Placing an ad on Craigslist searching for spaces, he ultimately secured a few weeks in Build, a gallery space in the Mission where he ended up staging a new production of Edward II, this time under the guise of No Nude Men, a production company title he came up with after someone asked him if he would be acting naked in "Jack the Ripper", which was originally intended for the Theater Rhino. As he told "Invisible Ink", an arts show aired on the Bay Area's NPR radio station, "It seemed like, for a lot of people, theater in San Francisco meant nude men and explicit gay sex on stage. I just figured, I wanted to do something different, and frustrate that expectation, and maybe even help replace it with an expectation that a show be good, without gimmicks, nude men or otherwise." And so a new theater company came to pass.

Performed by nine barefoot actors, of which Stuart was one, Edward II played six performances in the small gallery space, often to fifty or more people crammed into the tiny room. The show was done without lights or sound affects, in the round, with all the cast dressed in modern, yet period suggestive clothes that were either black, white or a combination of the two. Props were kept at a minimum, fight choreography was short and brutal, sexual scenes equally as brief but intense. Remarkably, the show did well, recouping its investment, paying the actors and single crew-person, the remarkably organized Lindsey Cook, and receiving very favorable word of mouth. Thus encouraged, Stuart embarked on a series of progressively larger and higher profile projects, following up in November of 2003 with the premiere of his new play, Speak To Me at the Spanganga Gallery and Performance Venue.

Without meaning to, he also become more concerned with promoting his own work. For the next year Mr. Bousel exclusively produced work that was written by him. Speak To Me's success was followed by Troijka, a re-write of Jean Genet's The Balcony that featured all three of the above named actresses and garnered Stuart the most publicity (and highest attendance) of any of his shows done up to that point in the Bay Area. Opening Valentine's Day Weekend of 2004, and playing for three weeks, the show sold out (including standing room) most of its run and won much praise for its leads and staging. It was also the first Bay Area show produced by Stuart to have full production values, with sexy and eye-catching costumes made on the cheap by the remarkably talented Amy Seimetz, and lights by the equally accomplished Chris Rader. As bows to the past, Quicksilver regular Wylie Herman, now also a Bay Area resident, performed the role of Tony, the Envoy, and sound effects were shipped up from Los Angeles, where Lisa Fowle was busy establishing her independent sound production company, Dragonfly Sound. Dark, passionate and funny, Troijka made a splash that rippled waves for months to come and accidentally led to the venue for the next show, Love Egos Alternative Rock.

Based on a short story by Stuart's college friend, Melissa Klepetar, L.E.A.R. was a light comedy about the rise and fall of an all girl rock band struggling to make it in post-grunge America. Though hampered in the early stages by casting difficulties, and throughout the production by technical difficulties, in May of 2004 the show opened and played to sizeable crowds at the New Langton Center for the Arts, and was at the time the most elaborate production accomplished by No Nude Men. Featuring fairly impressive sets and lights designed and built by Jesse Baldwin (who also directed the show), the show also boasted a fourteen person cast, about sixty costumes (again, thrown together with remarkable speed and economy by Amy Seimetz, this time assisted by Suchandra Bullock), and a fabulous opening dance number choreographed by cast-member Margery Fairchild, fresh from the Portland performance art scene and making her Bay Area debut. The soundtrack for the play was pulled together from numerous Bay Area musicians and bands, including the Well-Wishers, Wynne Hanner, Cristina Cantinella, Echo Beach and Carrier.

2004 saw one more No Nude Men show, bringing to a close a year of firsts for Stuart Bousel -- namely three premieres and a whole solid year of concentrated self-promotion of his stage writing. Somehow it thus made perfect sense to go back to the beginning, and it was with a revival of The Exiled, staged at San Francisco's alternative art space, the Xenodrome, that he brought full circle the first phase of his career in the Bay Area, and No Nude Men's life as a company. Combining elements from many of his past shows, this Exiled was performed with full lighting (again the work of Jesse Baldwin) but no music, making it the first version of The Exiled to lack a soundtrack. The cast was barefoot, with painted toenails, props and furnishings were limited to whatever they could find in the space or around their homes, giving the whole play an extremely informal atmosphere. The cast mingled in with the audience as they entered, worked neighborhood noise into the production on nights when it interfered, and basically conducted the show as one big dinner party where you tell relative strangers your life story. Though it received little attention from the press, the show did well attendance wise, profited and ensured that No Nude Men would always have a home in San Francisco.

2005 saw a number of new beginnings for No Nude Men, starting with "The Book of Genesis: Remixed and Remastered", which killed two birds with one stone by being the first No Nude Men production of an original play not by Stuart Bousel, as well as the first to feature an all female cast. Produced for the Second Annual San Francisco Theater Festival (another first for the company), the script was adapted from the Bible by Nirmala Nataraj, who had made her acting debut back in No Nude Men's premiere production, Edward II. Featuring company regular Gina Seghi as the Devil and local actress Meghan Kane as God, the play used a theological conversation between the two entities as a framework in which to depict the events of the Book of Genesis, which were acted out by a chorus of six actresses playing as many as nine roles each. San Francisco burlesque diva Lori Costigan rounded out the company as the prophet Ezekiel, valiantly trying to warn the chosen people of Israel about the repercussions of their actions but ultimately to no avail. Hysterically funny and very well received, the show attracted a huge crowd and garnered many a nod in festival recaps, including much praise for Nirmala's fast-paced, sassy and sharply intelligent script.

Another No Nude Men first arrived on August 18th, with the opening of a whole new production of Speak To Me featuring a new cast, restored material, stunning new lighting design by Chris Rader, fantastic furniture (provided in large part by Jason Wong), and many new directorial choices aimed at creating an entirely different show. Marking the company's first time "revisiting" a former production, the play was also the first full run production at the newly re-opened Off-Market Theater, Stage 205, now under the resident directorship of Custom Made Theater Company. Lauded and applauded, the show was carried by an excellent cast that included Joshua Lenn and Felicia Benefield in the principal roles, and managed to hold its own both in the press and at the box office despite Labor Day weekend and several major productions opening in the Bay Area at the time. The smooth, seemless staging and innovative use of lights in a fairly small and awkward space also received a great deal of positive attention. Though the show might best be remember by the company for its somewhat rocky journey to opening night, it was over all a success and continued to establish No Nude Men's tradition of simple but powerful and thought provoking theater.

2005 saw a third production, this time of the Racine classic, Phaedra, at the Climate Theater. Directed by Stuart Bousel, the show stuck as close as possible to the original text while moving the action into the 19th century, resetting the play on an isolated island somewhere in the British Channel. With a uniformly strong cast headed by Gina Seghi and Michaela Greeley, as Phaedra and Oenone, respectively, and excellent production design by Angelina Schwark (costumes), Bekah McNeil (lighting) and John Sanders (scenery), the show received much praise for its innovative use of the Climate Theater's intimate environment- placing the audience seating on either side of the performance space and incorporating the outside noise to help establish a world of secrets and repression barely sheltered within a cocoon of hanging curtains, mirrors and candlelight. Using no sound effects but a wind-up music box and cast generated footsteps, while limiting the electric lighting to the bare minimum required to supplement hanging lanterns and candelabras, the evening provided an utterly atmospheric setting for the intense and passionate performances of the cast, including Lee Marcotte making his stage debut as Hippolytus. Word of mouth on the show was incredibly positive and, despite opening against not only the busiest time of the San Francisco theater scene, but two other productions of Phaedra occurring in the Bay Area (neither written by Racine), the show still managed to completely sell out five of its nine performances, making No Nude Men's first full-on period piece (not to mention, verse-drama) an unqualified success.

Spring of 2006 proved to be an equally ground-breaking period for the company, starting off with No Nude Men's first foray into Shakespeare: Love's Labors Lost. Re-set in modern times, with a focus shift to center on the relationship between Ferdinand and Princess (excellently played by company newcomer John Russell and veteran Kendra Arimoto) and spliced with energetic dance numbers used to fill in gaps in the story and introduce new plot lines, the show played to packed houses night after night during its epic five week run at the Exit Theater- another first for the troupe and director Stuart Bousel. Garnering extensive critical praise, including some kind words from the Guardian and SF Station, the show's highlights included another beautiful lighting scheme from Bekah McNeil as well as some dazzling purple and gold scenery and hip, sexy costumes designed by Alexis Boozer and Jessica Kuper, respectively, making the show the most lavishly produced piece in No Nude Men's three year history. While the entire cast was generally lauded, particular laurels were handed out to Chris Carlone as a strapping and silly Armado, Cassie Powell as a witty and elegant Rosaline, and Gina Seghi and newcomer Lisa Rowland as a pair of cynical, wise-cracking bartenders named Moth and Nat. The show also marked the largest reunion yet of the original No Nude Men cast, with Ryan Hayes giving his finest performance to date as Biron, Chris Kelly hamming it up as Boyet, and Stacy Malia and Warden Lawlor providing much comic relief as Maria and Costard. Innovative in its approach to the text while still preserving the original language and themes of the play, Love's Labors Lost pleased and surprised on a variety of levels but will probably best be remembered for its colors and vibrancy, high production values and energetic performances, and above all else, the absolutely stunning choreography by cast members Margery Fairchild and Alexis Perry. Truly a collaborative show on every end, it was as much of a coming of age story for the people behind the production as it was for the characters in the play.

Summer of 2006 proved to be a productive time beginning with Bekah McNeil’s production of Sartre’s No Exit, using an all-female cast headed by Kendra Arimoto and Alexis Boozer. Once again using the intimate setting of the Climate Theater and staged in the round, the show approached the classic play from a transgendered perspective, creating a new relevancy to the issues of gender and sin at the center of the story. The show was also the first example of a guest production independently put together by the cast and crew but opened under the No Nude Men banner, the next being the one-act play collection, Pretty. Funny. Women. Co-produced with KellyMarie Productions (long-time company members Stacy Malia and Chris Kelly) the one weekend only engagement was a series of women-centric short theater and performance pieces emceed by Chris Kelly’s altar ego, Pretty, and included a remounting of Nirmala Nataraj’s The Book of Genesis: Remixed and Remastered. The show sold out all three of its performances, including standing room and ran in tandem with a gallery exhibition in the lobby of the theater. It was followed in July but yet another production at the Climate, this time a revival of Stuart Bousel’s Troijka, newly directed by John Dixon, No Nude Men’s first guest director. Garnering excellent praise for everything from Michaela Greeley’s commanding performance (she, along with Chris Kelly and Lisa Swanson returned from the original cast) to Chris Rader’s lights and Jessica Kuper’s costumes, the show still managed to attract good houses despite a record heat wave in San Francisco. Dixon’s innovative direction re-created the show with a whole new angle and continued the company’s tradition of trying new things, even when doing a revival.

Mid-summer, No Nude Men returned to the San Francisco Theater Festival for another show stealing year, this time with a thirty minute version of Victor Hugo’s classic novel, Les Miserables, aptly retitled Less Miserable: A Hot French Epic. Presaged by a half-page picture in that Sunday’s Datebook in the Chronicle depicting the cast of last year’s Book of Genesis, Less Miserable proved to be one of the best attended and received pieces at the festival that year. Featuring No Nude Men regulars and a handful of new folks, the show was collaboratively directed by the cast, most of whom also played a multitude of roles, and everything was staged with only two chairs, which doubled as the barricade (rechristened “the charricade”) for the second half of the play. The show also marked Stuart Bousel’s first time on the stage in 2006, playing the role of Javert opposite Carl Lucania as Valjean and Alexis Boozer as both Fantine and Cosette.

No Nude Men ended the 2006 season with their most experimental production to date, a two-hour, intermission-less re-envisioning of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, produced as the group’s final show at the Climate Theater. Using only the original text but re-cutting the story in a new direction, the play’s central conceit became a story of a troubled young woman (played to perfection by Kendra Arimoto) struggling to cope with the death of her mother (played in terrifying drag by Chris Kelly) and the marriage of her well-meaning but ineffectual father (played with deep sadness by Ryan Hayes) to her manipulative and murderous aunt (Gina Seghi in her best performance since Phaedra a year earlier). Without changing any of the pronouns, all the roles traditionally played by men were played by women and vice-versa, the only exception being James Tinsley as Guildenstern, opposite Alexis Boozer as Rosencrantz, the characters re-tooled as a cute but short-sighted couple lost in the despair pit of Elsinore. Stylishly costumed all in black and gray by Jess Kuper with shadowy, atmospheric lighting by Chris Rader, the spooky little show was staged in the round to audiences who found it both chilling and moving and, due largely to the gender swap, were forced to re-examine the masterpiece of Western Drama as a personal story about loss, abuse, isolation and a plethora of other elements found and embodied by the uniformly excellent and committed cast.

2007 started off with a number of smaller projects (all staged at the Exit on Taylor) that kept the majority of the No Nude Men folks (and then some) busier than they’d been in a long time. On Friday the Thirteenth in April, Meghan Kane and Stuart Bousel produced an evening of short plays, done as readings and featuring the work of a number of Bay Area Playwrights, including Andy Black, Bekah McNeil, John Robinson, Mike Ricca and David Duman. The cast was a virtual who’s who of No Nude Men regulars including Felicia Benefield, Chris Carlone, Ryan Hayes, Chris Kelly, Stacy Malia, Cassie Powell, Lisa Rowland and James Tinsley as well as several folks appearing for the first or second time on the No Nude Men stage, and special guest stars Randy Taradash, David Rice and John Dixon, who lent their local celebrity status for the evening to perform Tom Swift’s play about three men putting on the “Turkey Lurkey” number from Neil Simon’s Promises, Promises. The following night was the first official No Nude Men fund raiser, which featured everything from Scott Alexander Ayres doing twenty minutes of lounge singing to Lauri Costigan performing burlesque and Chris Carlone, Alexis Perry and Margery Fairchild bringing in their cult phenomena performance band, Borts Minorts, to finish off the evening. Two weeks later the company returned to the Exit on Taylor with their spring show, an evening of fairy-tale themed one-acts collectively titled Cerberus Barking. Featuring a cast of eight, including company newcomers Claire Rice, Kevin Tierney and Janna Sobel, the show moved from Alison Luterman’s dark parable, Oasis, through Hilde Susan Jaegntes’s absurdist comedy Spoon Justice and ending with Stuart Bousel’s bittersweet fable, Polyxena In Orbit. With Stuart directing his own piece and Alison’s, Wylie stepping in to direct Hilde’s, and James Tinsley helming technical direction for the whole evening, the show was staged in a whirlwind rehearsal period and built around the premise that everything had to fit back into a chest that, along with some purple curtains, silver stars and two chairs, provided the only scenery. A throwback to the older, simpler days of No Nude Men, the show turned out a charming little success and marked the end of the first half of a busy year. 

The summer saw another contribution to the San Francisco Theater Festival, this time a more fully realized staging of David Duman’s Five Short Episodes in the Life of Sacagawea, an expanded version of his play which had been included in No Nude Men’s night of readings. Directed by Stacy Malia with a huge cast featuring long-time company members Chris Kelly and Margery Fairchild, as well as the return of Sara Razavi in the title role, the show capped this year’s mainstage presentations and pulled in one of the largest audiences of the day, continuing No Nude Men’s tradition of making a bold impression at the festival and garnering some excellent press along the way. The follow up production, a quiet and understated workshop of Stuart Bousel’s play Mathew 33:06 at the Exit Theater, finished off the year on a thoughtful note. Starkly staged with beautiful, moody lighting by James Tinsley, the play was praised for both its excellent cast (including New York transplant Ryan Hebert making his San Francisco acting debut in the title role) and powerful writing. Simultaneously a social/political exploration and a personal piece about loss, the show made an appropriate swan song for a long year of growing and learning by a stalwart band of artists who never expected to last as long as they did.