NO SHAME
GOES TO WAR!!

Compiled and edited by
Todd Wm. Ristau
and Jeff Goode

Various
No Shame Compilation, 60-65 minutes
Scenes and monologues/various casts
Performances $40.00 per, scripts $9.99 each

Originally conceived through a series of discussions between No Shame Theatres on the East and West Coasts concerning the high quality and frequency with which No Shame participants around the country were using the open venue to deal with September 11th, the War on Terrorism, and the impending invasion of Iraq.

It was agreed that these remarkable expressions of collective rage, confusion, sorrow, and fear deserved to reach a broader audience, so a campaign was launched to gather together and exchange these scripts in order to make them available to performers in every city.

A special "No Shame Goes To War!" show was announced for Los Angeles on Saturday, March 8th in order to kick off the nationwide project with performances of No Shame pieces from all over the world.

Within hours, companies in Portland, Oregon and Austin, Texas followed suit, and additional performances will be announced as the month unfolds...

Featuring scripts from No Shames in Los Angeles, Charlottesville, Iowa City, Cedar Falls, Austin, New York City, Orlando, Miami, Charleston, and Verona.

Contains adult language and themes. #14-005b

Sample text:

Mass Destruction
by Todd Ristau

(Lights up on a woman seated center stage. She wears an abaya.)

Woman: I am ashamed of my country. My nation is jeered at and despised by more than half the world. We are called cold-blooded killers. People look at me and they see a murderer, as if I personally were responsible, or even in agreement with the policies of my government.

I admit that my country is guilty of horrible human rights abuses.

I know that my nation has a long history of genocide. That it has a history of aggression against those who do not bend to its will. I know it has incarcerated and detained its own people.

I also know that my nation has developed an arsenal of terrible chemical and biological weapons, and has used them. Has used them without apology. We have weapons of mass destruction, and we have used them, and we will use them again. I admit this. I also admit that we have sold them to other nations, and will continue to do so for as long as it is profitable.

I admit that my nation has attacked other nations with little or no provocation, and that my leaders openly practice a policy of race hate and religious intolerance. I understand that my country uses diplomatic deception abroad and fear of the authorities at home to win people's support in order that it may illegally exert its will and influence over those it has no right to control.

My nation's use of terror and threats of violence have made it into one of the most hated and feared nations on the planet. My nation sees things only in absolutes—you are one of us or you are against us. You are either good or you are evil. My country lusts for blood, and will not stop until the evil it fears is eliminated from the earth. For that I can offer no apology, for I have no power as an individual to change it.

I am ashamed of my powerlessness, and I am ashamed of my country.

Most of all, I am ashamed of my president...George W. Bush.

"Mass Destruction" debuted February 14, 2003, at No Shame Charlottesville.