One Friday night, Tony Trout, Stan Ruth and I happened to come in very early to rehearse our pieces in the space before the show. Our individual rehearsals went pretty smoothly, so the three of us found ourselves hanging out in Theatre B with nothing to do and some time to kill before the show, so we decided to come up with something the three of us could to do together.

I don't remember exactly what we did, but it was abstract and largely improvised, culminating in the three of us assuming crucifixion poses, someone saying "Gosh, it's dark." and the lights going out.

Since all of us had our own pieces to do that night, we needed a separate nom de guerre to mark our place in the order, and Stan suggested we call ourselves No Shame Players. So we did.

[This took place in Theatre B some time during the first season. I believe it was the last No Shame before Christmas (December 12, 1986).] [I just found a line in "No Shame Players Last Piece" that says it was January of 1987. I'm not positive this is correct, but certainly my memory then would have been more accurate than my memory now.]

Later, in the fall of 1987, Erin Quinn Purcell and I began collaborating on No Shame pieces. Generally, we would get together right before the show, she would bring in something - an idea, a prop, a story - to use as inspiration, and I would try to figure out a way to use it as the genesis for an improvised piece. Then we would grab some of our friends and put the piece together just before showtime.

Again, we needed a name to put into the order, and I suggested we take No Shame Players, since it seems to bring to mind an anonymous confederacy of No Shamers.

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