COME INSIDE - Portland Gets Naughty

Portland Theater luminary Mary MacDonald-Lewis adds a saucy soupcon of Victorian sexual rebellion to Portland's first-ever festival of sapiosexual storytelling and titillating theatricality. Her staged reading, The Age of Arousal, joins a heady line up of sex-positive performance ranging from genderqueer exploration to dungeon mistress confessions, all part of Come Inside: A Sex & Culture Theatre Festival curated by Dance Naked Productions.

Performances take place at The Star Theater (13 NW 6th Ave) and The Headwaters (55 NE Farragut St), opening September 28th, with 9 shows in 11 days, through October 8th.

4 show festival passes are available for $50 or VIP all access passes available for $100. Tickets to individual performances start at just $15 and can be found online at dancenakedproductions.com.

JUST ADDED!

Age of Arousal by Linda Griffiths
A staged reading directed by Mary MacDonald-Lewis
October 3 & 4 at 7:30 pm at Headwaters Theatre
Pay what you will

Genre-busting, rule-bending and ambitiously original, award-winning playwright Linda Griffiths' Age of Arousal is a lavish, sexy ensemble piece about the forbidden and gloriously liberated self. The setting is 1885: a time of great passion, great confusion. A population imbalance leaves London flooded with half a million more women than men and an escalating suffrage movement has ushered in a rip-roaring New Age. Mary Barfoot, an ex-militant suffragette, runs a school for secretaries with her beloved Rhoda. The school's invasion by three spinster sisters and a charismatic cad named Everard, creates a catalyst for political, sexual and emotional explosion. Ideas and libidos clash for dominance, as each character confronts the meaning of revolutionary courage.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

Listen in on phone sex with Phone Whore, sing along with Shirley Gnome in Real Mature (like an "angel dry-humping a cloud"), get curious about the gender journey in "Ze": queer as fuck. With 9 different shows to choose from, you might ?nd yourself torn between How I Learned to Hug* or Tales of a Sexual Tomboy. If you've ever tried to talk to a kid about sex, In Search of Cruise Control is a hilarious how-to. Come out for Eleanor O'Brien's self-help dominatrix in GGG: Dominatrix for Dummies, and/or explore Vaginal Consciousness with Kelly Nesbitt in Dr. Tallulah's Cosmic f-cks.

Dance Naked artistic director Eleanor O'Brien discovered these sex-themed gems while touring her solo shows on the Canadian Fringe Festival circuit.

"One of the best parts about touring fringe festivals in the sheer amount of theater I see every summer. Literally hundreds of shows. I've been touring since 2005. I've collecting some of my favorites to share with Portland - the shows that made me laugh, made me think, and illuminate some aspect of sexuality," she explains.

"I can't wait for Portland audiences to experience these performances. There's such a wide range of sexual expression and philosophy, plus, they're all fabulous storytellers. For 11 days this fall, Portland is going to be a sapiosexual destination!"

THE SHOWS

BAWDY STORYTELLING curated by Dixie DeLaTour
September 28th at 8 pm (doors at 7)
The Star Theater
Tickets: $25

The festival opens with a bang (or several) at the Star Theater on Wednesday, September 28th with Dixie DeLaTour's award winning sexy storytelling series. Bawdy features real people & rock stars sharing their sexual exploits live onstage. Conceived in San Francisco, Bawdy has been called "The Moth for pervs" (LA Times). Renowned from Seattle to LA, this is Bawdy's debut for Portland audiences, and will feature local storytellers and celebrities. Stick around for the opening night party after the show!

THE HEADWATERS SERIES

This series rotates performance dates and times over 9 days, September 29th through Oct 8th at the Headwaters (55 NE Farragut St). Check out the full festival schedule here.

"Ze": queer as fuck (Michelle/Ryan - New Zealand) An autobiographical comedy about sex, gender, and the expanding parade of labels and identities Michelle/Ryan claims on zir way to pride. "Ze" details multiple "coming outs" from one LGBTQI box to the next, in a celebration that exposes the tension between being authentic and belonging.

Real Mature (Shirley Gnome - Canada) You may be thinking it - but this shameless songstress sings it loud and proud with "the voice of an angel dry-humping a cloud." Award-winning, taboo, sexually empowering comedy that is NOT for the faint of heart.

Phone Whore: a one act play with frequent interruptions (Cameryn Moore - Montréal) Truth and taboo collide in this intimate visit with a phone sex operator. Sit back and buckle up. Best of the Fest - Houston, San Francisco and Victoria Fringe.

In Search Of Cruise Control (James Gangl - Toronto, ON) Long-time virgin turned sex-?end, James Gangl becomes the poster child for why we need good sexual education when he struggles to give his awkward teenage nephew the sex talk he never asked for and will never forget.

GGG: Dominatrix for Dummies (Eleanor O'Brien - Portland, OR) From the agony of junior high dances to the inner sanctum of a professional dungeon, enemas to ecstatic dance, GGG: D4D explores what it means to fall in love with yourself, and how everyone wants to be wanted.

How I Learned to Hug* (Jon Bennet- Australia) Creator of Pretending Things are a c*ckJon Bennett (Australia) brings you How I Learned to Hug, A story of adolescent love, adult love, adolescent sex, adult sex, masturbation, experimentation, loss, personal growth and hugs. **Best Comedy Award Nominee (Perth Fringe World, 2015) **Just for Laughs Award nomination for Best Comedy (Montreal Fringe, 2014)

Tales of A Sexual Tomboy (Joyful Raven - Oakland, CA) A raucous one-woman comedy about a horny tomboy, equipped with bad boundaries from her hippie upbringing, looking for empowerment in all the wrong places.

Cosmic f-cks (Kelly Nesbit - Portland, OR) A personal story of a spiritual awakening and cosmic sexology, a journey through time, from the womb, to mid-life revelation. Dr. Talulah has come to awakening global vaginal consciousness. Hilarious, poignant, and totally original.

SMUT SLAM (Cameryn Moore) A community open mic featuring real-life first-person sex stories. The theme is "FIRSTS"; if you have a sex life, you have LOTS of those! Cameryn promises you never-before-told snippets of smut from her own treasure trove, and get your anonymous questions and confessions ready!

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