Misfit Academy

Help repair and rehome legendary underground performance and rehearsal venue The Steep and Thorny Way to Heaven!

The Steep and Thorny Way to Heaven is a performance and rehearsal venue home to not just our own work and Speculative Drama but also a wide variety of alternative and underground performance art in Portland. We have been the safe haven for over 400 performances of circus, new vaudeville, clown, music, and experimental performing arts. We are home to the interdisciplinary work of the incomparable Myrrh Larsen and their Song Sagas as well as the internationally renowned Night Carnival series.

Some of you may know that on Monday morning the 15th of January during the ice storm, due to extreme weather here in Portland a sprinkler pipe burst in The Steep and Thorny Way to Heaven - the rehearsal and performance space that houses our in-house productions and which the immersive theatre company Speculative Drama calls home.

This dumped a half a block's worth of sprinkler system directly into our 1000sqft uninsulated warehouse space, at pressure. Our entire venue and rehearsal space was flooded from the top down, causing what our neighbor called a "waterfall to suddenly come pouring off your roof" due to pressurized water spraying out of the literal wall joints.

On Monday January 15th, our building manager spent 2 hours shop vacuuming water and our co Creative Directors spent 5 hours in sub freezing temperatures shop vacuuming and trying to get as much equipment as might be possibly salvaged off the remaining inch of freezing water on the floor. When they left to coordinate with the professionals there was still 2" of frozen water under our stage.

Equipment and our stage and bar sat in frozen water for almost a week while the venue was inaccessible to drying equipment due to the ice storm.

The Steep and Thorny Way to Heaven was built by Myrrh Larsen and Megan Skye Hale with their own hands (quite literally!) and has been operating for the last 13 years entirely by volunteer labor by Megan and Myrrh as well as a team of dedicated volunteer supporters.

The long and short of it is that all of our sound and lighting equipment is likely unsalvageable from water and ice damage inside of it, including a 20 year collection of Myrrh's personal, professional, and vintage music equipment which was flooded the worst and some speakers and amps literally sloshed when we moved them and froze over the week of ice storm.

Professionals came in on Friday and dried the space as much as the building insurance would cover over the weekend of 1/19-1/21 but unfortunately their work does not cover any of the build-out, stage, wood additions, or equipment within the space and the damp is still deep in our equipment and built-out structures and seeping out onto the floor and into the space.

From there it's a waiting game to see if after a few weeks of being dry any of the equipment will turn on or operate properly.

We know that this time of year can be hard financially, but if you can spare any funds or even a share on social media or in your circles or email lists, The Steep and Thorny Way to Heaven could use your help to survive this and keep making the amazing art you know us for.

Details on where your funds go for rehoming us, as well as repair and replacement of essential equipment that our insurance does not recover coming soon. Any little amount would help!

Any amount helps, and if you are able to donate generously, we will be updating here with some exciting thank you packages for donations above $200. Heck, if you can donate $2,000 or more we would come to you and produce a private performance of our world-renowned immersive one-hour Macbeth!

Thank you all so very much for your support over the last 13 years. It has truly been a gift to build this community!