from The Chronicle of Higher Education - May 31, 1989

Playwriting at Iowa: Experiments With Language and Time

By Lawrence Biemiller

[excerpt]

...Nor is learning here confined to the departmental curriculum. Many of the playwrights who want to work outside it write for the No Shame Theater, a regular Friday-night presentation of three-minute sketches. No Shame's first stage was the bed of a pickup truck owned by Todd Ristau, a student in the workshop.

No Shame was eventually invited inside, but otherwise it has avoided both frills and sanction. "The format means you can't be wordy," Mr. Ristau says. "It's low-risk, nonjudgmental theater."...


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