The shows group has decided to start hosting three monthly events on the first three Wednesdays of every month starting in January of 2008. Film Night, No Shame Theater, and the Listening Party. All events are all ages, held at the U-C IMC, are no cover (donation requested), and allow people to bring food and drink to share. Below are the three events and their descriptions:

Film Night - 1st Wednesday of every month, 7PM-10PM
Tired of only watching what the herd thinks is best? Every 1st Wednesday of the month from 7PM to 10PM your local Independent Media Center will help you break from the herd and host amateur, semi-pro and professional short and feature length independent films with a some sort of cultural, political, activist, and social message.

The event is free and open to all ages. We ask that you give a donation when we pass the hat/jar/cup/whatever around each night, bring an open mind, suggest films for future showings, and if you are bringing children know they may get some exposure. Drinks and food may or may not be present depending on if we (that includes you) bring any.

Be sure and come on out to the U-C IMC located at 202 S. Broadway, Urbana, IL 61801 (the old downtown Post Office) to this monthly event. Be prepared to socialize and network with people with a passion for art, film, and our local community.

No Shame Theater - 2nd Wednesday of every month, 7PM-10PM
If you ever sat in an audience and said, "I could do that," here’s your chance. No Shame Theater is a quirky late-night all ages venue for short original performance pieces opened for public view and participation at your local Independent Media Center located at 202 S. Broadway Ave., Urbana, IL 61801 (the old downtown Post Office).

The format is simple: create a performance piece in any style (play, monologue, poem, dance, music, mime, puppetry—anything!) Pieces cannot be longer than five minutes. Rehearse it to your satisfaction—or pull actors from those at hand the night of the performance and have them read it cold—it's up to you! Just get there early enough to claim an available slot in the lineup and take your place in the spotlight. Be sure to bring enough printed scripts for your actors and an extra one for the stage manager with your light cues and contact information. There is always a mix of talents—some new to the stage and others you may have known for years.

You never know what will be available, so pieces should be self-contained (i.e, bring your own props). Performers won't have much more idea what to expect than the audience.

And there are some rules. You can't break any laws, you can't break the stage, you can't break the audience, and you can't break yourself. Oh, and no open flame!

No Shame is intended to be a low-risk performance environment where writers and performers can explore any aspect of performing they choose and not have fear of failure be the first obstacle they face in attempting success. It's short and it's fast, so if your piece doesn’t exactly fly, no one will be pointing at the wreckage long. Likewise, if you don’t like something, chances are at least one of the pieces will tickle your fancy. On any given evening, you might hear a poem about stealing eyeballs in the rain, see a dance piece about global warming, watch a puppet show about violence in the schools, or witness a moving drama illustrating some important fundamental truth—to be followed by a delightful ditty on a hand saw.

Seating is limited and all participants, including the audience, are asked to donate when we pass the hat/jar/cup/whatever around each night, bring an open mind, and if you are bringing children know they may get some exposure. Drinks and food may or may not be present depending on if we (that includes you) bring any. Be prepared to socialize and network with people with a passion for performing arts, culture, and our local community. It’s your stage: you make it what you want it to be.

Listening Party - 3rd Wednesday of every month, 7PM-10PM
Tired of only listening to what the herd thinks is best? Every 3rd Wednesday of the month from 7PM to 10PM your local Independent Media Center located at 202 S. Broadway Ave., Urbana, IL 61801 (the old downtown Post Office) will help you break from the herd and invites you to bring a specially burned CD or custom iPod mix (carefully chosen beforehand) and either something outstanding to drink or something rather delicious to eat. We will provide the outstanding audiophile-grade speakers that, when played at high volume, will shake the walls and rattle the windows and peel back your skin without getting all distorted and annoying, loud enough that the sound they produce will easily prevent all discussion until the given song has ended and everyone can breathe again and grab another drink and say, Wow, what the hell was that? (This someone, obviously, also has very understanding neighbors.)

It is called a listening party. It is a loosely directed but passionately devised gathering held purely for the love and discovery of music. New music. Old music. Loud music. It is about quality. It is about range. It is, perhaps more than anything else, about surprise. In other words, you do not bring some common hit song to the listening party, some standard tune that everyone's heard a million times by an artist that makes most people wince. In other words, you bring something interesting, unexpected. It can be a mainstream band, but the song should be sonically fascinating, well recorded, and somehow unique.

The event moves in rounds. Everyone gets to play a single track in each round. The fun part: You do not announce your song. You do not let it be known whose tune is coming up next. You let the music speak for itself. You let the surprise happen. You get to test your musical knowledge, also how well you know the other participants ("Dude, I knew that Nina Simone techno remix was yours"). This is part of the adventure. After each full round, a short break for more pizza, drink refills, smoking, chat. Rounds progress. Themes emerge. Moods shift and ebb and flow. Amazing synchronicities and juxtapositions occur. You discover songs, new bands, maybe entire genres you never knew existed. Your tastes expand, your musical horizons broaden. This is much of the point. It's chaos theory with a soundtrack.

The event is free and open to all ages. We ask that you give a donation when we pass the hat/jar/cup/whatever around each night, bring an open mind, bring music, and if you are bringing children know they may get some exposure. Drinks and food may or may not be present depending on if we (that includes you) bring any. Be prepared to socialize and network with people with a passion for music, art, culture, and our local community.