Sunday, February 10, 2008

No Shame

I'd love to pick that no shame audience up and take them around everywhere. The piece got some great laughs and the cast was awesome. Perfect corpse. The show was taped for URTV and will also show up on google video at some point in the near future, so those of you who missed it will get a chance to see the debut. I think the Chihuahuas will end up doing this piece somewhere in the summer season.

No Shame is fun, and I'm sure I'll be back soon, but I have three big problems with it.

  • Lack of enforcement of the 5-minute rule. If you see someone getting on stage with 7 pages of small type, the piece is not going to be over in 5 minutes.
  • The directions call for original pieces. I know improv is great and an important part of theatre, but I don't think "We're going to do 5 minutes of improv" should count as an original piece
  • Some people had their submissions turned down, under the "First 15 scripts through the door" (or at least first 15 that find who is taking scripts and crowd them) rule. I'm fine with that, but then why let some people submit two pieces?

This would be fairly simple to take care of. Quick vet of the scripts when they come in the door, and lights out at 5:00 (not gradually dimming in a "hey, ummm, can you like maybe consider winding it down within the next few minutes, or we'll lower incandescence slightly more"). And insist on scripts, or, for the dance pieces, a movement block or tape of music.

I did love the dance piece with the deck of cards with activities written on them. Great job, you guys!

9 comments:

JF said...

Hey Bastard! Thanks for coming out to NST this past Saturday, we were glad to have you and hope you come again soon. I appreciate your feedback posted here. While we can't certainly please everyone every time, there are a few things we're trying to revamp to keep the majority pleased and coming back for more. Regarding the 5 minute rule, we do actually have someone in the light booth timing the pieces and the lights do bump at 5 mins. and then go to black at 5 mins. and 15 secs. We aren't going to get out the big meat hook and drag people offstage just yet. BUT this past time the work lights were left on by accident and so a "true black" never took place which did cause some of the pieces to linger. Note was taken and it won't happen again. Problem number two- improv IS original and it was really damn funny, so you'll have to get over that one, sorry. I can't turn down improv, it's completely original and fits all the rules.
Problem three- we've never been stormed the way we were this past Saturday with scripts. Normally we have about 12-15 actors who are turned down because there aren't enough scripts- this past Saturday was the opposite problem. We're looking into allowing only one piece submitted per writer initially and then after the first round we'll take a second round from others if needed in the order that they were received. We do however only ever allow writers and actors to be in no more than two pieces (not including the song) unless of course we're under 15 pieces for the night and can take more.
The great thing about NST is that we're continuing to refine it as the participants and audience grow and change. I hope you'll hang in there and keep coming back. Thanks again for your feedback.

Take care,

Jonathan.
-NST.

George the Bastard said...

The script problem happened the last time I went to No Shame (which was a while ago), so I wasn't aware there was a regular scarcity of scripts.

I said improv was great, and yes, it was funny, and you make the rules, but it does say the first "15 scripts".

Thanks for reading, I'll be back!

JF said...

Thanks for being a stickler on the syntax. I didn't realize that the website said "scripts", it actually should say "pieces", not scripts. I'll get it changed pronto, thanks!

We've had our ups and downs with how many scripts come in. Lately, we've been pretty low on them and Chall and I have had to resort to the No Shame first aid kit from noshame.org which has lots of scripts from other NSTs around the US. We clear it with those writers and then have several on hand to cast the many actors who end up standing around hoping they'll get to be in something with only 12-13 pieces turned in and 6-12 actors standing around hoping they'll get cast. I've started contacting writers more regularly, encouraging them to bring more work and I hope you'll do the same, thanks! This past NST was the irregular problem of having a surplus of writers.

Hope to see ya soon! Thanks,
JF

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