The Mystery Box Show, Portland’s Longest-Running Live Storytelling Event, Is Coming to an End

For 10 years, the production brought sex-positivity to the stage—nothing was too vanilla or too kinky.

The Mystery Box Show The Mystery Box Show producers Eric Scheur and Reba Sparrow. Photo courtesy of The Mystery Box Show.
By Andi Prewitt

After bringing sex positivity to the stage for 10 years, The Mystery Box Show—Portland’s longest-running live storytelling event—will take its final bow next month.

Producers Reba Sparrow and Eric Scheur have decided it’s time to wrap up their production, which was launched in April 2012 at the now-shuttered Brody Theater on Northwest Broadway. But before the curtain falls, there will be one last show on Saturday, April 30, along with an after-party at Alberta Rose Theatre.

The Mystery Box Show was founded as an outlet for ordinary people to get onstage and share their real sexual experiences in front of a live audience. Sparrow and Scheur worked closely with storytellers as coaches to help them develop their monologues, which could originate from something as simple as a two-sentence email pitch. Topics could range from mind-opening threesomes to self-discovery through sex toys. Nothing was too vanilla or too kinky for Mystery Box—the ultimate goal was to help shed the stigma surrounding sex and start a genuine dialogue.

When the pandemic halted all in-person performances in 2020, Sparrow and Scheur got creative and quickly moved their show online. The two even spun off a video series called Confession Corner, which took its inspiration from the audience’s sexual confessions, and later started a new show that features discussions about sex and sexuality titled Sex*People.

The farewell show’s lineup of speakers includes sex educator Javay da BAE (aka the Millennial Sexpert), author Allison Moon (Girl Sex 101, Getting It), newcomer Brian Russell. It will also be the last time attendees can hop onstage and describe their own sexual adventures—anonymously, if you so choose.

Doors open at 6 pm April 30, and the storytelling begins at 7 pm. Following the show, the audience is invited to join the producers and panelists at an exclusive after-party, limited to 30 guests. Tickets are available on The Mystery Box Show website.

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