Stage Fright Festival

Portland’s Only Queer Horror Theatre Festival

Jeff Desautels and Amica Hunter, co-producers of the Stage Fright Festival.

OUR Bloody Mission

To produce original theatre by professional and emerging independent artists, of the highest artistic integrity, centering trans and queer creators and audiences. The horror genre has a special and symbiotic connection to queer culture. We believe in the power that theatre and horror have to build and bond communities.

Come scream with us!

Next Festival:

Coho Theatre
10/9/25 - 10/19/25

Check out our Bloghouse of Horrors — for all the chills, thrills, and backstage spills
From the Desk of Festival Co-Producer, Jeff Desautels
From the Desk of Festival Co-Producer, Jeff Desautels

Welcome to our blog.

Here at Stage Fright, we champion dying media long abandoned by the ruling class. First, theatre. And now, the website. Some call us behind the times. Increasingly, others are calling us prophetic — as the glittering castles of hypercapitalism begin to crumble and burn, we’re over here on the sidelines, producing our little plays and writing our little blogs.

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Why Queer Horror?
Why Queer Horror?

Horror is queer (period). 

Not just in the campy cult classics and high-glam vamps. Not just in the metaphor. Not just in the monsters. Horror has always been queer. It’s woven into the blood-soaked fabric of the genre, lurking in the shadows of repression, transformation, desire, and defiance.

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Stage Fright After Dark Presents…
Stage Fright After Dark Presents…

A rolling wind lurched through the trees, sending leaves skittering and whipping Noah’s hair into his face. The night air was thick with the scent of damp earth and something else—something musky and electric that made his stomach twist and turn in a way that wasn’t entirely unpleasant.

Then he heard it. 

A low, throaty chittering sound. Not an insect. Not a bird or a bat. 

Something bigger.

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