Eugene weekly., June 05, 2014, Page 10, Image 10

NO SHAME EUGENE ACTORS
CREATE A ‘SHARK MOB’
PHOTO BY TODD COOPER
WALK OF SHAME
NO SHAME THEATRE celebrates 5 years of renegade performances downtown on First Friday ArtWalk
C
onversing with Jeff Geiger is an object lesson
in the power of pure enthusiasm. As artistic
director of No Shame Eugene, Geiger is a
tireless advocate for the sort of populist,
no-holds-barred participation in art that
defi nes his outfi t, which is less theatrical
troupe than a renegade vaudeville
venue in which anyone can
participate. No Shame Theater, as Geiger describes
it, approaches the planned chaos of fl ash mobs, where
minimal rules harness maximum creativity.
“We’re much more of an intentionally com-
munity theater,” Geiger says of No Shame. “It’s
chaos. It’s fun. It’s kind of like putting together a
mixed tape.”
That mixed tape, as you will, comes together
once a month in the Atrium Building downtown,
during First Friday ArtWalk. No Shame shows
consist of 15 performance pieces, each lasting fi ve
minutes or less and including everything from skits,
dance and monologues to readings, short plays and
musical performances — whatever fl oats your boat. It’s
not unusual for a night of No Shame to include, among
other things, a belly dance, a shark attack, a monologue
about punk rock and a comic digression on “the non-
mystery of the male orgasm.”
This Friday, June 6, No Shame Eugene celebrates fi ve years of
ongoing performances with a special show featuring the best fi ve-
NO SHAME’S
JEFF GEIGER
PHOTO BY ATHENA DELENE
10
JUNE 5, 2014 • EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
BY RICK LEVIN
minute acts from the past half decade. Also on tap is music by
Betty and the Boy as well as performances by Eugene Ballet
Company, Oregon Contemporary Theatre and Eugene Opera,
all of whom were “challenged” to show up, Geiger
explains with a smile.
“It’s big,” he says of the celebration. “It’s kind of
cool, thematically, because the whole thing is based
on fi ve-minute performances.”
In fact, only three rules govern the madness
that is No Shame Theater: All works must be
original; all works must be under fi ve minutes;
and no breaking anything, “including the
wall,” Geiger jokes.
“It’s an unjuried, uncensored show,” Geiger
says, adding that the whole thing has a classic
“late-night” format similar to Saturday Night
Live or Chicago’s Second City. “It’s the fi rst 15
pieces,” he adds of the monthly selection of live
acts. “If there’s more, we do a lottery system, and
we don’t know what we’re going to get. A lot of
them are walk-ins. It’s anything — experimental,
standup, sketch, prose, poetry.”
No Shame Eugene is a local manifestation of more
than a dozen No Shame theaters around the country,
including outfi ts in Austin, New York, Los Angeles,
Miami, Cleveland and Fairbanks, Alaska. The movement
originated nearly three decades back at the University of Iowa,
when students Todd Ristau and Stan Ruth wanted to provide