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What if the best sex of your life was yet to come?

That’s the question at the center of
Igniting Desire:
Erotic Stories
from the Second Half of Lif
e


a new production from Dance Naked Creative premiering at Portland’s Fertile Ground Festival .

Ten women, ages 50 to 80+, take the stage to perform original erotic stories that are funny, feminist, unapologetically explicit, and long overdue.
 

Culture has a story it likes to tell about women and desire after 50: that the flame dims, the body betrays, and the best years are behind you. Igniting Desire calls bullshit. This ensemble of writers and performers brings audiences into the messy, surprising, hilarious, and deeply human territory of how desire evolves across a lifetime. How it shapeshifts through menopause, divorce, grief, new love, solitude, and the hard-won freedom of not giving a damn what anyone thinks.

The flame flickers. It wanders. Sometimes it nearly goes out. But the spectrum of desire keeps widening, if we let it.
 

Expect to laugh. Expect to blush. Expect to leave aroused, inspired, and full of joyful possibility.

Igniting Desire
Show Order

 

After The Party Mirror

Written by Rusty Alexandra Ferrel

Performed by The Ensemble

 

Selective Heat  

Written by Rusty Alexandra Ferrel

Performed by Leah Baer

 

Belonging 

Written by Tanya Awabdy 

Performed by Tanya Awabdy 

 

Ease Your Pain 

Written by Blacque Butterfly 

Performed by Blacque Butterfly (back-up vocals by Laicy Wester)

 

How To Seduce a Goddess

Written by Laicy Wester

Performed by Laicy Wester

 

How It Feels To Be Seen

Written by Tanja Diamond

Performed by Michael Halsne

 

Budapest 

Written by Lindy Sisson

Performed by Leslie Becknell Marx 

 

Moist 

Written by Eleanor O’Brien

Performed by Katie Strong 

 

Resurrection

Written by Liz Dake

Performed by Liz Dake

 

Fresh

Written by Eleanor O’Brien

Performed by Eleanor O’Brien

 

On Our Own Terms

Written by by Christine McHugh (the Widow)
and Lyra Wynn (the Tantrika)

Performed by Jen Lee (widow) & Blacque Butterfly (tantrika)

 

After The Party Reprise 

Written by Rusty Alexandra Ferrel

Performed by The Ensemble 

Co-created by
Eleanor O’Brien
and Christine McHugh

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Eleanor O’Brien
Producer / Performer

Dance Naked Creative

Eleanor has been making sex-positive theater as the artistic director of Dance Naked Creative for the past 20 years.  She is the brainchild behind Igniting Desire (and it’s precedents Inviting Desire) and the solo shows Plan V:The Rise of Reverence, How to Really, Really? Really! Love a Woman, Lust & Marriage and GGG:Dominatrix for Dummies.  The only reason she is able to continue to make theater is because of nearly 200 souls who support her mission via PATREON (join now for erotica writing workshops, ticket discounts and a lot of inappropriate TMI

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Christine McHugh
Director / Intimacy Coordinator

Find Your Light Coaching

Christine McHugh is a theater and film director, story midwife, and enthusiastic champion of bold human expression. Over her directing career she has helmed more than 60 productions, from regional theaters to colleges to middle schools (where dramatic stakes are, frankly, just as high). She has developed and directed two dozen original solo shows across the country, including multiple premieres at the United Solo Festival in NYC. On the film side, she co-wrote and directed the short comedy On the Nature of Hotness, which won Best Short Comedy at the 2013 New York City International Film Festival, and directed the music video "Older Ladies," which racked up over 80 million views online. Christine currently works as an intimacy coordinator for film and television, and recently traded the high desert skies of Santa Fe for the mossy magic of Portland, Oregon.

Igniting Desire Cast

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Liz Dake

I've been a professional vocalist and voice coach for the past 30 years. This production combines my love of performing with my love of eroticism. As an erotic body worker, sound healer, vocalist, and conscious kink guide, I am a catalyst to help liberate you into your fullest erotic expression. As your guide, I assist in releasing old patterns so that awe, pleasure and self love can blossom. Cultivating curiosity and playfulness opens us up to surprising moments of pure freedom. Combining erotic, spiritual, and playful energies, I invite clients to explore patterns in their body and voice that may have been silenced or suppressed. Through private sessions, community rituals, and workshops, I draw you into joyful aliveness and reclaiming your beautiful, sensual Power. 

 

To connect with Liz
Sensual Sound Healing, Tuesday April 28 with Sex Positive Portland (membership required): https://www.sexpositiveportland.org/join
Oregon Tantra Festival presenter, June 5-10: https://www.karuna-retreats.com/oregon-tantra-festival/
For private sound healing sessions: www.soundtransforms.org
For private erotic bodywork and/or conscious kink sessions: https://sacrederos.com/listing/conscious-kinkster/

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Leah Baer

Leah is an 81-year-old writer, poet, actor, painter, storyteller, and lover of life. She believes in Jouissance

(a French word that means play,pleasure, joy and orgasm) and her motto is; “In my old age–where Thanatos and Eros dance–is my beginning.” Her writing has appeared in Voice Catcher, Gleam: Journal  of the Cadralor, Women’s ENews, Unchaste Reader’s Anthology, and Mountain Bluebird Magazine. She has done readings and acting and podcasts in Badass Silver Streak, Booklovers Burlesque, the Performing the Stories series, and ROAR: Fierce Female Storytellers. Leah is currently writing the last chapters of her novel: “The Shimmer of Other Lives.”

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Michael Halsne

Michael is a first-time stage performer who has spent years giving voice to stories in other ways, through audiobook narration, digital painting, and handcrafted jewelry. As the artist and maker behind SerenTheory Studio, they create work that lives at the intersection of the dark and the tender: queer figures, strange bodies, and the emotions that resist being named. When they're not painting or making jewelry, they're now stepping into erotic theater and honestly, it feels like a natural next step. Find their art and jewelry at serentheorystudio.com

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Laicy Wester

Laicy is the only Portland area astrologer with an explicit focus on sex, intimacy, and relationships. She is a published author. You can find her book here - Moon Touch: An Astrological guide to physical, and Intuitive affection. She hosts her “moon touch” workshops where she teaches lovers how to use the moon in astrology to improve sex and intimacy in relationships. She is co- host of Sanctuary club’s “ Broadcast” - a monthly live gathering for the broad spectrum of women, fem-identifying, genderqueer, and gender expansive folks who find a home in women’s spaces and who are living and exploring lifestyle, swinging, polyamory, consensual non-monogamy, and other sex positive non-vanilla ways of being in the world. She is host of the NSFW podcast “Astromantics” where she asks her guests explicit, juicy questions about their sex life using their astrological birth charts. You can find her youtube channel here: Laicy Leeann - YouTube. Follow her on instagram  LaicyWester-intimate.astrology (@moontouch.pdx) • Instagram photos and videos

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Jen Lee

JEN LEE came to Portland from a 13 year career teaching, acting, and directing in Fairfield, Iowa, where she founded the Performing Arts Conservatory, a school for Theatre Arts training; she was the Artistic Director of the children's acting ensemble, where she taught acting classes and directed productions for children ages 8-18; and she served as an acting coach for students for college auditions and Performing Arts competitions. To more fully prepare for this career, Jennie took university courses, studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse in NYC in 1993, and spent the summer of 1998 in NYC once again completing a Meisner Teacher-Training course at the Neighborhood Playhouse.

She was also a local actress who appeared in many community productions: The Dining Room, Alice in Wonderland, The Ghost Train, A Christmas Carol, Dreams of a Summer Night, The Sound of Music, Crimes of the Heart, The Rapier & the Rose, Ravenscroft, Broads off-Broadway, Agnes of God, The Miracle Worker, & The Other Cinderella. She has directed 31 plays and musicals for children and adults.

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Leslie Becknell

Leslie is an improvisational actor and conductor (think emcee) with Playback Theater PDX, writer, storyteller, coach and facilitator. She happily explores queer sensuality, dance, and forms of improv theater in the rich sea of possibility that is Portland. She facilitates workshops, retreats, and personal growth through Conversation That Matters.

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Tanya Awabdy

Tanya is a queer poet and storyteller who started out as a molecular biologist. Almost thirty years ago she started a company, BioStudio, which creates visual presentations to explain life science to lay audiences. More recently, she was astonished to discover a creative writer hiding underneath her over-developed left brain. She’s been writing and performing poetry and personal stories ever since, as if it’s the only thing she’s meant to do. She’s presented stories at a variety of events, including Moth, BACKFENCE Storytelling, and The Mantis, with more to come. She’s excited to explore where the blend of poetry, storytelling, and performance takes her next. Who knows?! Find out on Instagram, @nevertoolatepoet.

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Blacque Butterfly

Blacque Butterfly is a dynamic force in Portland, Oregon’s cultural and creative scene. She blends spoken word poetry, music, visual art and theater to create powerful expressions of identity, social justice, and personal empowerment. Her poetry is celebrated for its poignant reflections on race, gender, and the resilience of Black communities, often drawing from her own experiences and heritage. Combining the rhythmic depth of spoken word with elements of hip-hop, jazz, and soul, her performances are electrifying and transformative. She has graced stages at notable venues across Portland and beyond. Through all her artistic endeavors, she continues to challenge audiences to reflect on the complexities of human experience. She leads workshops, mentors emerging artists, and believes in the healing power of creativity. Her visual artwork, much like her spoken word, reflects themes of self-love, unity, and liberation, employing bold colors and striking imagery to tell stories of struggle and triumph. Connect On Instagram  https://www.instagram

Support

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Nate Jensen

Stage manager/ Graphic designer

Nate is a muralist, and children’s book illustrator, an AI coach, an oil painter and now, a stage manager,  His first stage management gig was going on tour with Eleanor across Canada with her solo show Plan V. While he did not know that falling in love with Eleanor would mean becoming her roadie, he has made peace with his new destiny.  Find him at natepjensen.com/  

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Evan Silverman

SUPPORT
SEX-POSITIVE THEATRE IN PORTLAND

About Dance Naked Creative: Founded by Eleanor O’Brien, Dance Naked Creative has spent over 20 years producing sex-positive theater in Portland and around the globe. Past productions include the Inviting Desire series, Lust & Marriage, How to Really, Really? Really! Love a Woman, the biennial festival Come Inside, and the touring solo show Plan V: The Rise of Reverence. A participant in Portland’s Fertile Ground Festival since its inaugural year in 2009, the company makes work that is funny, feminist, and (in its own words) hot af.

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