No Shame Players

Nuclear Chess

Nuclear Chess was one of our more well-received No Shame Players pieces. Erin had brought in an unbroken orange peel that she had peeled that day. Because it was unbroken, you could reassemble it into something that looked like an unpeeled orange. I thought it would be interesting to have someone peel it and have blood inside. I brought in an old exacto-knife set in a wooden box that I had at home. The piece went something like this: Erin and I were sitting downstage center playing chess. The only pieces left on the board were the two kings, so one of us would move and say "Check" then the other would move and say "Check". After awhile, we stopped and opened the box and each took out an exacto knife. We laid our forearms across the chess board side by side and held the knives to each others wrists. Meanwhile upstage left, Frank Ensenberger was sitting peeling the orange while he delivered a monologue about being in Civil Air Patrol. (see below) Basically it was a monologue about watching the skies because you never knew when a Soviet attack would come because the Russians are a nation of paranoids and can't be trusted to avoid war out of love for their own children. Upstage right, Karen Woditsch sat, babbling in Russian (she knew Russian), and Mike Wells stood behind her translating for her. Basically she was just saying something about "I love my baby. I love my little girl." Over and over. The main part of the piece was really Frank's monologue. And when he had finished, he also finished unpeeling the orange. I don't think we figured out a way to have blood inside, but there was something red in there. Possibly a red ball? And that was the end of the piece. "Nuclear Chess" IS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL AND MAY NOT BE DOWNLOADED, TRANSMITTED, PRINTED OR PERFORMED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR

"Nuclear Chess" was performed April 22, 1988 by Frank Ensenberger, Karen Woditsch, Mike Wells, Erin Purcell, Jeff Goode.

[A brief history of No Shame Players]

[Jeff Goode's website] [Erin Quinn Purcell web page] [Frank Ensenberger web page]

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