More Muppets

It's back! Due to overwhelming public demand, this Wednesday 19th at 8pm, Sing-a-long-a-Muppets-Christmas Carol is back at Press Play House on Vyner Street E2. It's still free, and the goody bags will also be back and you can still BYOB! Come along and applaud when Michael Caine does some Acting! Have Christmas drink with us afterwards! Muppet Virgins welcome! Christmas!!
Closest tube/overground are Bethnal Green and Cambridge Heath Road. Here's an advert for  Sh!t Theatre present: Sing-a-long-a-Muppets-Christmas Carol featuring Reggie the Cat:

***NOTICE  - CHANGE OF VENUE this will now be happening on a smaller scale at our place SH!t HQ, let us know if you will be coming and we will get mulling ***

Hello from the BAC!

Friday 7th December

Tonight see 2 x ten minutes of the play we've been working on for 12 months now with Tim Hopkins at Battersea Art Centre's Freshly Scratched! It's a whole night of new material from different companies, and the tickets are pay-what-you-can online: http://www.bac.org.uk/whats-on/freshly-scratched/ 

We've been working all week on how to make Rustler burgers talk, come check it out.

#BACScratch #TimOnABike

Saturday 8th December

We are playing at 'Party in The Blind Spot' and are putting together a special religion set in honour of Matt Thomas, as it is his party and he loves/hates religion. (Matt is writing a show called 'The Human Being's Guide to not being a Dick About Religion' which previewed the very first Sh!t Theatre present: Other People's Sh!t and will be at the Canal Cafe Theatre in the New Year, apocalypse-depending). 'Party in The Blind Spot' is a fundraiser for Matt's eyeball. It's a private party but friends are welcome on a  strict no-douchebags policy, so message us if you are around on Saturday night and want to help raise money for Matt!

Sunday 9th December

It's finally here, our career-defining moment, the gig of a lifetime: Sh!t Theatre and Press Play Films present: Sing-a-long-a-Muppet's Christmas Carol at Press Play House, Vyner Street, Bethnal Green. Doors open at 4pm , entry is free and it's BYOB. We will be leading the sing-a-long and there will be a pre-show talk, from us, about the Muppets. 

Old interview

Not sure I ever posted this, so here's our interview with the Space Theatre from November: http://space.org.uk/?p=7853

Other People's Sh!t, tonight!

This is a blog entry. Not an excuse to make the plumber think I have a Real Job. Look at me typing and frowning. I hope he hasn't noticed that I am wearing pyjamas. So seeing as this is definitely a blog entry, here is some blogging:


DOGS
Our run at the Space finished a week or so ago, and all in all we were very happy with it. The venue is on the Isle of Dogs or as it is known on the streets, the Isle of Bum Fuck Nowhere, and so the audience numbers were not large. However they were perfectly formed and very friendly, and we were a lot happier with our JSA Mark II. We really like doing this show now, and we have found our perfect tech match with our friend Jen Smethurst. You can next see the full version of Sh!t Theatre's JSA (Job Seekers Anonymous) in Camden in January 2013. Roll on 2013, it's been a hard year.


BBC
We also played at the fantastic BBC Time warp party at Theatre Delicatessen last week, curated by the Stamp Collective. The line-up was great and we were really impressed with the whole night. We had some problems with our set, in that we had written a bit for the evening that was mostly mumbling. Hilarious mumbling, but mostly mumbling, and we ended up on the bar stage with 1 mic between 2 vocals & 2 instruments, so nobody really heard us. Also we may have pissed off some radio people with a joke about the radio. It was a joke! We love the radio! I've heard 'Round the Horne' at least twice this week because my alarm is set to 4 Extra. This morning there was a Tony Hancock show about an eating competition. Obvs I would rather wake up to Man Vs Food, but when you don't have a TV you have to settle...

that's a Sh!t Theatre Radio/TV joke for all the fan out there.


We cut our set short and ran off a bit, then we got very drunk and it was all fine. You need those kind of nights so you can tell a self-deprecating story to Jonathan Ross when the BBC inevitably comes calling. We're hoping that Theatre Delicatessen, Stamp Collective and all 200 people who were in the audience got very drunk as well, so they can forget the sh!t Sh!t and have us back in the new year.


BAC
We've been in rehearsals this week at the BAC with Tim and Norman (who is an actual actor and will be playing Stu). We're working towards the scratch of Burger Van which we'll be presenting on December 7th at the BAC. Really excited about this project and we're enjoying the rehearsals, doing a lot of improv and talking, and tomorrow we start work on the puppets. More info about the play here:
http://scratchr.net/burgervan/2012/11/07/freshly-scratched-application/#comments

IMPROV
Both our teams 'Pilots' and 'The New Happy Squad' are playing this week. We can't make Thursday's gig, but if you are in South London, head on over to the Priory for some top class long-form improv. We will be doing  the Sunday show at the Wilmington Arms this week with Pilots, £4 on the door, the show features two Wilmops house teams (including us) + two Harolds by Improv guru David Shore's class teams.


TONIGHT
Free comedy & performance with Sh!t Theatre present: Other People's Sh!t at Press Play House! It's a bit of a ramshackle, new material, BYOB night, featuring Sam Quinn, Heather Bandenburg and Phil O'Shea (incuding a Sh!t O'Shea collaboration) and hosted by Sh!t Theatre. Starts at 8pm - free comedy and fun and beer (if you want) on a Wednesday!

Poster design by Louise Mothersole

Sh!t week to be a Republican

Congratulations, world. Obama is back and I am celebrating by re-streaming favourite episodes of the West Wing and asking myself the hard questions such as: Am I a closet Conservative or is Alan Alda just too wise and witty a choice to play a Republican nominee? That scene where he and Bartlet eat icecream! So charming! I was routing for him - what does that mean??!!

It's hard-hitting political topics such as that that we covered in our set the other night at Lampoon Apathy's US Electiongiggle at Sh!t favourite, Bethnal Green Working Mens Club. It was a great night with a fantastic line-up, although we followed 40 minutes of Matthew Kelly doing his Ghanian TV Executive set, which we found funny but the audience had had enough of by the time we got on. I'm not sure they even appreciated our 'Binders full of women' costumes. On that note, if anyone needs a binder, we have many, many binders now. Please message us. We also brought back our Republican Elephant/ Elephant Man sketch which we haven't done since NYC HOT! Festival in summer 2011:

It's a big week for us coming up with our five day run of Sh!t Theatre present: Sh!t Theatre's JSA (Job Seekers Anonymous) Mark II at The Space, Isle of Dogs. The run begins on Tues 13th until Sat 17th, everyday at 8pm. Tickets are a bit pricey at £14/£10 conc. but you can use the promo code 'anonymous' if you book online to get 25% off. We would really love to see you there! It's the first time we've done a run like this in London, and we are learning a lot, like, how to have a Press Night (bluh?) and We're Supposed to have our Own Technician (muh?) and You Haven't Sold Any Tickets Yet (err?). It's a great venue and we're very excited to play there. Come on down!
Here's the link to more info on the show, on The Space and tickets. There should be an interview with us going up there soon as well:

http://space.org.uk/?p=7413

We live in a sh!thole no longer

Been a busy month at Wedgewood HQ as we are moving out away from the mould and have been househunting. It's hard to find an affordable 4 bedroom family home in the East End these days, especially when the family consists of at least 2 'children' on benefits and there's a secret extra 5th child who shits in a box in the hall. We've found a new place though and we're moving to Bow at the end of the month, having signed our lives away to the landlord and estate agent. It's incredible the amount of power property owners hold over people who need somewhere to live but who can't afford to buy. If I wasn't so busy worrying about packing and hiding the holes in the walls I would defo be up for a revolution, or at least would buy lottery tickets more often, as right now that's the only feasible way I can imagine ever owning property. ( In which case I would also defo be up for crossing over to the dark side and renting out the shit hole flat I'd buy with my lottery winnings to some desperate renters.)

We've also been very busy with Sh!t since our residency in Brighton. This week we had 6 gigs including 2 improv, my performance at Spots, Tricity Vogue's Ukulele Cabaret, Emergency 2012 in Manchester and our 3am "headline" slot at the Midnight Masquerade Ball at the Space. We've also been working on our Burger Van play with Tim, and eating and other stuff. We've got a few more gigs coming up in the rest of October....
-Wednesday 17th - Tricity Vogue's Ukulele Cabaret at Lost Theatre, Stockwell, London (message us for free tickets!)

-Thurs 25th - Commie Faggots Present.. at The Stags Head, Hoxton, London

- Saturday 27th - Under Construction at the Basement, Brighton

COMinG UP in NovEMBER
Sh!t Theatre's run at the Space, Isle of Dogs. A week of full-length sh!t!

Sh!T Theatre present: Other People's Funky SH!t - our comedy/performance night at Press Play House returns!

Sh!t Theatre at the Gulbenkian in Kent - Lou returns to her semi-homeland of Kent to show them what she's made of herself

Loads of Improv!

Sh!t in the Basement

Hello from Brighton where we are on our mini-residency here at the Basement, our favourite venue in the South-East. We have a whole massive room to ourselves for running around in, it's brilliant. It's like being taken out to pasture. Now, I don't know what that means, but I think we can agree it's probably when horses have to live in a shit hole flat in London and then some nice horses in Brighton offer them a field to play in for three whole days, and it doesn't rain on the field, and there's wifi.

Last time we were at the Basement was for their Supper Club night in April, when we previewed the first 20 mins of Sh!t Theatre's JSA (Job Seekers Anonymous). Whilst we're here this time we will be working on an installation idea we've had for Job Seekers Anonymous; planning our JSA radio show which will broadcast on Resonance 104.4 FM some time in the autumn/winter, and working on the live show again. We re-wrote the show last week in the studio at Press Play House before our gig at Colchester Arts Centre, we've simplified it a lot and made it more personal. Unemployment is such a wide topic and there are so many things that we want to say about it, that our JSA Mark I sometimes felt like we were just standing there, saying statistics at people, with that face, the 'can you believe that?!' face. We're a lot happier with the way the new version is going, and we had a great time in Colchester with it. It's an amazing space that we can't quite believe we were allowed to perform in, and everyone there is so nice! Just like at the Wolsey Studio in Ipswich where we were for PULSE Festival. I am very proud of East Anglia at the moment. Everyone in East Anglia is lovely! Or, everyone in London is a prick!
We will be blogging throughout our little residency here: http://thebasementresidencies.tumblr.com/


Improv
We're in a new improv team! Still at the Wilmington Arms and still some kind of long-form, the team is called 'Pilots' and includes Gareth Morinan, Ben Target, Dec Munro and Harriet Kelmsley and we're playing on Sunday 7th, 14th and 21st in October.


Gigs coming up

• Saturday 13th October, z-Arts Manchester for Emergency, Manchester's 'annual marathon of the bizarre, the beautiful and the bold'  7pm http://www.z-arts.org/events/emergency/
• ALSO on Saturday 13th October, we race back on the train for Midnight Masquerade Ball at the Space, Isle of Dogs, an all-night Cabaret Ball raising money for their community project SpaceWorks http://space.org.uk/?p=7478
• I'm playing at Spots at Press Play House on Oct 11th, run by AiR Supplier Hattie Prust! http://www.thrustproductions.co.uk/Current%20Work.html

Researchers' Night
If anyone's around the East End on Friday, we're both working as we do every year at the EU Researchers' Night, this year featuring East End's Got Talent with our old friend, mentor and MC, Tammy Whynot. http://www.qmul.ac.uk/events/items/2012/83724.html

Photos
We're generally terrible at documenting our work, but having this time at the Basement means, amongst all the other exciting things, we have time to catch up on stuff like uploading photos. So check out our Facebook page www.facebook.com/shittheatre to see Lou's pics of our JSA project so far!

September Sh!t

It's the Annual Sh!t Theatre Edinburgh Free Fringe Festival Highlights List! A little bit like the 'Recommended' list in the Scotsman, only most of the people on our list have seen the inside of our house. It's not nepotism, we just happen to have some very talented friends. Or, we seek out talented people to be our friends, hoping that their imminent and deserved success will help lift us from obscurity somehow. Like when Ricky Gervais let that stupid guy speak on his radio show and now he has a TV series.

That's the last time I will compare us to Carl Pilkington. I didn't even want to, it was just a nice lead-in to our first recommendation of Gareth's show Gareth Morinan explains how Ricky Gervais is a 'mong' for cutting Gareth Morinan out of Life's Too Short (BBC/HBO). Note to self: awkard segues  - not always charming. Even if they are in a blog or an Edinburgh Show. And even if both of those things feature Sh!t Theatre.

Anyway, we both loved Gareth's spoken word show and if it or its other incarnations (Gareth Morinan explains why David Cameron should be fired for crimes against short people (amoungst other things) / Gareth Morinan pitches a better version of Life's Too Short (starring Gareth Morinan) to BBC, HBO, C4 ITV, SKY etc) comes to a town near you we suggest that you go. It's funny, raw, and an absolute shambles.

With regards to the awkward segues - our JSA (Job Seekers Anonymous) run in Edinburgh was a bit of a mess of potential injuries and segues and sweat but was a good lesson. The piece is not a comedy and we do not intend it to be, however in Edinburgh it was a hard-sell and last year's show was a lot more audience-friendly. We know a bit more now about what we may do next year in Edinburgh, and we also know that the JSA is in no way finished.  We've got some exciting gigs, workshops and residencies coming up so we're looking forward to getting back to work on it.

Back to the list!

• Roland Rides the Rail's (again!)...for the second year in a row one of our favourite shows of the Fringe. Bring it to London, Greg, and we will come see it for the 5th time this year.
• Phil O'Shea's Silly Comedy Show...we were in this doing our woolly mammoth/ Ronettes bit, but obvious bias aside we do love this show and so will you and he does the best Bob Dylan impression in town.
• Thom Tuck Straight to DVD...he hasn't seen the inside of our house or the outside, and last year this was a paid show, so even though it was a freebie this year I'm not sure it really counts. But it was Thom Tuck for free so it stays! A show about straight to DVD Disney movies (or STD VDs).
• Peter Piper - the Man behind the Legend by Sam Quinn...described by reviewers as schizophrenic. What's schizophrenic about a talking pea?! And a man with a cabbage tied to his face? A character comedy/ theatre/ fruit & veg show by our friend Sam, weird and funny and vaguely political, just how we like 'em.
• Austentatious - an improvised Jane Austen novel... we actually didn't catch them whilst they were in Edinburgh but we've seen them in London a good few times. Some of the best long-form improvisors around and the show was free and accesible and they're playing at Leicester Square Theatre next week so get tickets now.

If you follow us on Facebook/ Twitter you will know that whilst in Edinburgh we ended up doing an average of 4 shows a day - on top of our JSA, we also were in the Wilmops Good Improv Show and Fluffers Puppet Improv (muppets!! improv!) everyday plus a few of: Tricity Vogue's Ukulele Cabaret, Phil O'Shea's Silly Comedy Show, (puppets!! imagine!) Crunch the News, The (puppets just talking to each other!) Saturday Debates and something at Ciao Roma one day where we showed up to do 15 min set and there was lots of audience, but no MC and no other acts so we ended up running a little Sh!t show for the hour. (Puppets!)

We loved having the opportunity to do improv everyday and now we're back in London, the Wilmops is back up and running and you can see us this Sunday at the Wilmington Arms! Last Sunday Lou came out on top as champion improvisor in the ImproJam (in no way at all affiliated with Keith Johnstone's Micetro)!

Also coming up in September:

- Every Sunday from 7.30pm is Long form improv at the Wilmington Arms, Farringdon, London

-September 20th Sh!t Theatre's JSA (Job Seekers Anonymous) at Colchester Arts Centre, Colchester

-September 24th - 26th we're on residency at the Basement, Brighton.

Theatr cachu yng Nghymru a'r Alban

Yfory rydym yn mynd i gymru! I can't wait to find out if everyone there is as racist as I've heard! Oops, I mean, Alla i ddim aros i gael gwybod os oes pawb yn hiliol gan fy mod i wedi clywed!

Yes, tomorrow we are getting in our rent-a-car and, non-death providing, we will be previewing our 'JSA' in Wales at the Globe, Hay-on-Wye, which is the second best Globe in the UK, following that Globe statue that they have at the end of our road as an entrance to Globe Town.

Then, non-death providing, we will be heading up to Edinburgh for our 'JSA' run of ONE WEEK ONLY having been screwed over by the Fringe or the Free Fringe or possibly both, who knows, but we will be at the Counting House Ballroom everyday at 8.15pm from 20th-26th August:

http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/cabaret/sh-t-theatre-present-sh-t-theatre-s-jsa-job-seekers-anonymous

You can also see us in Edinburgh at:

The Funny Women Semi-Finals, 13th August
http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/funny-women-at-the-fringe

Tricity Vogue's Ukulele Cabaret, 16th August
http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/cabaret/tricity-vogue-s-ukulele-cabaret-free

Gareth Morinan's Saturday Debates, 18th August
http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/gareth-morinan-presents-the-saturday-debates-3-4

The Wilmops Good Improv Show, everyday from 13th-26th at Cabaret Voltaire
http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/gareth-morinan-presents-a-wilmops-good-improv-show

Sh!t at blogging

We're still alive! Beloved thousands of fans, fear not, Sh!t Theatre are just very busy working for the Rio Occupation London every waking second of the day until 5th August. For more info on what we are working on, check out www.riooccupationlondon.com. I am mostly concentrating on Gustavo Ciriaco's project at the moment, which features Louise Mothersole of Sh!t Theatre 'fame' and Anais Lalange who is an artist, wrestler and a member of our collective AiR Supply. Louise might be doing her Julie Andrews as part of the performances, which happen on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of August at v22/ The Biscuit Factory, so we all know they will be worth seeing. They are also free! And feature 29 other Brazilians doing braziliany things, like making music and films and not turning up on time.
This whole extravaganza is sponsored by Petrobas, your friendly local South American oil company. We were told this quite a while after accepting the job, but feel free to say things like 'amoral shitty hypocrites!' to us tomorrow.
Tomorrow? You want to talk about tomorrow? Well, you should have said! Tomorrow is our very last London preview of Sh!t Theatre present: Sh!t Theatre's JSA (Job Seekers Anonymous) + Office Party for the Unemployed at Bethnal Green Working Mens Club. http://www.workersplaytime.net/thisweek.htm
It's guaranteed to be an absolute shambles given the 0 time we've had to rehearse, but it will be fun and there will be games and cheese and pineapple sticks and Lewis Church back on the decks with his soul music/ one Lady Gaga track.

Other People's Sh!t
This Monday 23rd we hosted the first Sh!t Theatre present: Other People's Sh!t with Press Play Films at their Press Play House on Vyner Street. The evening featured 2 full-length previews from Matt Thomas and Fran Moulds and some shit MCing from us. The two shows were both excellent, so allow us to recommend: for character comedy, Fran Moulds at the Wee Coup everyday in Edinburgh with Significant Human Error, and for crucifixes and Sophie Dahl, Matt Thomas's The Human Being's Guide to Not Being A Dick About Religion which will be shown in London in September.

So back to work...I am currently risk assessing a rooftop balcony for a performance (Risk: Falling off and dying. Solution: Trying not to fall off and die)...but see you on Thursday (tomorrow!) at the Working Mens Club! x

Sh!t comperes

TONIGHT! Sh!t Theatre are MCing the Official launch party of Press Play Films at the Press Play House on Vyner St. We'll be appearing throughout the night in steadily greater states of disarray (free booze) and we'll also be doing a half-hour set around 9.30pm. There'll also be lots of great bands and DJs allll night. It's an invite-only party but you can let us know at shittheatre@gmail.com if you'd like to come along. But quick! It's already 2.30pm.
THIS WEEK! Our London preview & club night Sh!t Theatre's JSA (Job Seekers Anonymous) + Office Party for the Unemployed is this Thursday at 8pm at Bethnal Green Working Mens Club! Tickets on the door are £6 (£4) concessions and we would really appreciate your faces and support.
IT'S OVER! Velela Pop-up Festival ended yesterday and despite the lack of sleep over the past fortnight, we are really going to miss all the awesome Phakama gang. We've never worked with such a lovely bunch of people and highly recommend you keep your eyes peeled for any upcoming Phakama projects at http://www.projectphakama.org/

Sh!t Sixty

Hello from two of the Official (ish) Top 60 Funniest Women in the UK Discounting All Those Who Didn't Enter The Funny Women Contest!
Basically, we're in the semi-finals on 13th August whilst we're up in Edinburgh at Assembly George Square in the Bosco Comedy Tent at 2pm. Also the same day as our first show at the Phoenix! You can check out our Ed Fringe info here:
http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/cabaret/sh-t-theatre-present-sh-t-theatre-s-jsa-job-seekers-anonymous-1
and here for the second week at the Counting House:
http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/cabaret/sh-t-theatre-present-sh-t-theatre-s-jsa-job-seekers-anonymous
and if you want to check us out in the non-cyber programme, go to page 18 (Cabaret Section). This information is useful as the page number tells you where our programme entry is. Unfortunately our page number is not listed in the programme index which will be good as it will keep away all our stalkers and crazed fans and nobody will be able to find out where we're playing.
(Ed Fringe made that small printing mistake and we are in no way angry or upset or engaged in a bitter back-and-forth email exchange with the marketing department).



Party Time
Sh!t Theatre's London previews + Office Party for the Unemployed are coming up real soon at Bethnal Green Working Mens Club. Here's the Facebook link:
https://www.facebook.com/events/402149919837085/
and info on the Working Mens Club website:
http://www.workersplaytime.net/WEEKAFTER.htm
We'd really love to see you there! Confirmed on the decks for 5th July is Lewis Church from the Church of Soul playing terrible office party tunes, soul, funk and 50s classics. Here's a link to his blog so you can check out what he's up to in the live art world/ his penis http://lewischurch.blogspot.co.uk/


AGLOW
Last week we had our first workshop with the Association of Greater London Older Women as part of our JSA project. For the first half of the workshop, we introduced them to the basics of long-form improv, played some improv games and tried out some 3 line scenes. Two of the women, Jo and Marge, came up with the most perfect 3 line scene we've heard whilst simultaneously breaking a load of improv rules. They were given the word 'hairdresser' and it went like this:

(Marge enters)
Jo: How do you want it?
Marge: long
Jo: What are you doing here then?
End Scene.


The second half of the workshop was a discussion about (un)employment. The women have all worked, legally and illegally, in factories and offices, as psychotherapists and seamstresses and social workers and building those little caps that go on the top of clicky pens, and many have signed on, throughout the last 50-60 years. We learnt a lot and had a lot of fun, and the workshop was a fantastic addition to our JSA project. We're scheduling another one for August/ September, and will be back in the studio at the beginning of July to see how their experiences will influence our writing.

Sh!t Theatre and AGLOW

Phakama
We're working all this month on Valela Pop-Up Festival in and around QMUL in Mile End. There are shows every night and tickets are only £3 online (£5 on the door) so head East and come say hi, particularly to Lou as she is Technical Manager a.k.a the only technician for the whole festival and will need a beer afterwards.

Sh!t Office Party

This week's Sh!t:
-Tomorrow (Tues) is our thrice re-arranged Funny Women Awards show, plus a completely different trimprov gig with Juliet Stephens, both happening in and around Covent Garden. It'll be like that TV programme where thingy has to run around and go back in time and stuff to fit in having two girlfriends: hilarious! Check our Facebook for locations & times.

-Thursday is our first workshop with AGLOW (Association of Greater London Older Women) for our Job Seekers Anonymous project. We'll be working on some improv with them and also discussing/ debating their personal job history and opinions on or experiences of claiming benefits. We'll then be back in the studio, re-visiting our 'JSA'  in light of the workshop and the post-show talk we had after our preview at PULSE Fringe.

-Friday we're gigging somewhere...and that somewhere is...somewhere we can get a...tube...to?

Going to let you in on a secret here - I don't actually know where the gig is.


-From Saturday we start work as Technical Manager (Louise) and the less skill-requiring Participant Manager (me) at Phakama Pop-up Festival, which finishes at the end of June when we begin nossa trabalho as artist assistants for Rio Occupation London.  They're both going to be great festivals of new and exciting performance, art and film from international artists so we will keep you updated on what's going on throughout the summer.

-This Sunday, Problem Child are back at The Wilmington Arms with more long-form improv!

-Today we confirmed a nice little residency at the Basement, Brighton (see our famous 'Favourite Venues in the South East' list) for September, and a performance of our JSA at Colchester Arts Centre, also in September. We'll be re-evaluating/ re-writing our JSA after the summer so the Basement will be a great place to do that, and Colchester Arts Centre will be an equally great place to try it out.


-ALSO COMING UP - HEY YOU GUYS you like to make party, right? Well we make party! Sh!t party! FOR: Job seekers/ signers on/ bums/ unemployeds/ unemployables/ the general public at Bethnal Green Working Mens Club not once but TWICE this July. Put the 5th and the 26th (both Thursdays) in your diaries for Sh!t Theatre present: Sh!t Theatre's JSA (Job Seekers Anonymous) + Office Party for the Unemployed. 
Come see our new show and club night at the Working Mens Club this Summer. Are you unemployed? Missing out on the 'fun' of the office party? Well feel left out no more, with Sh!t Theatre's Office Party For the Unemployed. (official) (copyright). More info coming soon, but expect the London premier of our new hour-long show, bad party games, terrible dancing and mild sexual harassment from the middle-management. 

(P.S if anyone has a photocopier we can borrow/have/swap for something we own, please email shittheatre@gmail.com)

Sh!t Subjects...

...Subjects as in subjects of the Queen. Cos it's Jubilee time. Sh!t Theatre are Republicans by the way. Republicans as in not wanting to be subjects of the Queen (not as in Rick Santorum).


We survived our preview at PULSE Fringe this week! Had a great time at the New Wolsey Studio which is a lovely venue and we highly recommend it, plus they have this dog that has a sore paw in a bandage, just walking around the place.
The piece was pretty messy and definitely a first draft, but we've had some really nice reviews and here they are (links take you to the full reviews):

Ip1 Magazine says 'a hugely entertaining show, whether you’re happily employed or living off Pop Tarts.'
http://www.ip1zine.com/showoff/media/6211/


The Public Reviews says 'sheer energy and charm'
http://www.thepublicreviews.com/pulse-fringe-festival-sht-theatres-jsa-new-wolsey-studio-ipswich/


WhatsOnStage.com says 'wonderfully politically incorrect and insightful...a cracking showcase for Mothersole and Biscuit's weighty talents'
http://www.whatsonstage.com/index.php?pg=207&story=E8831338383719&title=Pulse+2012.+The+first+full+week.+Day+one.&ref=D


Both Glen Pearce for www.thepublicreviews.com and Paul Couch for www.whatsonstage.com describe us as either 'gloriously' or 'wonderfully' political incorrect, which is something we need to think about if this is indeed how we come across. Despite being framed in this context as a compliment, we want to say that we try and make a point of discussing difficult issues without actually being politically incorrect or rude or whatevs. Our Burqa King piece, for example, is about censorship and the discussion of polemic issues, and we say during the piece that we believe in discussion/debate, women's rights, religious freedom and freedom of speech. Our Election Song is a satire of how the media evaluate politicians in the public eye; how their personal lives are discussed and analysed more than their policies. We do talk about dead babies, yes, but it's fact, not subjective judgement. Whether we should even mention facts like that, however, is up for debate and we encourage you to tell us your opinion. Leave comments here or on our Sh!t Chat on our website. But we say: Political correctness is a good thing guys! Yay, we love being nice to people! Sh!t Theatre R 4 PLTICL CRCTNESSS YAY.


In that vein: we're on tonight at the Funny Women Awards. Ha! Funny Women! Great joke guys, here come the menstruation stories. It's an infamous competition as it's pay(not much)-to-play but we'll see how it goes, and we're going to do Burqa King. That's at the Green Carnation, Soho, 7.30pm.


Tomorrow (Sat 2nd June) it's Sh!t Theatre as Pizza, Paul and Mary, the UK Peter, Paul and Mary Tribute act at 'Stars and Their Pies', Stoke Newington International Airport.  Come see Louise in a wig and me with a beard.

Sunday 3rd June we're back at the Wilmo with Problem Child for some long-form improv!


Hay On Wye and Isle Of Dogs

Still not much more info on this, but: see Sh!t Theatre in Wales in August at the Globe in Hay on Wye, and see a run of our JSA at The Space, Isle of Dogs in November!


To round off this special Jubilee post, here's a new pic of us by David & Helen at Press Play Films (put together by Louise):

Sh!t Theatre in Suffolk

Quick post to remind all Suffolk-bound that we are live at PULSE Fringe tomorrow night (Tuesday 29th May) with the first full-length preview of our JSA at 9pm at the New Wolsey Studio. The set arrived this afternoon so we've had literally tens of minutes to rehearse with it! Massive thanks to Zoom Print though, the eco-rollers look awesome and if you follow us on twitter you'll see a little photo of Real Louise with with Giant Eco-Roller Louise which is one of the nine we're using for the show.
We're also on http://www.icrfm.co.uk/ at 9am tomorrow (Tuesday 29th May) (2012) and due to Ofcom regulations we'll be trying not to say 'Shit Theatre', so listen up, we are sure it will fun or at least awkward, which will be funny for you.

Hay On Wye and the Isle Of Dogs
More info on the above coming soon!

Mierda!

Buenas dias amigos, y bienvenido a Teatro de Mierda. Como estas? Bien?


Bien.


So we have to unfortunately miss tonight's mini-preview at Motel de Nowhere due to scheduling 'problemas' with the Leverhulme Talks on Theatre and Adaptation. Those of you who wanted to see 30-40 mins of solid new(ish) shit can now see 30-40 mins of us serving you free booze in Mile End. If that doesn't appeal, head to Motel de Nowhere anyway and check out character comedian Fran Moulds, she's great and she's been on the radio and stuff.


One week to go until PULSE Festival, check out the awesome line-up here: http://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/3489/brochure/pulse-2012.html
we're on Tuesday 29th May at 9pm at the New Wolsey Studio, a bargain at £5 and we have definitely finished writing it and I don't know where you got the idea that we haven't. Fans of Ipswich Community Radio can hear us trying to plug 'Sh!t Theatre' without saying 'Sh!t Theatre' at 9am on Tuesday 29th.

Also next week you can see us at:
- Wilmops long-form improv (with our team Problem Child), The Wilmington Arms, Farringdon, Sunday May 27th


-Funny Women Awards at the Green Carnation, Soho,Friday 1st June (June!?!? Fuck!)

- Stars and Their Pies, Stoke Newington International Airport, Saturday 2nd June, where we will be appearing as a Peter Paul and Mary tribute act with a twist. (A pie-based twist).

May I?..

Hello world, happy Bank Holiday. Busy weeks for Sh!t Theatre just passed, Lou has been working as Amy Lame's Technical Manager for 'Unhappy Birthday' and I have been gigging a lot, including a new one-to-one bit about the mayoral elections for Live Art Speed Date at the Land of Kings Festival.

Despite overall being Very Busy Important Business People we managed to get down to The Camden Head this Saturday 5th May for Lolitics at The Camden Crawl Festival. We were quite late turning up so we did what was probably quite a sweaty 8 minutes and then had to run off again on our separate ways. I managed to catch Sir Ian Bowler MP before I had to leave and he was most excellent and next time I think I will probably vote Tory. This week we also confirmed dates with Bethnal Green Working Mens Club for the Summer, so put THURSDAY 5TH JULY and THURSDAY 26TH JULY in the diaries for performances of Sh!t Theatre present: Sh!t Theatre's JSA (Job Seekers Anonymous) + our club night 'office party for the unemployed'.

This week we're getting started on our Sh!t Theatre JSA workshops with AGLOW, the association of Greater London Older Women. Our preview of the show will be at PULSE Fringe Festival on May 29th in Ipswich.
 - On Friday 11th we are competing at the 'Funny Women Awards'  - queue oxymoron jokes - in Soho for the grand prize of a year's supply of Blue Nun & some make-up (seriously).

 - Sunday 13th we are back at the Wilmington Arms with Problem Child for some more of London's finest or at least most regular long-form improv.

- Monday 14th we return to Richard Strange's Cabaret Futura in Kensal Green. Hurray!

-Wednesday 16th we are previewing the mammoth with Phil O'Shea, probably at a completely inappropriate comedy venue. For more info on that, follow us on Twitter @shittheatre

Giggity

Gigs this week:
Sunday 22nd - Country & Western Trimprov with Matt, Louise and Becca, The Wilmington, Farringdon.

Tuesday 24th - long-form improv with Problem Child at 7 Dials Club, Covent Garden.

Friday 27th - Phil Zimmerman's No.5 Club, downstairs at the Drayton, Ealing.

Sunday 29th - long-form improv with Problem Child at The Wilmington Arms, Farringdon.

PLUS
 - I'm doing A Bearded Guide To Modern Seduction on Thursday 26th at Trangallan in Dalston and What I Know About Wine So Far at Stoke Newington International Airport on Saturday 28th.

 - Louise starts her run as Amy Lame's technical manager for Unhappy Birthday at the Camden People's Theatre with rehearsals this week.

Also 
 - Press Play Films finally get the keys to their studio today, and Sh!t Theatre + other members of AiR Supply will be there helping them to move in and to drink their celebratory champagne. Press Play House will be our workbase for Sh!t Theatre's JSA, so come up to Vyner Street and say hello, 'cos them Press Play kids are gonna hit the big time soon and then you'll all be sorry you never went through their bins when we offered you the chance.

 - We're meeting with Phil O'Shea on Tuesday morning after a successful mammoth-building business meeting on Sunday. The papier mache round the bananas is almost dry, and we're ready to start learning harmonies for our Sh!t O'Shea debut.

 - Training with Problem Child continues on Saturday afternoon led by gentlemen of the night Gareth Morinan and Simon Fazey

 - The font changed back to normal on our blog.

NO REST FOR THE WICKED!

Horses and Mammoths

I just won £4 on the Grand National! Go Sea Bass! I'm a millionaire! Anyway, this week with Sh!t Theatre:

• We previewed 15 mins of Sh!t Theatre's JSA (Job Seekers Anonymous) at Supper Club at the Basement, Brighton. All went a lot smoother than expected and we had a great time, and met a lot of other great artists so Supper Club joins Sh!t Theatre's (brand new) Recommended Nights Out On The South Coast list. Hope we'll be back in the future.
• Problem Child - not quite over the terror yet, but Sh!t Theatre are nonetheless live every Tuesday at 7 on Red Comedy at the Seven Dials Club in Covent Garden and every other Sunday at the Wilmington Arms. This week (today) (Sunday) (the 15th) at the Wilmington also features house team the Family Business and David Shore's Monkey Toast, and the 7 on Red line-up includes Tony Law and Diane Spencer.
• Also this week, Sh!t Theatre are live with new shit at Lolitics at the Black Heart on Wednesday 18th April. Warming up the crowd for us will be Josie Long,  Tiernan Douieb, Sarah Bennetto, Ben Partridge and Adam Larter.
• Thursday 19th April we're back at Laugh Out London, this time at the Camden Head.
• Sunday 22nd April Sh!t Theatre will be experimenting with some trimprov (three-way improv) live at the Wilmington with comedian and writer Matt Thomas. 
• Also going on this week, we're workshopping with Sophie Allen, our BSL interpreter extraordinaire, and doing business type things with Phil O'Shea. Business things related to woolly mammoths and potentially a Sh!t O'Shea preview night next week. Stay tuned kids.
• The font changed on our blog. Just trying to keep you on your toes.

Sh!t scared

Long-form Improv 

We have a name for our new Wilmops house team! Problem Child (previously known as Prohibition Duck) are debuting tonight, on an awesome line-up featuring The Family Business and headlined by Monkey Toast, the improvised talk show. Which is way funnier than it sounds. Because, like, surely most talk-shows are kinda improvised anyway, right? Like, by nature, all talk-shows are 'improvised talk-shows'. Does Parkinson read this blog? Am I right Parky? How about fictional tv star Larry Sanders? Am I right, Larry? Anyway, Monkey Toast is great. £4 on the door.

The Others
We would like to apologise to The Others, Stoke Newington, for our failure to turn up for our scheduled performance last night. We have Arts Council funding now so some gigs are just not worth our while. We hear Slick Theatre, the so-called 'UK No.1 Sh!t Theatre Tribute Band' made an appearance in our place, but we would like to state that we are in no way affiliated with Slick Theatre, do not endorse them, and in fact have not seen any actual proof of their existence.
Apologies again to Simon from The Others. Heard it was a smashing night.

Sh!t Springtime

Wow, isn't the weather just.

Now we've got the small talk out of the way, here's what's going on in shitville:

Sh!t Theatre have had a busy week workin' on Lois Weaver's Inaugural performance/lecture and a lecture by Peggy Phelan (of 'incomprehensible reference in our 2nd year essays' fame). Lou was on sound & lighting and I was on booze, as is correct and necessary. Lou also molested people with Stacy Makishi as part of Cruising for Art at the BFI.
This week we were also down at that dodgy bar with the tiger stripes on Whitechapel Road (you know the one) for our second training session with the rest of long-form improv team 'Prohibition Duck', a name which is subject to change. The team includes at least 2 lesbians, a jew and 2 different kinds of asian; so at the moment the other name options we are working with are 'Rainbow Dykes (feat. Jews)', 'Wrong Asian (feat. Jews)' and 'Feat. Jews'. Opinions please. Our first team show is this Sunday 1st April at the Wilmington Arms!


Sh!t Theatre will also be at The Others for their April Fools Party on Saturday 31st March, and at the Basement's Supper Club in Brighton on the following Saturday 7th April.

Sh!t News!

We got our terrifying envelope from the Arts Council today...and, great news, we got funding! We are Government funded artists! David Cameron's no.1 favourite performance art/ political satire/ cabaret crossover! This means we can soon start work on Sh!t Theatre's JSA (Job Seekers Anonymous), more info coming soon!

woo!

Making Sh!t Up On The Spot

It's almost Spring, hurray! Louise is back from performing and production assisting on Bobby Baker's tour of Mad Gyms & Kitchens, hurray! And Sh!t Theatre are back in the long-form game starting next week with brand new Wilmops house team Prohibition Duck! ('like' here: https://www.facebook.com/ProhibitionDuck on Facebook) Hurray! Our first live show is on Sunday 1st April at the Wilmington in Farringdon, and we'll be on every other week from then.



Our first, last and only long-form show up to this point was Streets of Rage led by the mighty Chris Chuang of Brooklyn NYC back when Booise were both 18. 18? 18??! Fuck. We're so old. Anyway we're so old and existence is futile, I woke up the other morning with these new wrinkles near my mouth, they're kind of gone now but they'll be back.


That's actually not what I meant to say. Anyway, we're pretty scared about this whole improv thing. People expect you to be funny unlike with performance art where you can fuck up as much as you want and at least half the audience will assume it's an 'exploration of failure'.


So, if you want to see Sh!t made up on stage on purpose and not because we forgot to finish the script, we're at:

• The Wilmington Arms, Farringdon - Sunday 1st April (then every other week after that)

If you want to see Sh!t made up on stage because we forgot to finish the script/ haven't been able to write  since Goole (remember Goole?: http://shittheatre.blogspot.com/2011/11/goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.html)
we're next at:

• Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Rich Mix, Bethnal Green, London - Saturday 17th March
• April Fools Party, The Others, Stoke Newington, London - Saturday 31st March
• Supper Club, The Basement, Brighton - Saturday 7th April

We're also hoping to be at Lampoon Apathy's ROFL Against Racism feat. Josie Long on Monday 19th March, but more news coming on that as soon as we've sorted out some date clashes. Those date clashes being: you can see me at Shortcuts @ Sprint Festival, Camden People's Theatre on 19th & 20th March and doing something new at Poetical Cabaret, White Lion Streatham on 24th March.

For old time's sake, here's Streets of Rage!

Streets of Rage long-form improv 2006

so young!

P.S R:E Prohibition Duck: We preferred the name 'Cunt Dusters', but Gareth wasn't into it.

Leap year?

Is it?

Let me just Google that.

It is! Happy Leap Year! So, to celebrate this definitely being a Leap Year, why don't you LEAP at the chance to see Sh!t Theatre (Yeah?? Geddit??!!) this weekend?
We're playing Sunday 27th (after some improv fun at the Wilmington Arms during the day) at Speech Motion at The Others in Stoke Newington , run by Edinburgh Poetry Slam Champ Catherine Brogan who we have gigged with at Mutiny and Poetical Cabaret before.


Monday night we're at Lolitics at The Black Heart, Camden, as run by the lovely Chris Coltrane and featuring  Will Hodgson, Danielle Ward and Andy Zaltzman. Last time we saw Andy Zaltzman was on the previous Leap Year at the Edinburgh Fringe. We went to Kitson's late night thing at the Strand at which Zaltzman was also playing. It ended around 4am and had by that point descended into an underground sack race. So maybe expect some more sacks this Monday. It is a Leap Year after all.


Louise is then off on tour again with Bobby Baker's 'Mad Gyms and Kitchens' around the ominously- named Black Country. (Not racist). We first saw Bobby do a thing with porridge about 5 years ago, and she remains one of our idols and the reason why we do what we do. So, hurray for Bobby Baker and Lou On Tour, and if you are unlucky enough to live in the Black Country (Not racist), I suggest you see this show: http://www.bobbybakersdailylife.com/news.html


Love from the White County. (Definitely racist).
 x

Sh!t at the Barbican

We're still on a little sh!t break at the moment but you probably miss us, so as a treat here is Duckie's video of Copyright Christmas at the Barbican. The film features the Corporate Responsibility Elf and the Christmas Recycling Turkey a.k.a Sh!t Theatre, in our recycling centre as written and devised by us, Tim Hopkins and Anais Lalange. Check us out at 7 minutes-ish in the video, showing off about our Evening Standard review. Lou does a little click-and-point, and I do a super cool wink-at-camera. Not embarrassing at all!

Notice

Due to unforeseen family circumstances, Sh!t Theatre may be unavailable for performances for the time, but feel free to message us about later dates and we'll get back to you. Don't skip on this Friday's No.5 Club at the Drayton just because our MC debut is postponed either!

FUTURE FUN:
We'll be at PULSE Festival 2012! http://www.pulsefringe.com/

Sh!t site

http://www.shittheatre.co.uk/

Check it out, we've got a real website! As designed by Louise to look better than the blog whilst retaining that authentic shitness. We're true to our roots. When we're rolling in it live art style, we'll still make minimum effort when it comes to marketing, our personal appearance and our material. We won't let fame and success go to our heads, oh no!

The website has some bio details, photos and a few old videos, a preview of Lou's Sh!t Theatre Comic and some of our many rave reviews. We'll get a calendar up there so you can check when our gigs are. This blog will remain the number 1 place for up-to-date sh!t news and general thoughts, life philosophies, pictures of puppies e.g.

St Bernard in the autumn.

As you may have gathered from the hasty post yesterday, we have a few gigs coming up in February and March including:

Sh!t Theatre MCing at the Drayton, Ealing: February 10th

Sh!t Theatre at Lolitics, Camden: February 27th

Sh!t Theatre at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas: March 17th

We're still working on our Grant application with Escalator East for our project Sh!t Theatre present: Sh!t Theatre's JSA (Job Seekers Anonymous), that's due on Monday and then the wait begins. The project will still go ahead albeit on a smaller scale even if we don't get some of yo' tax payer's money, so stay tuned for more information on that. 

Our work with Tim Hopkins on the Burger Van play meat puppet extravaganza is going well, and information on scratch/ work-in-progress readings of the script will be coming soon also.

Sh!t Theatre have also gone back to improv after many years of it begging for us to return. We're not in the shows but come along and support the Wilmop house teams at the Wilmington Arms in Farringdon this Sunday at 7pm!

Sh!t February

Here's some bits for upcoming gigs and shit:

 No 5 Club,  Friday February 10

An off-the-wall extravaganza of comedy, music and cabaret hosted by Sh!t Theatre, with Wilfredo, Phil Zimmerman, The Exploding Man and special guests. Tickets £8 in advance from www.wegottickets.com, or £10 on the door.

Downstairs at The Drayton Court, 2 The Avenue, Ealing W13 8PH. Doors 8.15pm/show 9pm.

Info : 07853 664 877. www.philzimmerman.co.uk

The Festival of Dangerous Ideas
Saturday 17th March. More information coming soon!


Also:

Check out the AiR Supply blog for more information on our February retreat and on Sh!t Theatre's involvement with Lois Weaver's Livelihood Lunches: www.supplair.blogspot.com

We are heading up to Cambridge for more Escalator East stuff today. Actually, now. It's ten to 4, we are leaving now, shit, we're going to be late. More soon!

Sh!t Theatre present: Sh!t Theatre's JSA (Job Seekers Anonymous)

Howdy folk, happy 2012. We realise your year must've got off to a pretty bad start, seeing as how there's been no blog update for like, three weeks, but relax! RELAX!!!! We're back.

Sh!t Theatre have been mega super busy getting plans sorted for our first ever Grants for the Arts application with Escalator East 2012 and our mentor Anthony from the wonderful Colchester Arts Centre. The project we are looking to fund is a development of our Sh!t Theatre's (genuine) Performance Democracy that you all know and love in your own unique ways (I'm looking at you, New 'horrified silence' Yorkers). Sh!t Theatre present: Sh!t Theatre's JSA (Job Seekers Anonymous) is set to be another audience inter-active politically subversive and personally heart-wrenching marathon of filth, only this time set in  a Job Centre and focussing on the political and personal issues surrounding (un)employment and communication between the individual and the institution of the Job Centre. We are really looking forward to putting some hard work into this piece, we're gonna move around the stage and everything, pretty amazing. We are also talking to Sophie Jallen http://www.sophiejallen.com/ BSL interpreter extraordinaire about getting her involved with some performative sign language SH!T. Our application is due in February, we really really hate filling out application forms, and this form is King of Awful, plus there's not a lot of money going around at the moment, so wish us luck.



Coming soon:
Sh!t Theatre the Official Website should be up and running in a matter of days;
Sh!t Theatre gigs in 2012 - more politics, more comedy, more sh!t;
AiR Supply - we're back in action...

Stay tuned for more info!