Rendering a form element without drupal_get_form? I'm trying to render a simple form element without the accompanying  tags and other drupal goodness (validation, etc). Is it possible to render a form element using form api methodology but without running it through drupal_get_form?
You can embed a for in a template file for instance with drupal_render_form() in D6 or drupal_render_children() in D7. See this community issue.

You will still have to get the FAPI array somehow, you usually still use drupal_get_form() for getting the $form array.