Quite famously, Portland is the city with more strip clubs per capita than anywhere else in the nation. Portland is also home to a thriving and robust live theatre community, with dozens of companies performing year-round. Yet in recent memory, no live theatrical production in Portland has discussed the strip club industry in depth, or portrayed strippers in an honest and authentic way.

Our project seeks to remedy that.

From the Ruby Lounge is a collection of monologues and short scenes, each told by a different employee within the same fictional Portland strip club. This project was built from the ground up to serve as a feminist, empowering, body-positive work of original theatre that is also a respectful, authentic, sex-positive portrayal of the local strip club industry. Following a SOLD-OUT three-night workshop run in February 2018, we are developing a full three-weekend production to open August 23rd, 2019.

Our cast (in alphabetical order) is comprised of Bryn Butler, Taylor Jean Grady, Heidi Hunter, Kylie Rose, and Maya Seidel. Our show will be directed by Sarah Marie Andrews, who is also the Co-Founder and Producing Artistic Director of Crave Theatre Company. Our choreographer is Rachael Brown, also a teaching artist at Northwest Children's Theater and School. All of them are returning from the February workshop run. They will all have extensive input as we continue to develop the script.

Because the play is comprised of multiple self-contained scenes, we will explore a wide array of topics (such as mundane office drama, dating, drug abuse, sexual assault, etc.) from the perspective of different strippers. What's more, our play will feature a variety of characters, each one tailored to demonstrate the strengths and talents of our all-female cast. The variety of characters will further help to show the local strip club industry from different angles, and to show that strippers are unique and empowered women defined by more than their occupation. In this way, we seek to humanize strippers and sex workers while normalizing the work they do, and demonstrating the effects of stereotypes against them.

The script was painstakingly researched and extensively workshopped in preparation for our February workshop run. We will continue to develop the script -- working closely with an actual Portland stripper as our consultant -- so that our August production is as authentic, comprehensive, and compelling as possible.

The script was written with optional dance sequences in between each scene. As such, we will be constructing an operational dance pole inside the Shoebox Theater. The set will be constructed by Iain Chester, who previously built a functional second tier within the Shoebox Theater to accommodate audiences for Crave Theatre Company's Crossing. Additionally, the cast has been in pole dance training since July 2018 (under Athena Aura Nova, a local pole dance instructor and former stripper) so our actors can safely perform dazzling pole dance routines.

We are committed to creating an experience that is comfortable, safe, and empowering for all involved. We are also committed to staging benefit performances for SWOP Behind Bars, donating all proceeds to their efforts at decriminalizing and normalizing consensual sex work. The trade-off is that fair payments for our cast and crew -- plus measures put in place to ensure their safety -- increases our operating cost, while donated ticket sales decrease our revenue. Therefore, we need a crowdfunding campaign to supplement our budget.

We're asking for $3,500 to pay the following stipends.

-$500 for each of our five actors
-$500 for our director
-$500 for our choreographer

We're also asking for $3,825 to pay our rental fees for the Shoebox Theater, and $1,500 to pay for our rehearsal space at the Shout House. Please note that the Shoebox Theater and the Shout House are respectively owned by Theatre Vertigo and Hand2Mouth -- both venerable institutions of Portland theatre that will be directly supported through our rental fees and your donated money.

The total comes to $8,825. Every cent of that will be kept within the local economy, given to Portland artists making bold and original works of theatre. More directly, your donations will go toward a project that celebrates Portland and the local independent artists and entrepreneurs that make it such a great city. Our strip club industry is a central yet misunderstood part of our culture, one that doesn't get nearly the attention or respect that it's due. Our Portland theatre community is overflowing with beautiful, intelligent, outspoken, talented women without enough quality paying roles to split between them.

From the Ruby Lounge was built in the hope that we can start changing all that. We hope you'll join in and assist our efforts. Thank you.

--William Thomas Berk
Writer/Producer, From the Ruby Lounge