No Shame Theatre Makes Significant Changes

Todd Ristau

My pal Todd Ristau, inventor of the marvelous No Shame Theatre (years ago in Iowa; imported to Roanoke about a decade ago) just made the following announcement:

Due to a sustained drop in participation by writers, performers and audience, we have made the difficult decision after 10 years in Roanoke to move to a summer only platform out on the Hollins Campus during the summer session of the graduate programs, so No Shame Roanoke will now operate only during the months of June and July.

We will continue, however, to work with Mill Mountain Theatre to do occasional special No Shame events, perhaps with holiday themes. We will keep you posted as to when and where these events happen.

We'd also like to invite you to come and toast our incredible ten year run in Roanoke by coming to the No Shame Tenth Birthday Party on Thursday. Admission is FREE but you need to register to attend by going to the Brown Paper Tickets website: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/478167

The party will run from 8:30 to 10:30, and we'll be showing a slide show retrospective of the last 10 years.

When we started in 2003 there was actually a zine called "There's Nothing To Do Here." Everyone said there was no point in trying to do something late nights or edgy, because nobody would want to do it or stay up that late. Ten years later, there's a vibrant and rich downtown scene with lots and lots of stuff to do and venues for original works and readings all over town.

Think of No Shame as terraforming Roanoke. We broke important ground, and if it weren't for No Shame a lot of what makes Roanoke an amazing place to live and play wouldn't exist.  We done good.  Now it is time to get off the stage. At least until more people want us to take it again.

No Shame has never been about nostalgia or duty or tradition--it is about serving a need. We did. There is no shame in recognizing that the need isn't there anymore. We want to thank everyone who has helped make it all possible.