
16.5 Timm does a .5 about seeing the beautiful woman out the window, gets rejected
17. "Twenty-Minute Macbeth, Act III" by William Shakespeare, Special Edition Director's Commentary by Adam Hahn
Please post comments and reviews, and flesh out the order if you can. I know I'm missing a couple.
posted by Anonymous at 11:17 AM
34 Comments:
My piece was my second going to hell piece where I used a bible to wipe up semen. And I might have AIDS...zing..
My piece was "Fun With Felons," number 12. Timm's rejection piece was 16.5, Macbeth was 17, Seth's was 5.
Oh dear, I must be some kind of nerdoid for having an order consisting of first names and random memories so, here goes:
1) Shelton (granted, not a first name. Was this about Archie comics? "Which time period are you in!?")
2) Mirri
2.5) Aprille
3) King Sophie (smallest man in the world is actually a pop tart... so what's in the toaster?)
4) Timm (Argentina/prostitute story)
5) Seth
6) Sadie
7) Danielle
8) Evan (piracy/women's studies)
9) Ryan (poetry)
10) John Leigh
11) Bernice Wells Carlson
12) Katy (flyer handout, clown mask, nightmares for all)
13) Louie (robot is back and punnier than ever)
14) Alisa
15) Patrick
16) Eli
16.5) Timm
17) Adam
I think I'll try to post a review later, but for now I'll say that I thought this was a pretty cool show. I think we were all a little startled at first at the smaller amount of writers and audience members, especially after such a strong first few weeks. But, I think this created a really nice tone. I feel like there were more serious pieces this week, or maybe just less pieces that didn't take themselves seriously. Plus, there was a mad t-shirt throwout to "Baby Got Back" which really can't be beat.
my piece was called "Five More Minutes," and as the Amazing Alisa has already pointed out, it was #7. Does Michael Tabor have the order? I think Michael Tabor has the order. While I'm grazing the topic of Michael Tabor: I have heard people say his last name like "Tay-BORE" as well as "Tay-BER." In fact, I believe that I have even heard him say it differently. Which way is it?
Rhymes with Nabor.
I'm just going to say that I was utterly amazed by two pieces: One was Danielle's, just because the rhythm and the speed swept me up and very profound things were said before I could really comprehend what happened, and the way the figures stood back to back but still interacted was quite good, and I liked how their interactions were worked into the whole thing. It was awesome. That makes my hall of fame of the awesomest things that ever awesomed an awesome.
And I know he probably doesn't read this but John Leigh's piece this week totally blindsided me with the actual significance of Gomez' hair. It's very hard to come up with surprising plot twists that people haven't seen before and therefore REALLY don't expect, and very rarely does something reveal itself and truly leave me breathless with the sheer weight of its implications. This was one of the few. I literally couldn't breathe for like five minutes afterwards. Truly amazing.
And my name is still not Six Monkey.
Highlights
8) My piece about the Piracy
This monologue went much better, I think because this time I asked Mirri for advice (on pacing and such) instead of Travis, so that I actually got good advice instead of "Travis advice" which exists in a realm somewhere below "the worst advice ever."
9) Spoken word poetry by a guy named Ryan
Unlike the previous attempt at spoken word by shirtless rap guy, I actually enjoyed this one. The language was compelling and he was wearing a shirt. Points for him.
13) Six-Monkey Louie's Piece with the Sexbot
In spite of the fact that this was the sequel to a piece from last week that I was critical of, this one was really good--I think the song made the difference for me. It can join the list of sequels that are better than the original, next to Godfather II, The Empire Strikes Back, and, of course, the sequel of sequels, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo.
[note: If everybody keeps calling him Six-Monkey Louie then it will become the truth, in much the same way that my name will eventually become "Evan Shank" because of Michael Tabor. Next time I will be at pains to spell my name phonetically for his benefit. Evan Skank.]
16) Eli's piece, my favorite of the night, little more needs be said.
SCORE!!!
People who post here: What were the TITLES of your pieces Friday night?
I can make the following corrections/additions (Sorry, my personal order was more skeletal than usual. I thought MT had the real order, but he says he doesn't.):
3. "It Is Not Ever Who You Think That It Will Be" (at least this was the title of a similarly described piece in this week's Yes Shame order) by King Sophie
9. "How to Make Penguins Even Cuter Than They Already Are" (or something to that effect) by Ryan (three poems)
11. Bernice Wells Carlson's piece about a bully wanting lunch money, being chased by dogs
12. "Fun with Felons," by Katy Baggs (Katy tells us about a program in which she has taken a felon under her wing; felon turns out scary and dangerous)
(According to my order, this was #12. There was no 12.5.)
17. "Twenty-Minute Macbeth, Act III" by William Shakespeare, Special Edition Director's Commentary by Adam Hahn
This was somehow the night of penguins and toilets. I'll try to have more to say about the show later.
My piece was #14: "Exercise in Politeness: Penultimate Movement" (man gets a haircut by a speechlessly sad woman; towel, scissors, electric razor)
Oh, and the order I posted was the real one. I jotted it down during the show to know when to go up.
Sigh, I don't think anybody remembered the pamphlets I made for my piece. I even whored noshame.org on them...
my piece was entitled "several terrible puns in sucsession"
and it was by me. mirri
also I thoght this no shame was massivly better than last weeks and though i can't remember what i thought of all the pieces, I remember thinking that danielle's was artistically gorgous, eli's and shedldons wonderful (i get them mixed up) John Leighs saga just as effective as before... and I still kinda wanna hug Sadie every time she gets on stage.
-fuck i don't remember my password
I actually DON'T have the order. I don't want to point any fingers at Mecial, but (I don't want to point any fingers at Mecial's butt (I don't want to put many fingers in Mecial's butt)) I didn't have the order after the show and said to him, "Does somebody have the order?" And he implicated to me that I should not worry and somebody does. It is still possible, however, that I'm wrong and DO have it, so I will find my clipboard tonight after work and see.
John Leigh's piece = Gomez Anew
Bernice Wells Carlson's = Bully Beans
Is it pronounces "Jim Nay-BORE" or or "Jim Nay-ber"? I've heard it both...
Adam, my piece was called "Eli's Coming... and going straight to hell". Shelton's was "Archie's the REAL Jughead if you ask me" and that's all we gots.
My piece was entitled "Anachronism" and the credit was "by the Dread Pirate Evan Schenck" which was pronounced "shank."
To Katy Baggs:
I remember the pamphlets, I am looking at one right now.
Katy, the pamphlets were awesome, I showed one to a few friends who didn't come and they laughed their faces off.
A review! So now you have to post one, pricks!
1. Jonathan Shelton talks about the absurdity of Archie comics.
I think Jon’s writing is getting a lot stronger. This was a pretty good monologue, though it was a little train-of-thoughty and I can’t remember if there was a whole point to it. Yikes! Sorry that came out kind of mean. But a nice way to start off the show.
2. "several terrible puns in sucsession" by Mirri (Mirri's puns and eating Pat Sajak)
I thought putting these “terrible puns” in the context of a performance at the Penguin Comedy Club was it? was a terrific idea that tied the whole piece together for me. The only problem was that Mirri wasn’t expecting people to laugh at the puns, so lines like “you guys aren’t laughing” were a little weird since No Shame is a pretty supportive audience, ESPECIALLY for groaners. Also, Pat Sajak: amazing reference.
2.5 . "It's Apple Time," by Aprille Clarke (Aprille and Sadie eat apples nourished by a forgotten baby)
I was covering my face, mortified, for most of this scene, I enjoyed it that much. I like it when Aprille and Sadie work together. They can make even the disturbingest of scenes absolutely adorable.
3. "It Is Not Ever Who You Think That It Will Be" by King Sophie (smallest man in the world is actually a pop tart... so what's in the toaster?)
This was a cute piece. I remember there being some sort of distraction with Sophie’s Canada t-shirt?
4. Timm Sitzmann talks about the living room orgy in Argentina
I like storytelling and the informal air that can come with it.
5. Seth's piece about the offensive Christian Scrabble game
Oh Seth. You write pieces that are so darn fun to be in. I wanted to see the Scrabble spelling used more, but the completely irrational motivations for just about everything was pretty stellar.
6. Sadie's piece--drooling on Patrick's stomach
I was confused as to where we were and who these people were, but I might have just missed it… Sadie always writes very cute and subtle pieces. Even if I’m confused, I always enjoy myself.
7. "Five More Minutes," by Danielle Santangelo (Danielle and Seth trade short lines back and forth (I'm coming I'm coming I'm coming))
I love that Danielle takes huge risks and dedicates herself to them. I also love that she writes such that the audience has no idea how to respond –should we laugh? Should we think? Should we enjoy that she’s thrusting her hips?–, because who says we SHOULD know. The staging was also an interesting way to convey this piece, and I think this constitutes itself as the steamiest thing No Shame has seen so far this year?
8. "Anachronism" by the Dread Pirate Evan Schenck (a guy double majored in Piracy and Women's Studies)
Some pretty awesome pirate terminology, a really fun premise. Could you be the Pirate Girl Anachronism and rock out to the Dread-sdon Dolls? Ooh…
9. "How to Make Penguins Even Cuter Than They Already Are" by Ryan
Though I personally have difficulty with poetry in general, I thought that Ryan created some nice moment and images, like standing in front of a monument, and he really has a voice just designed for theatre. I bet he has a really nice singing voice.
10. "Gomez Anew" by John Leigh (Aprille and Beth (mom) argue morals)
I really can’t stop thinking about where this hair came from. A wig? Did John Leigh send it to Aprille in a business envelope? Oh Gomez.
11. "Bully Beans" by Bernice Wells Carlson (a bully wanting lunch money, being chased by dogs)
The younger-feeling Ms. Wells Carlson’s pieces get, the more enjoyable I find them. Images of Michael Tabor’s arms flailing about still haunt me… Oh! And sorry for misspelling Jamal’s name in my review last week. Apologies!
12. "Fun with Felons," by Katy Baggs (Katy tells us about a program in which she has taken a felon under her wing; felon turns out scary and dangerous)
DUH. BOBBY EVERS. Scariest man alive that you want to hug. The flyers were pretty fun. Except I wanted to read them during the scene and missed a little bit of dialogue. But whatevs, Katy was wearing pretty much the cutest dress ever, so it’s ok
13. Louie: The robot sings love song to mom
This was pretty clever. I feel like the robot got a little bit of depth that evening, and opened his soul… hard drive? The song was a high point of the evening. My only fear with this series is if the robot becomes a recurring character, we will get more of the same puns and less of an actual story. But, I think after this performance, roboLouie is headed in the latter direction.
14. "Exercise in Politeness: Penultimate Movement" by Alisa Rosenthal (man gets a haircut by a speechlessly sad woman; towel, scissors, electric razor)
15. Patrick's piece about dropping the cell phone into the poo
The other piece where I had my hands covering my face… yeeellllccchhh! Such a detailed description of feces can only be rivaled by actual feces. But all the disgusting setup really helped hit the theme home. I found myself so invested in this piece that when the phone fell into the toilet I audibly gasped. Eelllcckk.
16. "Eli's Coming and going Straight to Hell," by Eli Wilkinson (Eli masturbates with tears, ejaculates, wipes up semen with a Bible. He also may or may not have AIDS.)
I’m just not on the same page as Eli’s humor, but when attention was drawn to the little green book on the cube, the audience collectively understood and experienced something, which was pretty cool.
16.5 Timm does a .5 about seeing the beautiful woman out the window, gets rejected
This was a pretty sweet .5. It seemed almost surreal, and then surreally true.
17. "Twenty-Minute Macbeth, Act III" by William Shakespeare, Special Edition Director's Commentary by Adam Hahn
Ahhh I love the idea of DVD on stage. That’s fantastic. But Adam, I don’t get it. Where is this party?
Guys, I really think you should check out that anonymous guy's "EBAY" website. It's interesting. And he seems like a nice guy too!
AHAHAHAHAHA. That is a hilarious site. I don't even care that it's an advertisement anymore, you can purchase the right to tattoo anything you want on people and shit. This is hilarious!
Wow I know I'm supporting those ads by clicking on them but holy cow. I haven't had a laugh like that in a while.
I double checked. I don't have the order.
1. Jonathan Shelton "Archie is the REAL Jughead..."
It's about time Shelton did this piece. God I was tired of hearing him bitch about Archie. Trust me, he could've gotten a lot worse. He kept it tame, mainly because ppl on here made it clear that they don't like anger shelton. I'm just glad I don't have to hear him blab about it now.
2. "several terrible puns in sucsession" by Mirri (Mirri's puns and eating Pat Sajak)
I hate Pat Sajak. Eat him good girl. Eat him good. I don't know. I liked this piece but I thought at times it was slower than it should've been. But thats just me. I like it fast and hard (not talking about sex).
2.5 . "It's Apple Time," by Aprille Clarke (Aprille and Sadie eat apples nourished by a forgotten baby)
I LOVED IT! I did a baby eating piece last year but this one was brilliant. Just the way they didn't really freak out too much when they realized they burried their child alive. Priceless.
3. "It Is Not Ever Who You Think That It Will Be" by King Sophie (smallest man in the world is actually a pop tart... so what's in the toaster?)
All I can say is that they were too quiet. I heard nothing. Speak up ppls! My old aging ears aren't what they used to be.
4. Timm Sitzmann talks about the living room orgy in Argentina
I want to move to Argentina now. I want 50 bucks. I don't care if they aren't lookers. I'll close me eyes... I'm a bad person.
5. Seth's piece about the offensive Christian Scrabble game
I liked this piece but I thought that there were a lot of awkward moments. Don't get me wrong katy Baggs swearing up a storm: amazing, but the piece in general just had those moments were it was like a hiccup with a car engine. The car still runs (usually) but leaves you looking around.
6. Sadie's piece--drooling on Patrick's stomach
he he. Drool. patrick with no shirt on. he he. lack of capital letters. beautiful.
7. "Five More Minutes," by Danielle Santangelo (Danielle and Seth trade short lines back and forth (I'm coming I'm coming I'm coming))
Wow. I liked a lot. High fives for Danielle. This was a type of piece that we haven't seen at all this year and was just on. It clicked well, the staging was cool and the ending was just as strong as everything else. Marvelous.
8. "Anachronism" by the Dread Pirate Evan Schenck (a guy double majored in Piracy and Women's Studies)
Where is this branch of the Univeristy. I gots me a sword and a see through eye patch. Not to mention I'm a pussy. Ba da cha. But seriously I love Evan Schenck's writing. He can be silly or he can be just as offensive as the rest of us. But we all know he is a good guy and man is he in love with that one woman...
9. "How to Make Penguins Even Cuter Than They Already Are" by Ryan
I liked this. Although I don't remember much of it because I dropped my pen through the crack in the floor and was trying to see it afterwards. But in general poetry can be quite entertaining and it was. Although nothing can make a penguin cuter... nothing. Seriously. Nothing.
10. "Gomez Anew" by John Leigh (Aprille and Beth (mom) argue morals)
Okay. I'm sorry but I am getting bored with these Gomez pieces. Yes they are well written and yes they have funny parts, it's just that now I don't care if Gomez two is made. It just seems too plain for me. I like something that takes it to the audience or is self containing. series are nice and I know that I too am guilty of this, but people who haven't seen the other ones wont have a friggin' clue what is going on.
11. "Bully Beans" by Bernice Wells Carlson (a bully wanting lunch money, being chased by dogs)
Eh. It was funny. But I'm really not too much into these B.W.C. pieces. These pieces are like watching "Who's line is it anyway?", except for kids
12. "Fun with Felons," by Katy Baggs (Katy tells us about a program in which she has taken a felon under her wing; felon turns out scary and dangerous)
Bobby, dear nephew. You scared me. But I still love you. Just don't touch my children. BTW katy, the handout was HILLARIOUS! Plus it promoted the website. Double points!
13. Louie: The robot sings love song to mom
Hey Robot, what are you doing tonight? Eh? Eh? Kidding. If i were a girl I'd be game... because that sweet melody touched me in here. My Heart. I cried a tear of joy with each passing lyric.
14. "Exercise in Politeness: Penultimate Movement" by Alisa Rosenthal (man gets a haircut by a speechlessly sad woman; towel, scissors, electric razor)
My favorite of the night. Although no questions it arose were answered, at the same time they didn't need to. It was just a sad girl giving a guy a haircut.
15. Patrick's piece about dropping the cell phone into the poo
I hate poo. I'm like a fecalphiliac or however you spell it. But I think I know this Zwefani... hmmm... It showed Patricks good natured love and devotion to this girl in a far away land. I was touched.
16. "Eli's Coming and going Straight to Hell," by Eli Wilkinson (Eli masturbates with tears, ejaculates, wipes up semen with a Bible. He also may or may not have AIDS.)
Only Shelton, Evan, Eric, and maybe Travis seem to be on the same page as my humor. Pretty much this piece was for shock value only. Plus I wanted to rip up a bible. I am pretty much doing these pieces that are normally against my character to try something new and try to get a laugh or two. But not AIDS. and No I don't have AIDS already. Yeah, fuck you Shelton for starting that rumor.
16.5 Timm does a .5 about seeing the beautiful woman out the window, gets rejected
My life in a nutshell. Loved it.
17. "Twenty-Minute Macbeth, Act III" by William Shakespeare, Special Edition Director's Commentary by Adam Hahn
I'm almost done dying! Or am I? Adam you should like kill me as many times as possible this year. Maybe in real life too.
I got some comments.
1. Jonathan Shelton talks about the absurdity of Archie comics.
I didn't pay too close of attention to this one because I was still trying to figure out the lights (thanks for the help, Danielle). However, I could definitely appreciate Shelton's stage presence--he's very winning and charming. For some reason it makes me uncomfortable in a bad way when he swears. He's a good writer and I've enjoyed his work this semester.
2. "several terrible puns in sucsession" by Mirri
This was a good idea marred by too slow of delivery and an unexpected audience reaction. I still liked it, though, for the beauty of eating Pat Sajak.
2.5 . "It's Apple Time," by Aprille Clarke (Aprille and Sadie eat apples nourished by a forgotten baby)
3. "It Is Not Ever Who You Think That It Will Be" by King Sophie
Again, cute idea with weak delivery. No Shame is in many ways a writers' forum, and that's certainly a valuable aspect, but sometimes people forget that it's an actors' forum as well. It used to be that theater dept. actors would hang around waiting to get cast, and that made for some really dynamic performances. A lot of writers would benefit from casting others in their pieces.
Of course, the downside of this is that you lose the intimacy of No Shamer-as-auteur. I had an argument with Mose about this once. It was about whether or not there's an increased value in being a singer-songwriter of limited virtuosity over being a virtuoso musician performing someone else's work. He was on the side of pure art, where it's better to stick to where you excel, but I was on the side of being charmed by the awkward presentation of the auteur. In sum, I'm not sure where I stand on it. I guess when a lack of pure acting talent stops being charming and starts being distracting, that's where you draw the line. Too bad there's no way to know what's going to be charming.
There's also the fact that many of us do No Shame in part because we're narcissists (including yours truly, of course), and robbing us of any opportunity to have people staring at us is like a kick in the lady nuts.
Onward!
4. Timm Sitzmann talks about the living room orgy in Argentina
Funny. I hope he does a follow-up this week.
5. Seth's piece about the offensive Christian Scrabble game
This had some really fun moments and used the space well. The characters could have used a little finer definition; was the central punchline the fact that such a vulgar woman would be highly offended at the thought that she was unChristian? I guess so. I wish there had been real cookies.
6. Sadie's piece--drooling on Patrick's stomach
Sweet and weird, like Sadie herself. There should be more topless pieces.
7. "Five More Minutes," by Danielle Santangelo (Danielle and Seth trade short lines back and forth (I'm coming I'm coming I'm coming))
I really enjoyed this a lot, considerably more than Danielle's piece last week. I think I preferred the first 2/3 to the last 2/3; I was really interested in the sounds and the shapes that were going on onstage. It started to lose me a little when it got into the more heavy-handed pain stuff. Overall, this was very well-crafted and well-presented. Seth is an excellent actor, and Danielle's writing worked very well for the most part.
8. "Anachronism" by the Dread Pirate Evan Schenck (a guy double majored in Piracy and Women's Studies)
I'm glad Evan's been coming back. In fact, I'm glad about the sticktoitiveness of many of the new people. It was a fun little monologue that managed to poke some fun at Women's Studies (and pirates, but they're less sensitive) without being crass or truly distasteful. That's a challenge; Evan could have taken the easy way out with the easy punchlines, but he didn't and I thank him for it.
9. "How to Make Penguins Even Cuter Than They Already Are" by Ryan
I like it when people try new things, I really do. To be quite honest, though, I couldn't dig this very much. The delivery was affected and off-putting, and that distracted me from enjoying the poems, which had some interesting images and ideas.
10. "Gomez Anew" by John Leigh
I don't even know.
11. "Bully Beans" by Bernice Wells Carlson
I don't even know either.
12. "Fun with Felons," by Katy Baggs
I wish I had seen the pamphlets; it sounds like they were pretty impressive. I always admire Katy's dedication to her work; she doesn't half-ass it. She has a really engaging stage presence, too. I always look forward to seeing her work.
13. Louie: The robot sings love song to mom
It could have been more, sure; but should it have been more? I don't know. I was trying to think of what this piece was missing, because it felt a little empty somehow, but everything I can think of seems like overkill. Maybe it wasn't missing anything; maybe it would have benefitted from tightening up. I have no helpful suggestions. I'm glad Louie has been coming back.
14. "Exercise in Politeness: Penultimate Movement" by Alisa Rosenthal
So...what's the ultimate movement going to be? That's what I wanna know. Alisa is a very talented physical actor; it was especially nice to see her try something in a completely different mood from the guaranteed winner wackiness she often does (which I enjoy). Good job taking risks; this was very successful.
15. Patrick's piece about dropping the cell phone into the poo
Gross and literary, my two favorite adjectives. You rool, P.A.
16. "Eli's Coming and going Straight to Hell," by Eli Wilkinson
The image of masturbating with tears was the most wonderful thing I took away from No Shame last week. It's so pitifully beautiful, not only because of the sadness inherent in tears and masturbation, but because tears would make a terrible lubricant. I can't say I particularly enjoyed the Bible ripping and AIDS joke (not because of any particular sensitivities--I'm an atheist and I hate AIDS victims; the jokes just didn't really gel for me), but the masturbating-with-tears idea was really golden and memorable.
16.5 Timm does a .5 about seeing the beautiful woman out the window, gets rejected
Pretty. I wish I had more to say about Timm's pieces, but they seem to speak for themselves. They're like little sparkly crystals hanging from your rear-view mirror; you don't have to talk about them, but you always enjoy seeing them.
17. "Twenty-Minute Macbeth, Act III" by William Shakespeare, Special Edition Director's Commentary by Adam Hahn
The party scene is an archetypal No Shame image, where people wiggle around awkwardly on stage. It was fun to see this in a Shakespearian context.
I certainly enjoy the Macbeth pieces, but I'm glad there are only vee acts in Macbeth, because I want to get back to Adam Hahn pieces like the one earlier this semester about killing the woman's exhusbands.
Am I say Adam Hahn is a better writer than Shakespeare. Unequivocably, yes.
Please post comments and reviews, and flesh out the order if you can. I know I'm missing a couple.
posted by aprille at 9:17 AM
I don't have anything beyond a totally non-constructive "I liked it/didn't like it!" to say about most of the pieces, so I guess I'll just review a handful.
Timm talks about orgy: I really enjoyed this a lot. ("I liked it!") I want to see more non-fiction @ No Shame. Timm's conversational tone was nice & casual, & yet he told the story concisely & effectively enough that I wondered if he had written it out & memorized it, or if he was just naturally that good of a story teller. Either way, I was impressed.
Sadie's piece about drooling: People non-chalantly accepting absurd situations can be pretty great or pretty stupid and often both. This was at least the former. Patrick asking Sadie to watch his stomach while he slept was perhaps my favorite moment of the evening.
"Five More Minutes" by Danielle. Not to be mean, but I don't understand why everyone loved this. I've seen so, so many theatre pieces where two very serious people very seriously throw cryptic sentence-fragments at each other. This seemed to me like kind of standard fare in the genre.
"It's Not Ever Who You Think It Will Be" by King Sophie. I, like others, had trouble understanding the performers, but overall I found the awkwardness charming. And, like I said, I'm often a fan of stupidly absurd premises. Plus, the one girl kept saying "Toastie" instead of "Toaster", which I inexplicably found hilarious.
"Gomez Anew" by John Leigh. Uh, yeah. These pieces seem kind of pretensious & inept to me, like they were written by a Jr. High kid who read one philosophy book & decided he was enlightened. And as for this new cloning twist: even ignoring the ridiculousness of that idea, even ignoring the fact that a clone wouldn't have the same personality or thoughts as the original Gomez: it will be a BABY! What's she gonna do with a BABY Gomez? (Or will the protagonist develop a new, magic way of instantly creating adult clones?)
Louie the robot 2: Dirty puns are not really funny to me. Regular dirty jokes?--sometimes funny. Regular puns?--occassionally amusing. But dirty puns seem like a way of tricking an audience into laughing @ bad jokes they wouldn't normally like just by sex-ifying them. (This is maybe more a review of the 1st dirty pun robot piece, as I don't remember this week's as well.)
Patrick's phone in the crap. I'm really into Patrick's monologues this season. They're thoughtful, entertaining, & make a person uncomfortable in a more useful & (to me) successful way than just trying to be flat out gross. I find the characters likable & sympathetic. Patrick's a charismatic performer, which helps.
Eli's Coming & Going. This, on the other hand, just tried to be gross. I think shock humor in general is pretty uninteresting, and particularly so @ No Shame, where most everyone's trying to be shocking. Coming up with something gross/offensive to do or say really doesn't take much, and I think it gets boring very fast.
Overall, I thought it was a decent-to-mediocre show, a bigger crowd would certainly have helped.
""Five More Minutes" by Danielle. Not to be mean, but I don't understand why everyone loved this. I've seen so, so many theatre pieces where two very serious people very seriously throw cryptic sentence-fragments at each other. This seemed to me like kind of standard fare in the genre."
It's really easy to criticize dramatic "concept-pieces" at No Shame. ...
...
It's really easy and really spot-on.
Y'know...whatev. I didn't ask anyone to love the piece. It was what it was. I, too, have seen people throw sentence fragments at each other. This was my first shot at it, and it was very personal to me. I'm not "standing up" for my piece because I'm "offended," because everyone's fair game in having their own opinions of such, and I know maybe my piece could've been "better" if I hadn't written it in fifteen minutes at Z'Maricks over Mac and Cheese that afternoon. But it was original, even if the style (not genre--unless you're talking about the "genre" being "dramatic textual") has been seen by your eyes and mine before, in any which variation of a way. No Shame is a writers forum, for writers to try things they havn't tried before without completely ripping off someone else's art. I think its ok to try something that may be in a similar style and/or genre of something that has been done before, if only loosely influenced by it, as this one was. What's the difference beteen two poets getting up there and reading their work out loud? The text. What's the difference between two actors throwing line fragments back and forth and another two actors throwing line fragments back and forth? The text. As long as its original in purpose and quality and text, I say gimme more.
Also, yes it is very easy to "criticize dramatic 'concept pieces' at No Shame." Just as it is easy to hide your identity when reviewing or agreeing/disagreeing with a review. Show your faces, guys! Don't be ashamed by a little bit of criticism! The writers LIKE criticism!
ALSO! The Undergraduate Director's Festival is this weekend! In Theatre A! This Thursday, Friday and Saturday Night @8pm and Sunday at 2pm!
Starring people like Alisa Rosenthal, Seth Owens, Eli Wilkinson, Alex Suha (one of the Bean Bag Guys) and David Blum (of PBR fame)!!!
The Plays:
Variations on the Death of Trotsky
directed by danielle santangelo
Long Ago and Far Away
directed by shanda wells
Foreplay: Or the Art of the Fugue
directed by vince brown
Tom & Jerry
directed by heather bodie
You should totally go and bring your pretttiest lamb.
I agree with Danielle here. You know the reason I was writing for shock value? I've never done it before. It was an experiment in an ungraded environment (like the first week where I acted like a jerk which I hadn't done before). For me this year it's gonna be a time of experimentation, like drugs in the 60's, but replace drugs with writing styles. And you know what? I really don't give a hoot what anyone says and/ or thinks. Why should I? It's No Shame. If people are only coming to see 'perfect' pieces then it would all be boring, what I mean is, well take cars for example. Now a days if you see a 67' corvette roll down the road you're like "Oooh that's hot" but if all the worlds cars are Corvettes then it changes to "Same ol' same ol'". I view all of this in the writing sense. By trying things like being shocking you can see what the audience likes/ dislikes, what they react to on the personal level and or how stuck up they are. Kidding. Btw Danielle if you read this before the show tomorrow I'd like to ask your help on a new piece I wrote, which is a total experiment, as in I have never even come close to trying this before. What ever... I mean whatev (it's addictive). Peace out ppl
Oh so Eli, you mean you're gonna suck all year? It doesn't matter anyway, your stuff is never any good. BTW 67 Corvettes suck.
Oh, Jesus.
You know one of the best parts of No Shame? If you don't like a piece, it's over in five minutes.
If No Shame were two hours of serious, abstract, dramatic art every Friday night, I probably wouldn't go, because I find wacky comedy to be more fun. But I also enjoy it when people challenge themselves, and for that reason, I respect Danielle's work.
For the record, I'm not sure Eli really *is* challenging himself; I don't think his recent pieces have been all that different from his previous pieces, and shock for the sake of shock isn't very interesting to me. But hell, you have to respect the kid. He keeps coming back, he keeps trying, and even though his pieces aren't usually my favorites, I genuinely like him and admire his ballsiness.
Everybody has their favorite (and least favorite) styles, writers, and actors. The fun of No Shame is that you get to see a variety, and writers have a low-risk medium for experimentation.
It's thursday so I can't remember enough to thoughtfully comment on each piece, but here goes.
1. Jonathan Shelton talks about the absurdity of Archie comics.
I feel that No Shame used to have a lot more of completely random rantings laced with either absurdity, vulgarness, or.. im not sure what else. But I was pleased to see one. The challenge for pieces like these is to make it enjoyable for people that have no idea what the writer is talking about. Shelton did that, perfectly. I thought the delivery was a good balance of rage/indignation/anger but also thoughtful contemplation of why archie comics are bad. often times these rants are lopsided to either the anger or the thoughtful contemplation which either becomes annoying (too much anger) or boring (contemplation)
three cheers for shelton.
6. Sadie's piece--drooling on Patrick's stomach
Did you know that she actually drooled on him? I couldn't tell from the audience, but i asked her and she said yes.
7. "Five More Minutes," by Danielle Santangelo
Variety, as always, scores big points with me. If something appears within the first 5 seconds to be different than most pieces at No Shame I am automoatically intrigued. I think the writing was strong enough to convey a vague idea of what was happening - two people either trying to end a relationship which is bad for one or both of them, or something similar to that - but still vague enough to not what exactly that relationship was. were the sexual references just metaphors for the relationship? or was it actually about sex? I don't know. and i'm not sure if that bothers me.
I really liked that actions played an important role along with the space. most pieces/writers (at no shame) dont really utilize actions or space.
9. "How to Make Penguins Even Cuter Than They Already Are" by Ryan
I liked this. it definitely seemed like 3 random poems this guy wrote, but that's perfectly acceptable. they were delivered very well and he seemed comfortable on stage. It's hard for me to critique poetry that i dont read so... well, i liked it. thats about all i can say.
12. "Fun with Felons," by Katy Baggs
GOoooood. I have a soft spot for pieces that pretend not to be pieces even though it is very obvious they are fictional. the pamphlets were great.
14. "Exercise in Politeness: Penultimate Movement" by Alisa Rosenthal
amazing.thats all i have to say. personally, i think this is one of the best pieces of the year. how long it was, the complete lack of dialogue - everything was perfect.
16. "Eli's Coming and going Straight to Hell," by Eli Wilkinson
someone mentioned this before, but masturbating with tears is one of the most beautifully pathetic concepts ever created.
I thought it was a good show - there was a good variety of pieices and not really any "bad" pieces, in my opinion. not enough audience though. I am happy that so we have had a lot of new writers this year and also that people coming back.
but as far as the internet goes... no shame isn't meant to have all perfect pieces every night. and also it is a chance to experiment with writing styles. also, there is no problem with writing in a stereotypical style. there is no such thing as a completely original style. now... that doesn't mean you shouldn't criticize it (even you, Mr. Anonymous!) as danielle said the writers want criticism. but it should be more than "this piece sucked" otherwise you just look like some dude who has nothing better to do than insult people over the faceless medium of the internet. and noone wants to be that guy.
he smells.
bad.
""That One Piece" by Idgy Nusbaum
This one could have used some work."
OK, I just wanna say that I think I'm trying to write something good but I sure couldn't care less if you don't like it. It doesn't bother me at all and I won't even waste my time responding to you because YES I know the piece had its problems but I want to do it anyway and you don't need to say it's not good. OTHER people gave it a positive review and I would think maybe you could do the same, or if you really don't like it: maybe keeping your mouth SHUT. You think it's not good? So what! I'm not even interested about what you say: I never gave it a 2nd thought, and anyway that's just the way I feel and I wanted to write a piece like that so I did!
Wow, thank you Aprille, In all honesty I always thought you were one of those people that hated me. Weird. But now I am curious who the anonymous person(s) actually is. Especially the one who insulted me but didn't add any criticism that could help me improve. Show your face man!
San Diego is having a Hot Rod Halloween on Sunday, October 30. If you love classic car collector then you will want to be there! All kinds of classic car collector will be in attendance. For more information go to classic car collector
See Ya There!!
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