No Shame's 20th Birthday!
Mark your calendars for this October 9-14. No Shame Iowa City will host a week-long celebration in space provided by the University of Iowa Theatre Department. Current and former writers, performers, and audience members from any of No Shame's branches (as well as people who have never heard of No Shame, if you'll come) are invited to participate in five 11 PM No Shames, as much bonding, cross-pollination, and drinking as we can fit around the shows, and a special Best Of Best Of No Shame (BOBONS 2006) Saturday night at 8 PM.
Prepare to quit your job, separate from your spouse, or do whatever it takes to put yourself in Iowa City this fall. Which scripts (new? old? revised?) will you bring? Which outstanding performers or particular pieces deserve nominations for BOBONS?
This message is a re-post of Adam Hahn's post on the MSN board.
Prepare to quit your job, separate from your spouse, or do whatever it takes to put yourself in Iowa City this fall. Which scripts (new? old? revised?) will you bring? Which outstanding performers or particular pieces deserve nominations for BOBONS?
This message is a re-post of Adam Hahn's post on the MSN board.
posted by Michael Tabor at 12:35 PM
19 Comments:
How are we going to run this thing?
Here are some ideas (none of this is how things WILL be run, necessarily, and I'd like to generate as much discussion as possible):
-For the five nights without pre-set orders, IF we have two many authors submitting pieces, we can prioritize: first authors who are No Shame virgins and people denied slots in previous orders, then authors with new pieces, then authors with previously performed pieces, then authors who are not present but have asked that their work be performed
-Theme nights? It came up in a Lounge (one of the UI theatre alumni listservs) discussion that there have been excellent Samuel Beckett parodies performed at No Shame, and the soil is ripe for several more. We could designate Wednesday Beckett Night (you would, of course, still be allowed to perform anything you like Wednesday night, but if you have a piece in any way responding to Beckett, that would be the best night to perform it). Alternatively, (and this idea belongs to JC Luxton) we could stimulate new work by announcing a challenge every night, "At tomorrow's show, precedence will be given to pieces that include fish!" [or six people on stage at once, or some such thing]
-Guest Hosts (Jeff Goode's suggestion). There's no reason that the IC Board needs to take the order and provide an MC every night. We could have Roanoke Night, LA Night, Cedar Falls Night, etc. Each group of visitors would be responsible for one night of setting the order, choosing a host, and enforcing its own interpretation of the three rules (we'd probably want warning for strict cut-offs at five minutes, restrictions on swearing, etc.).
What do you think?
I'm just curious as to what is being planned to advertise this and increase public awareness of the event? It would be a shame (har har, puns) to have this anniversary thing come along and get a lackluster turnout from the Iowa City audiences.
Stage one is letting No Shame-types know about this so we can start generating word of mouth. You, Evan Schenck, have three and a half months to convince every friend, roommate, neighbor, and mother you have to attend at least one of the weekday shows and BOBONS.
Once the school year starts, we'll do the usual annual No Shame promotion directed at the dorms and incoming freshmen. (There wasn't actually much of this last fall after we started the year with such high attendance.)
Everything else is in only a theoretical planning stage. There will be posters hung farther off campus than usual (our goal being not just to raise awareness among new students, but to get people who haven't attended recently to come back for this event), and we'll do whatever we can to convince the papers that we are news-worthy.
The more people who participate in promoting the event, the better. If anyone reading this has media contacts, ideas for other promotional opportunities, or poster designs, speak up.
Also, make sure your name and availability are listed here:
http://www.adamhahn.com/BOBONSRSVP.htm
because your commitment will convince others to attend.
Can I make posters?
(locks hands behind back, crosses legs, looks cute and bites lip hoping the answer is 'yes')
Yeah, I'm coming. Or, as your mother said last night, "Yeah, I'm coming."
-James goddamn Erwin.
Yes, Eli, you may make posters. Or, as your mother said last night, "Yes, Eli, you may make posters."
-Adam goshdarn Hahn
She didn't say that. I was there. She was too busy having sex with you Adam. I've never heard her scream so much before. It haunts me.
Oh and you can pretty much add Shelton on your roll call list. Because whether he knows it or not I'm draggin' his big butt to the shows.
-Eli
Two questions:
1. Is each nightly No Shame going to be a regional Best Of, or just a random show made of people who happen to be in town?
2. Who picks the order for BOBONS?
Mike,
1. Monday-Friday, anyone is welcome to perform any piece on any night. (Preference might be given to particular localities or themes, but these will not make up the enitre order.)
2. Probably the IC board. Definitely people who will read and consider your nominations.
How about an environmental/global warming theme for one night. Roanoke did a terrific thing on species extinction--it was really morbid. but there's a lot of comedy, maybe gallows humor or jusst farce.
frank
Mortimer, I don't think that should be a problem. I'll be ready with 1+ piece every night. Remember, this week doesn't have to be all new work. It's also a chance to bring back old favorites or breathe new life into a script that wasn't ready the first time it was performed.
Frank Albrecht (coming in from Virginia) has written me that he needs, "a chicken headdress or some costume suggesting a chicken." Does anyone in Iowa City have something chicken-suggestive hanging in a closet somewhere?
I have a chicken-like headdress.
I can't imagine it will be hard to fill 6 nights. We're more likely to have the opposite problem: Especially on Friday & Saturday when the largest number of out-of-towners will be around.
Re: Guests Hosts suggestion that Adam had mentioned. No Shame is run a little differently in every city (as Adam can attest, having been to more branches than anyone else). For example, in Los Angeles we always open with a new version of the theme song each week. In Cedar Falls, I know they have a very difft way of getting the audience revved up at the beginning. Virginia has several call-and-response type things they do at the beginning. One of the great things about having this national No Shame convention of sorts is the chance for the cross-pollination of seeing how so many other people do this thing we call No Shame. It might be interesting - if there's enough turnout - to be able to handover a show or part of a show to a group from, say, Austin, so we can see how they do it down there. Obviously, there wouldn't be enough Austonians to do a whole show by themselves, but, for example if there were 4 or 5 of them in town, that would be enough to have a night where they host, and set up the ground rules, and then all the rest of us submit pieces and do things the austin way for a night. Again, that idea really depends on having enough people from any given place in town on the same nights. Wouldn't work if they were all spread out thru the week. Or if they were only coming on Saturday. Just a thought.
Nother thought was the hosts, because throughout No Shame history, even in one city, like Iowa City, the diff't hosts have been able to create a difft ambience that has helped make their "time" distinct.
Having the option of diff't hosts or diff't host groups, also can be used to take some of the pressure off the I.C. board as it's an easy way to avoid having to do back to back shows for a week straight.
Ok, I've booked my plane tix, and will be coming in Thursday afternoon and leaving Sunday afternoon. I'll be at the Thursday and Friday shows and BOBONS.
"For example, in Los Angeles we always open with a new version of the theme song each week."
...
There's a theme song?
First of all, if anyone is looking for it here, there is no IC No Shame tonight (Aug 25). The season starts next Friday (Sept. 1)
Now, responses:
>as Adam can attest, having been to
>more branches than anyone else
I've only been to Iowa City, Austin, Charlottesville, Cedar Falls, Charleston, and Roanoke. I'm sure someone else has been to more than six.
>There's a theme song?
Boy, howdy, is there one! We did different versions of it the first year of the festival shows in Charleston. It's a really great opening, other than the part where Adam Hahn has to feign musicality. It's a catchy tune, and anyone who wants to can get the music from the noshamela site and write completely new lyrics.
By the way, does anyone have access to a decent keyboard you'd be willing to make generally available through the week? I have a cheap guitar I'll share with anyone who doesn't want to travel with his or her own.
And why isn't anyone posting BOBONS nominations?
NO SHAME STARTS THIS WEEEEEK!
This post is truly a pleasant one it assists new web people, who are wishing for blogging.|
[url=http://instantonlinepayday.co.uk/]payday loans for bad credit
[/url]
Post a Comment
<< Home